Tuesday 15 February 2011

Inquest hears of Christmas Death

Inquest hears of Christmas Death

The inquest into the death of a 30 year woman has heard that, the investigation into the death was not investigated properly as all the police officers that could do the job has been given the day off for their Christmas party.

The coroner said that the investigations was a shambles. The victims parents were waiting by her body for a detective to arrive eventually one was dispatched from Bristol over 100 miles away. But a Senior officer turned them back.

Christmas Island Deaths, First Funerals today


The first funerals of the victims of the Christmas Island boat disaster took place in Sydney today. Two months after the tragedy the coroner has release the bodies of 17 of the 30 victims recovered from the sea.

There was a lot of grief and anger as the first eight funerals took place. Many of the families were angered by the way the funerals have been handled. Also there is some political debate over the cost of the funerals especially sending relatives from Christmas Island and Perth to Sydney.

Is Valentine’s day a Second Christmas?

Has the marketing / advertising business turned Valentine’s day, a day on which lovers express their love for each other by presenting flowers, offering confectionary and sending greetings cards (known as "valentines"), into a second Christmas with children expecting gifts from parents, grandparents and the day off school?

One mother overheard her nine year old son giving his grandmother a list of presents he was expecting to receive on Valentines day, and the list read like a nine year olds Christmas wish list.

Tuesday 25 January 2011

Christmas Island Food shortage?

Christmas Island Food shortage?

Unfortunately the supply ship carrying food and fuel to Christmas Island has not been able to dock for nearly a month raising concerns over food and fuel shortages on the island. The bad weather is also prevent supplies reaching the island by air.

Three men have appeared court in connection with the unfortunate incident of Christmas Island on December 15 2010 when up to 50 asylum seekers died when the vessel they were travelling in broke up and sank after crashing into rocks. The charges do not relate to the deaths but to the attempt to smuggle non Australians into Australia.

The first of many inquiries into the tragedy has found that there was no intelligence evidence that the ship has left Indonesia with the intention of sailing to Christmas Island and hence the Australian border protection force was unaware of the ships approach. There will soon be trials of a new land based Radar system on Christmas Island, these will include using wooden boats, to see if this will give some additional intelligence, in future.


A Queensland man has been missing since before Christmas and concerns are growing over his safety and well being.

Dangers of a Christmas tree!


A large tinder dry Christmas fell onto a burning candle and the ensuing fire gutted a house in Lake Oswego Oregon. During the blaze a women suffered first and second degree burns to her arms and one of two pet cats was killed. The other cat and a pet dog were found hiding in the basement two days later.

While you have to feel for the lady concerned at losing her home you do have to ask why did she still have a Christmas tree nearly a month after Christmas and then lighting candle near it?

Do you wish it was Christmas everyday?

If you do and you live in the UK then visiting some larger towns and cities will answer your wish as they still have their Christmas decorations up. Apparently it takes a long time to put up the decorations and a long time to take them down, with councils claiming that they try to remove the decorations whilst causing as little disruption as possible. One council said it put its lights up in February and aimed to have them down in the third week of February, that is half the year that the lights are up, is it worth taking them down?

Tuesday 18 January 2011

EU Officials Ignore Christmas and Easter

EU Officials Ignore Christmas and Easter

In an official EU diary aimed at children aged 12 to 16 the EU commission failed to list Christmas and Lent as religious feasts despite listing the dates for Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish and Chinese festivals. It also lists the self styled “Europe Day” on May 9th.

Now is this a way that the bureaucrats in Brussels think that they can get more holidays for themselves. Is it an oversight? if so where the heck were the proof readers or is it something more sinister.

No other government sends out free diaries to their school with such blatant errors or such propaganda. Several Christian groups have already complained to the EU Commission demanding a full apology and explanation as to the reason for this.

Thursday 13 January 2011

So it is mixed news for the retailers over Christmas.

So it is mixed news for the retailers over Christmas.

In the UK it has been a mixed bag of news coming from the retailers with some having a gloomy Christmas and others having a cheery Christmas. A number of retailers in the gaming section reported like-for-like sales down by up to 5.6% for the same period the previous year. However the food retailers are reporting a growth in like-for-like sales over the Christmas period, with online sales also increasing.

According to a survey by Intersperience 4 out of 10 shoppers said that they had spent less this Christmas than in previous years due to the economic situation and not the cold weather climate we had just before Christmas. The bad weather did encourage more people to shop online, but they had already decided to spend less as they were concerned about the future. An amazing 70% of those surveyed who said that they had created a budget for their Christmas spending actually stuck to it, normally people spend far more than they had planned.


A man has been charged with murder over the stabbing of another man in Bedford on Christmas day.

In Iran 70 Christians have been rounded since Christmas in a crackdown on what the state calls hard liners and as such are considered a threat to the Islamic state. Iran is generally tolerant of other faiths and it’s constitution gives protected status to Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians. However there is a feeling of more pressure being exerted on some of these minorities as more hard edged elements in Iran are exerting more pressure.

Tuesday 4 January 2011

3 Year old boy waits for sleeping mummy to wake up over Christmas

3 Year old boy waits for sleeping mummy to wake up over Christmas

A 3 year old French boy is thought to have spent days over the Christmas period waiting for his young mother to wake up. It is not known how long he spent sitting by the body of is dead mother waiting for her to wake up. At one point his grandfather called but the young boy said that mummy was sleeping. No one knows what he did for food and drink over that period. He is now being looked after by his grandparents.

Recycle Your Christmas Cards

Last year (yes I know it doesn’t sound right yet does it) we sent nearly 1bn Christmas card over the festive period, and now many of us are wondering what to do with them. They are several things you can do at home, cut them to use as gift tags or cards for next Christmas, have a creative craft session with the kids.

Alternatively there are several places you can take them to for recycling, one such scheme in the UK is run by the Woodland Trust in association with TK Maxx and M&S and HomeSense, by placing your cards in special bins at these retailers the cards are recycled and the stores make a donation to the Woodland Trust for planting trees through their More Trees, More Good campaign.

Recycle you real Christmas Tree

As the festive period come to an end many people are wondering what to do with that real tree, if the tree cam with it roots you could try and plant it in your garden. Also many local authorities have arrangements to either collect you tree with your normal green recycling rubbish or have special collection point where yu can take the tree for recycling.

Thursday 30 December 2010

Christmas the bad and the good

“Merry Christmas” is it still Christmas Day?

A woman dialled 999 to wish the operator a Merry Christmas and when she asked if it was still Christmas Day she replied “perfect” when told it was boxing day.

She continued to waste the police call handlers time for several more minutes. She made the call during a particularly busy time but would not hang up when asked to do so.

Wasting police time in this manor is a criminal offence that carries a maximum sentence of six months imprisonment and £5000 fine.

In other incidents on Christmas Day include the reported case of the missing bag of rice from a cupboard, a request for help with a snoring dog, a black cat entering a house, a call to a broken freezer and a request to help a dead pigeon in a garden.

All of these calls and many more, waste several minutes per call and can stop genuine callers who are in need of emergency assistance getting through.

Christmas Lotto magic

A couple from Washington near Sunderland scooped a £3.5 Million lottery jackpot on Christmas day.

This is in addition to the 25 one million pound prizes won on Christmas eve.

Saturday 25 December 2010

Merry Christmas full of joy and peace.

Wishing All my readers a very Merry Christmas full of joy and peace.

Christmas made happier by walking

The traditional Christmas Day walk could be the ideal way to make the festive period a happier one say researchers. Apparently 80% of the UK happiest people are happiest when outdoors and in Green places. According to them even 5 minutes outside in green places can relieve depression.

The Queen Recommends Sport in her Christmas message


The Queen in her annual Christmas day message to the commonwealth the benefits of sports in relieving the tensions of everyday life. All of the Royal Family enjoy some form of sport. Her Majesty gives praise to those who give up their time to help children to get into sports.

Widespread Travel Chaos across Europe this Christmas Day

Thousands of people have had their Christmas travel arrangements ruined by the unusual weather that Europe has experienced over the last couple of weeks and today Christmas day there are thousands waking up in airport terminals instead of their destinations