You can't do that there 'ere (boyo)!

Apparently Wales are to ban e-cigarettes anywhere where smoking is not allowed - specifically in enclosed public spaces.  I assume they have the devolved authority to do this, but as there are no official border crossings between England and Wales can't help feeling this is going to cause problems with train or car journeys between the two countries - one minute you can smoke - or vape - and a few yards further on, it becomes illegal.  Surely this would have been better handled by some consultation and an agreed approach between them and us - or is this just Wales being bolshy for bolshy's sake?

Ha ha

Cats are smarter than dogs - you wouldn't catch eight cats pulling a sledge through two feet of snow!

A smart idea.

Talk about advance planning!  The Japanese government has announced it will install toilets and water supplies in its lifts.  As a country which is regularly hit by earthquakes, the probability that people will be stuck in lifts, maybe for hours following a quake is high, and their needs have to be addressed.  Ten out of ten.

How much !!?

I'm sure most of you have already seen this story, but it bears repeating.  Due to a mix-up, a man had a flight booked with Ryanair in a name not his own.  Ryanair told him that they could put matters right, but they would levy their standard charge of £220 (£110 each way) to do so.  As this would pretty well double the cost of his ticket, he looked at other possibilities and found that it would only cost him £103 to change his name by deed-poll to the name his flight was booked under, and then to get a new passport in that name - so that's what he did.  Not sure what we should make of this - clever lateral thinking by the man, or unjustifiable overcharging by the airline?  Or perhaps - buy cheap and you get cheap??

And the answer is...

...Johnny!  For anyone who doesn't get it (and I confess I didn't see it first time) read the riddle again, paying particular attention to the first line.  A nice example of misdirection.

Quick riddle

Johnny's mother had three children.

The first child was named April.

The second child was named May. 

What was the third child's name?

Answer tomorrow.

Oh, I'm sure they just forgot!

Giving away free petrol in Devon and Cornwall it seems.  Not exactly, but the local police force has said that it will no longer treat driving away without paying for your petrol as a crime unless there is "obvious proof of criminal intent".  Difficult to see how more obvious you could be than filling up and then driving off without paying! Of course the real reason is that they haven't got the manpower to cope and so they have to prioritise.  They would say that the petrol station owner has recourse to the civil courts to get his money back but that's an expensive business with no guarantee of success. So like I say - free petrol!

It's been nearly 75 years...

I mentioned HMT Lancastria back in 2007.  It was a troop ship used in the evacuation of Dunkirk, and was attacked and sunk by German bombers shortly after leaving St Nazaire harbour on 17th June 1940. Although it had an official capacity of some 2,200, it was packed to the gunnels with soldiers and civilians and nobody really knows how many were on board - estimates vary from 4,000 to 9,000.  We do know that there were only 2,447 survivors.  Not surprisingly, given the situation at the time, as a matter of public morale, the news of the sinking was suppressed in this country, but for whatever reason (maybe just apathy) the papers concerning the disaster have still not been made public.  Now Joanna Lumley is fronting a campaign to have the official documents about the sinking released.  Can't see any reason not to and the longer it takes, the more there will be a suspicion of some sort of a cover-up.

R.I.P.

Charles Kennedy - why do we always wait until somebody dies to say thank you?  I will always be eternally grateful for the way he articulated what I, and I imagine many, many more of you felt about the decision to go to war in Iraq.  We can ill afford to lose people like him.

Hold yourself up straight!

With the anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo fast approaching, people are talking about Napoleon, and the question of how tall he was has raised its head again.  Well he was no giant, but equally he was no titch.  The confusion has arisen because back then a person's height was measured in inches, both here and in France - BUT French inches were slightly longer than English ones, so although Napoleon's height was officially given as 62 inches this did not equate to an English 5'2" but more like 5'6" or 7" which would have been a more or less average height for the time.  It suited British propaganda to portray him as short, and certainly he has given his name to the "Napoleon complex" whereby small men often compensate for their shortage of stature by being unduly aggressive and competitive.  It is also said that the fact that he was most often seen in public in the company of his Imperial Guard, who were undoubtedly big tall men would have added to the perception that he was short.  But he wasn't, particularly.