 |
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
 Posted: 16-06-2007 09:22 Post subject: Happy News Stories |
 |
|
|
A thread to turn to when you're sick of war, murder, torture, and all the other evil things that normally fill the news.
Just happy, fluffy little stories like this one:
Penguin helps p-p-p-pop question
A zookeeper's boyfriend roped in her penguins to help him propose to her during their daily parade.
Vicki Small, 23, said she was speechless when Kevin Venton, 27, went on bended knee and asked her to marry him at the Welsh Mountain Zoo.
Fluffy the penguin then walked on with a white gold and diamond ring in front of a big crowd at Colwyn Bay, Conwy.
She was so astonished she did not say yes straightaway - but she soon did and they will marry in June next year.
The marriage proposal came during the afternoon bird show at the zoo.
"We were in the middle of the penguin parade when my colleague said over the commentary for me to step forward," said Miss Small, from Colwyn Bay.
"Then Kevin went down on one knee in front of everyone and asked me to marry him.
"As he finished Fluffy - the penguin I helped to hand-rear - came on with the ring."
Miss Small said she had not accepted immediately because she was so taken aback.
"I just hugged him and he had to ask again."
"It was awesome and there must have been about 60 people watching the parade, and they all cheered, and people kept congratulating us during the afternoon," she added.
Mr Venton, who lives in Mochdre and works as a sales manager at a plumbing centre, met his bride-to-be at church.
He said the hardest part had been getting hold of telephone numbers for her colleagues to help him set it up, but he was happy with the end result.
"I got a yes, so I think it all went well," he said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/north_west/6756219.stm
Wasn't that nice!  |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
mindalai spinster of this parish
Great Old One Joined: 27 Aug 2005 Total posts: 1739 Location: on the shelf Age: 37 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 16-06-2007 09:30 Post subject: |
|
|
|
awwww!
| Quote: |
Fire service to owl's rescue after farmer raises the alarm
THIS is one lucky owl who will be able to fly another day thanks to the big heart of farmer Richard Farrar and the men of Harrogate Fire Station's Green Watch.
The small owl was teetering on the brink of an unpleasant death in the slurry tank at Lower Banks Farm, Nat Lane, Stainburn, near Harrogate, until farmer Farrar spotted it in the nick of time.
Mr Farrar had gone up the ladder on the outside of the 20ft wide, 10ft deep tower to stir the contents when he spotted the small fluffy owl floating on the crust unable to fly free.
"I was just going to stir it when I saw the owl and I could not fashion to let it die and could not reach it myself. I could not get hold of the RSPCA quickly, so I decided to phone the fire brigade."
North Yorkshire Fire Service sent appliances from Harrogate fire station and a heavy rescue tender from Ripon station. But it was then they realised that the aerial platform from Harrogate Station would be needed and it was sent to aid in the successful rescue of the stranded owl.
"The firemen were marvellous. I felt a bit bad having all these men and machines called out, but I don't like to see anything die needlessly," said Mr Farrar. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| mindalai spinster of this parish
Great Old One Joined: 27 Aug 2005 Total posts: 1739 Location: on the shelf Age: 37 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 19-06-2007 15:26 Post subject: |
|
|
|
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news?articleid=2961584
| Quote: | Larvae-ly ending for girls' creepy crawlies
By Debbie Leigh
Most of us would be horrified at finding creepy-crawlies in our food, but not Amy and Holly Haskins who have given names to a tiny trio of caterpillars.
The twins were delighted when they opened up their sugar snap peas and discovered the three inside, who had hitched a ride all the way from Kenya to Moortown, Leeds.
The eight-year-olds were even more thrilled to discover their new pets could survive after Tropical World, in Roundhay, agreed to look after the caterpillars who could turn into the centre's first African butterflies.
Amy said: "Me and Holly were really excited.
"We keep begging mum to get more sugar snap peas just in case we get some more caterpillars."
Amy said Holly and mum Dee had been eating them straight from the packet when Holly found the first insect, which was around 1cm long.
Surprise
Fortunately, although the packaging advises eating them whole, the girls prefer to open them up and look inside.
Amy explained: "Holly said 'mum I've found a caterpillar'.
"I was really surprised and thought she was joking but there was a dark brown caterpillar and after that she found another one."
Dad Mark said: "Usually you would take them back to the supermarket but they actually said, 'can we keep them?'"
They named them Zoltan, Lucky and Sam, and Mark made a makeshift home from a plastic container.
Amy was still searching through the remaining peas and her patience was rewarded when she found a third.
Mark said he laughed when he read the label on the packet, saying: "Crisp, succulent, and stringless – eat the whole pod to experience its sweet and delicate flavour."
Dee, who bought the peas from Sainsbury's, Moortown, said she would never eat a whole pod again.
The girls, both pupils at Talbot
Primary, Roundhay, took their new pets to school for "show and tell" as they had been learning about animal habitats.
And to their delight, within days, two had turned into a chrysalis.
Their parents suggested moving them to Tropical World where it was warm.
The girls were already visiting the Leeds tourist attraction later this week on a school trip so are now keen to see whether the trio will have emerged as butterflies.
Amy said she would be able to tell which were theirs as all the others were from South America and large but the expert at the park said theirs would be very small.
A spokeswoman for Sainsbury's said finding insects in food was a rare occurrence and could be down to increasing use of more natural methods of pest control.
She said: "If they are pretty pleased with it that's fine. I hope they enjoyed the sugar snap peas as much as the caterpillars did." |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 19-06-2007 20:00 Post subject: |
|
|
|
The happiness here is clearly under threat from circumstances, but is nevertheless genuine and highly unusual!
Pet hippo becomes a weighty problem
By Nigel Blundell
Last Updated: 1:01pm BST 19/06/2007
When a newborn baby hippo was washed up by a flood onto the lawn of his riverside home, the game ranger who found the dying animal lovingly nursed her back to health.
The weakened female survived, put on weight, and grew . . . and g-r-e-w . . . and GREW!
Now the hippo that thinks it's a family pet has become a giant-sized problem.
For what started out as a cute, tubby 35lbs baby is now a boisterous seven-year-old - equivalent to a human 'teenager' -.weighing nearly three-quarters of a ton.
And like many modern teenagers, Jessica, as she has been named, finds family life too comfortable and just won't leave home.
Attempts to reintroduce her to the wild have all failed. And, being free to roam, the danger now is that she will be attacked and killed by other hippos - or shot by local farmers protecting their animals and crops.
As our pictures show, the reason Jessica prefers family life to that of a wallowing big hippopotamus are clear...
She eats, sleeps, swims and plays with retired game warden Tonie Joubert and wife Shirley at their home in South Africa.
She wanders round the house, drinks coffee on the verandah, hangs out with the pet dogs and enjoys Shirley's soothing massages that help her relax at the end of a happy hippo day.
The hippo greets Tonie, in particular, with special grunts and flicking ears whenever she sees him and follows him like a dog wherever he goes.
There is no strict daily routine, but certain crucial things must not be missed - such as the 10 litres of sweet warm coffee, which Tonie bottle-feeds her with every day, or the dog pellets which she expects as treats.
Most nights, Jessica totters off back to the river for a mudbath. But on other occasions she'll wander into the house, wet and dripping slime and plonk herself on the couple's bed.
It is becoming a problem because - unlike the famous hippo in the Silentnight bed adverts - she has broken the Jouberts' bed three times. 
Even larger trouble looms because, being a big girl now, giant male hippos are beginning to turn up on the river's edge fronting Jessica's human home.
She became friendly with one of them, a 10-year-old bull nicknamed Charlie. But when he was shot by a neighbouring farmer, it also killed off hopes of finding Jessica a mate and sending her back into the wild.
"Jessica is so trusting," says Shirley. "Our constant fear now is that the same fate as Charlie's may befall our precious Jess, the gentlest creature on Earth."
Says Tonie: "Some people have told me I was wrong to save Jessica. They say you have to be cruel to be kind and that I should have left nature to go its own way.
"But that would have guaranteed she ended up in a crocodile's stomach.
"And look at the joy and companionship we would have missed out on."
[Can't argue with that! ]
http://tinyurl.com/2xqtju |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| mindalai spinster of this parish
Great Old One Joined: 27 Aug 2005 Total posts: 1739 Location: on the shelf Age: 37 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 19-06-2007 20:29 Post subject: |
|
|
|
Oh, you must look at those photos! 
I want a pet hippo.  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 20-06-2007 08:01 Post subject: |
|
|
|
Stardom beckons for pianist janitor
Last Updated: 1:45am BST 20/06/2007
A Polish janitor is on the way to a career as a concert pianist after being heard playing the chapel piano at Glasgow university when he thought no one was listening.
The talent of Aleksander Kudajczyk, who cleans the law department in the early morning, was discovered when the chaplaincy centre secretary, Joan Keenan, logged on to a webcam in the chapel and heard him.
Within minutes she had e-mailed dozens of friends and colleagues to do the same.
The 28-year-old Pole, who arrived in Scotland from Katowice six months ago, has been dubbed "a musical Good Will Hunting", after Matt Damon's film, and is now entertaining crowds at Glasgow's West End Festival.
Yesterday, Aleksander, a graduate of Katowice's Akademia Muzyczna, gave his second public performance in the University Memorial Chapel, playing a selection from Chopin.
Mrs Keenan said: "Aleksander is a lovely but shy lad. He works as a cleaner but nobody knew what a talent he had.
"He now spends six or seven hours a day practising in the chapel and elsewhere around the university. And his hands are far too precious to continue cleaning for long, as the chemicals affect them."
Aleksander, who has played piano since he was four, said: "In Poland I played jazz and classical piano in restaurants and I also played concerts on cruise lines in America.
"I came to Scotland because I want to settle down and the opportunities to make a living are better here than in Poland.
"I was terribly nervous playing my first concert of Chopin, but I'm getting used to it.
"I'm just trying to settle in this country, but I hope to teach piano, or perhaps become a concert pianist in this country."
http://tinyurl.com/2wtccj
(And not a cuddly animal insight! ) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 20-06-2007 08:02 Post subject: |
|
|
|
Stardom beckons for pianist janitor
Last Updated: 1:45am BST 20/06/2007
A Polish janitor is on the way to a career as a concert pianist after being heard playing the chapel piano at Glasgow university when he thought no one was listening.
The talent of Aleksander Kudajczyk, who cleans the law department in the early morning, was discovered when the chaplaincy centre secretary, Joan Keenan, logged on to a webcam in the chapel and heard him.
Within minutes she had e-mailed dozens of friends and colleagues to do the same.
The 28-year-old Pole, who arrived in Scotland from Katowice six months ago, has been dubbed "a musical Good Will Hunting", after Matt Damon's film, and is now entertaining crowds at Glasgow's West End Festival.
Yesterday, Aleksander, a graduate of Katowice's Akademia Muzyczna, gave his second public performance in the University Memorial Chapel, playing a selection from Chopin.
Mrs Keenan said: "Aleksander is a lovely but shy lad. He works as a cleaner but nobody knew what a talent he had.
"He now spends six or seven hours a day practising in the chapel and elsewhere around the university. And his hands are far too precious to continue cleaning for long, as the chemicals affect them."
Aleksander, who has played piano since he was four, said: "In Poland I played jazz and classical piano in restaurants and I also played concerts on cruise lines in America.
"I came to Scotland because I want to settle down and the opportunities to make a living are better here than in Poland.
"I was terribly nervous playing my first concert of Chopin, but I'm getting used to it.
"I'm just trying to settle in this country, but I hope to teach piano, or perhaps become a concert pianist in this country."
http://tinyurl.com/2wtccj
(And not a cuddly animal in sight! ) |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| JamesWhitehead Piffle Prospector Joined: 02 Aug 2001 Total posts: 5779 Location: Manchester, UK Gender: Male |
| Posted: 20-06-2007 15:36 Post subject: |
|
|
|
"We keep begging mum to get more sugar snap peas just in case we get some more caterpillars."
Bah! What a pair of middle-class, sugar-snap milk-sops! Off to Macdonalds with ye and shovel down that offal till you've raised twin tape-worms like normal kids!
 |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Guest |
| Posted: 25-06-2007 18:01 Post subject: |
|
|
|
| Quote: | Breathing apparatus saves snake
Firefighters used breathing apparatus to revive a snake rescued from a flat fire in the West Midlands.
Iguanas, tortoises and other snakes were also pulled from the burning flat in Tipton shortly after 0300 BST on Sunday.
Fire crews used resuscitation equipment usually used on people to revive the corn snake.
The occupant of the flat in Rushmere Road had already managed to get out before crews arrived.
He was taken to Sandwell Hospital but is not believed to have been seriously injured.
The fire is thought to have been started by a cooking appliance which had been left on.
The animals have now been put in the care of the RSPCA, said a West Midlands Fire Service spokesman.
He added: "We gave the snake oxygen and it recovered. It's unusual, but all part of the service." |
Link |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Guest |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 30-06-2007 08:15 Post subject: |
|
|
|
Pupil, 15, joins Nasa for work experience
By James Fielding
Last Updated: 3:29am BST 30/06/2007
While his friends choose to do their work experience in the local supermarket or an office, Ethen Carlin set his sights a little higher by helping to construct satellites at United States space agency Nasa.
Ethen, 15, flew to Washington DC with his family to spend a week with scientists at the Goddard Space Flight Centre.
During his time at the Nasa base in Maryland this month, he helped to solder wires and attach labels to a satellite which is due to be sent into space in August.
He also assisted in monitoring hurricane patterns, programming data from Nasa's Mars probe.
Ethan, a pupil at Polesworth High School, Warwicks, wrote to Nasa asking to spend a week with them following a family holiday in Florida where he visited the Kennedy Space Centre and discovered that Nasa were looking for eager recruits.
He followed it up with a series of letters, emails and faxes proving he was a student and that he wanted to do work experience.
Ethen, of Newton Regis, Warwicks, said: "It was a dream come true. It certainly beat working in a stuffy office or on a crowded shop floor."
Andy Clarke, the school's head teacher, said: "They really pulled out all the stops for Ethen, but he deserved it for all the hard work and persistence he put in to actually secure the placement."
http://tinyurl.com/2l5mae |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 30-06-2007 20:42 Post subject: |
|
|
|
THANKS A LOT: RESIDENTS HOLD PARTY FOR TREATMENT WORKS TEAM
09:00 - 28 June 2007
Any work on sewerage is likely to cause disruption, and the plan for a £1.3 million treatment works at Helford was never going to be an exception.The difference between this community and possibly dozens of others, though, is that the folk of Helford have been very impressed and appreciative of the work done.
So much so, in fact, they have organised a special party both to say 'thank you' to South West Water's (SWW) contractors, May Gurney, and to mark the end of the work.
The party is being held at the Shipwrights Arms tomorrow evening. Residents of Helford had a whip-round to pay for the party.
As one property owner in the village said: "Everyone has pulled together, the village, SWW, contractors May Gurney and the council. During construction the disruption has been horrendous but there have been no major complaints, everyone has put up with it."
Reg Wood, who took the photograph on this page and lives in the village, added: "The party is being organised by the village at the Shipwrights Arms in appreciation of the excellent work carried out by the contractors, May Gurney."
http://tinyurl.com/2dnqbv
The article in today's WMN adds that the workmen stopped work to let pedestrians by, and even carried furniture to a house where the road had been closed by the roadworks! |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| escargot1 Joined: 24 Aug 2001 Total posts: 17896 Location: Farkham Hall Age: 4 Gender: Female |
| Posted: 06-07-2007 08:06 Post subject: |
|
|
|
Tragedy averted in the Irish Sea
| Quote: | Press Association
Friday July 6, 2007 7:18 AM
More than 100 children are recovering after being rescued from the Irish Sea during a junior regatta off the coast of Co Dublin.
At least 16 people are being treated in several hospitals after a sudden squall capsized 91 small boats and sparked a massive emergency at Dun Laoghaire harbour.
The Health Service Executive (HSE) confirmed no-one was seriously injured while those taken to hospital were being treated for suspected hypothermia. "No life-threatening conditions have been reported," an HSE spokesman said.
Another 195 people were given medical attention at the scene as hospitals across the capital city were put on high alert.
The Irish Coast Guard, Dun Laoghaire and Howth lifeboats, Naval ship LE Aoife, local boats and a Coast Guard helicopter were all involved in the rescue operation after strong winds and gusts overturned the dinghies as they were being blown out to sea.
Youngsters pulled to safety described how gales whipped up in less than a minute turning the calm waters into treacherous conditions.
Irish President Mary McAleese praised the emergency services involved in the huge co-ordinated response.
"Thankfully a potential major tragedy has been averted," she said. "The immense efforts of the medical services who provided such wonderful support in response to this rescue must also be recognised."
About 110 children - all under the age of 16 and members of four yachting clubs based in Dublin - were wearing life-jackets when they were tossed into the water at around 2pm on Thursday.
The HSE activated its Major Emergency Plan and urged the public only to attend hospital emergency departments if absolutely necessary. |
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| rynner Location: Still above sea level Gender: Male |
| Posted: 10-07-2007 21:41 Post subject: |
|
|
|
Vermont town voted Simpsons home
The US town of Springfield, Vermont, has beaten 13 rivals and will host the premiere of the film about the animated family The Simpsons.
The show is set in a fictional Springfield because its creator, Matt Groening, spotted that it is one of the most common place-names in the US.
Vermont was chosen in an online vote after 14 towns submitted videos to argue why their town should win.
The premiere is on 21 July, ahead of national US release on 27 July.
Vermont's Springfield beat rivals ranging from Oregon on the west coast to Massachusetts on the Atlantic.
The town of just over 9,000 residents got 15,367 votes, beating the Illinois entry by 733, according to USA Today, which conducted the poll.
The other contenders were in the states of Colorado, Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, Ohio and Tennessee.
Video parodies
"We're so excited," said Patricia Chaffee, vice-president of the Springfield Regional Chamber of Commerce in Vermont.
"We came in at the last minute, and for us to win, we feel like the underdogs, which makes this so big and so great for us," she told USA Today.
The video entry from Illinois featured the general manager of the local power plant, Todd Renfrow, whose appearance is similar to that of Montgomery Burns, the villain and power plant owner in the show. 
A mock protest was held for the video from Springfield, Missouri
Over in Kentucky, a scene was filmed portraying creator Groening in a courtroom, hearing how the cartoon was based on their town.
And Senator Edward Kennedy was recruited for the recording by Springfield, Massachusetts, even though he is regularly mocked in the series.
Before the vote, Tim Farley, executive director at the Springfield Convention and Visitors Bureau in Illinois, said: "We always really did think we were the one.
"The similarities between the cartoon and Springfield are really uncanny," he told Reuters.
But he said that whatever the outcome, all of the towns were "winners".
"It's made a lot of Springfields more popular than they may have been before," he said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6287064.stm |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
| Jerry_B Great Old One Joined: 15 Apr 2002 Total posts: 8265 |
| Posted: 12-07-2007 08:40 Post subject: |
|
|
|
Friends restore Lotus in secret
A sports car enthusiast who suffered a mini stroke while restoring a Lotus Espirit was amazed when online friends finished the work for him in secret.
Simon Pritchard, 36, from Abergavenny, had been in the process of rebuilding the 25-year-old car when he fell ill.
When members of the Lotus Espirit online forum website heard, they donated money and time to fix it.
The original 18-month project costing £25,000 actually took his friends just five weeks to complete for free.
Mr Pritchard had several mini strokes after developing Reiter's Syndrome - a form of arthritis which develops as a reaction to infections in the body.
He also suffers from a lung complaint.
But despite his illness, he was determined to lead as full a life as possible and wanted to restore the classic.
As part of his research, he logged onto a website which allowed people to get help and advice in the restoration of such cars.
Andy Betts, from Bexley, Greater London, who runs the website said: "He was trying to do up the car even though he was quite unwell.
"One day I phoned him up and his wife said he was in hospital and I thought that there had to be something we could do to help him."
So while Mr Pritchard recovered in hospital, Mr Betts set up an area on the website which Mr Pritchard was denied access to and went about recruiting help from the 3,800 members.
Offers of money, car parts and time soon came flooding in and so with the help of Mr Pritchard's wife Kelly, the group organised to have the car taken to a garage in nearby Caerphilly for restoration.
BBC Source |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
Powered by phpBB © 2001, 2005 phpBB Group
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
