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News In Brief from around the regions

SNAKE’S ALIVE: Sonia Howick had an unexpected guest in her conservatory, reported the Portsmouth News – a five-feet long corn snake which she discovered hanging from a cupboard door.

An RSPCA inspector called to the scene had to extricate the snake from a boiler where it had tried to hide. He decided the snake had escaped from a previous tenant and managed to survive by eating mice.

MUGGER BASHED: Widowed next-door neighbours Vera Hull (77) and Sheila Hastings (71) hit back when a mugger launched an attack on them.

Mrs Hull set about him with her walking stick and the 28-year-old man ended up with a broken ankle, a four-year jail sentence, and at a compensation hearing this week he was ordered to pay the women £500 each, reported the Leicester Mercury.

A HANDBAG LIKE HOME: From the Liverpool Echo comes the story of Nigel, a two-week-old parakeet, who has set up home in a handbag.

The Bryon family, who have 40 birds in a back garden aviary, decided to hand-rear one of the babies when Nigel’s mum had a clutch of five eggs. Hand-reared birds are more valuable when you come to sell them. But the plan has backfired because Nigel is now one of the family. His two-hourly feeding regime means he goes everywhere with his surrogate mum, Sue Byron, in her handbag – along with his feeding syringe.

EARS A GOOD IDEA: A German television producer discovered just the thing to amuse his viewers when he logged on to the Leicester Mercury’s website.

There he found stories about strongman Manjit Singh, dubbed by the Mercury a “homegrown Hercules”.

Using the Mercury’s offices as a backdrop, the TV crew filmed Mr Singh pulling a 10-tonne double-decker bus with his ear, and then again with his ponytail.

A PLATE POPPED THE QUESTION: Romeo Chris May handed his fiancee a marriage proposal on a plate – literally, reported the Stoke Sentinel.

Chris had the words “Sara, will you marry me?” painted on a dinner plate and secretly arranged for staff to serve her meal on it when they went out for dinner.

Sara said: “I noticed there was a pattern on my plate as I was eating, but never gave it much thought. When I saw the message I was absolutely stunned. All I could do was to nod at him to say yes because I could not stop crying.”

PRINCE HAS CAR TROUBLE: From the Gloucestershire Echo came the news that even the Royals can suffer from car problems.

Prince Michael of Kent was driving his vintage Alvis to a classic car rally in Cheltenham when the throttle jammed on the motorway and the windscreen wipers failed in a downpour.

Thanks to some skilful driving, the Prince arrived safely and joked about his problems with fellow enthusiasts, said the paper.

BURIALS WITH A DIFFERENCE: A coffin shaped like a Red Arrow is among the quirky caskets being created by artist Richard Mullard.

The Nottingham Evening Post revealed that he had received so many orders for unusual coffins that he had taken on the job full-time with Bulwell company Vic Fearn and Co. Other orders have been for a coffin painted with a picture of a Chelsea fan’s beloved Ford Capri flying a Chelsea scarf and a casket painted with white doves for a peace campaigner.

Richard told the paper: “If people want to say something about themselves, then a funeral is the ultimate place to say it.”

SOOTHING SOLUTION: Irritating coughs in the middle of a play or concert could become a thing of the past at Leicester’s De Montdfort Hall.

The Leicester Mercury says the centre is tackling the age-old problem by providing free cough sweets for punters before they enter the auditorium. The sweets are in baskets on the box office counter, and manager Richard Haswell says: “We are certainly getting through a lot.”

Conductor Andrew Constantine told the paper: “This is a marvellous idea. I only hope they come in quiet wrappers.”

VULTURE CULTURE: There’s an unusual sight in the skies above North Devon – a hooded vulture called Nimble.

The bird of prey and its mate, Gimble, escaped from a wildlife park in Combe Martin. Gimble returned later that day but Nimble is still at large.

One couple tried to catch her with food in a specially-designed box, but she escaped again. Jean Hirst told the Western Morning News that she had returned from shopping when a neighbour told her there was “a large bird” in her garden. “I became quite fond of her and, first thing every morning, I would take some breakfast out for her. She was rather lovely.”

“BROTHEL” VISIT: Councillors in Birmingham will be ready to make their excuses and leave when they make a site inspection on behalf of the city’s planning committee.

The visit is to an unauthorised business calling itself a “tonal therapy clinic”. But the Evening Mail reported that 400 residents of Selly Oak residents had signed a protest petition, claiming teenagers had been propositioned in the street. A local councillor said: “They have evidence that it is being used as a brothel.”

MARRIED FOR A DAY: A 54-year-old woman who married a man of 91 is coming to terms with being a widow after just one day of marriage.

Ted Meakin, who was blind and wheelchair-bound, died the day after marrying Pat Hope in a ceremony witnessed by two nurses at Nottingham’s Queen’s Medical Centre

The Nottingham Evening Post told how they met three years ago while Pat was a cleaner at the warden-aided complex where Ted lived. Pat told the paper: “I only knew him for a short time but it feels as if I have been with him for a lifetime.”

BAAAAARMY FUND-RAISER: A village school is £1,400 richer after locals paid £1 to bet on which sheep in a farmer’s flock would produce its lambs last.

The great lambing lottery in Grewelthorpe, near Ripon, North Yorkshire, has proved such a success that it will be repeated next year, with publicity on the Internet. The Northern Echo reported that ticket sales took off after life-sized cut-outs of sheep appeared at prominent spots in the village, including an island on the duck pond.

MINDING THEIR LANGUAGE:A teacher and a pupil have joined forces to make sense of some unusual Scottish sayings.

The Aberdeen Press & Journal says There’s Naething Mare Precious Than Time, by Tom Kennedy and 15-year-old Matthew Taylor, from Buckie Community High School, explains the mysteries of some Doric phrases with the help of colourful cartoons. “Ne’er draw yer dirk when a dunt will do” is accompanied by a cartoon of David Beckham being sent off for fouling another player, while “Aathin his an eyn bit a mealie pudden his twa” shows that “all life eventually comes to an end”.

CITY GETS THE GOAT: Artist Martin Young has created a 48ft-high goat on a hillside in the heart of Newcastle.

Builder’s sand was used to make the picture in the Ouseburn Valley, where it could be seen by thousands of travellers on the city’s Metro and pedestrians using the Road Bridge, the Evening Chronicle reported. Martin plans to cover the outline with different materials, such as leaves in the autumn, to reflect seasonal changes.

LOOS-ING OUT?: Councillors in East Staffordshire have caused a row by putting an old toilet block in the village of Tutbury up for sale, reports the Burton Mail.

Two urinals and three toilets are on offer to the highest bidder, but Staffordshire county councillor Frank Bather, who represents Tutbury, says he is amazed at the news.

“It’s incredible. Tutbury is a very popular tourist spot and I would have thought that they would need a couple of toilets in the area. These toilets belong to the people of Tutbury as much as anyone else,” he said.

OUT OF THE MOUTHS OF BABES: From the Oldham Chronicle come some unusual predictions, made by local schoolchildren, about the year 2100:

  • “There will be more kinds of different sweets, also more colours. But aliens will kill all the teachers”.
  • “We will have a mystic ball because you never know what’s going to happen”.
  • “A lot more people will get tattoos”.

IT MAKES YOU BLUSH: Bed & Breakfast landladies shared stories of their most embarrassing moments at a ceremony to crown the AA Landlady of the Year, said the Western Morning News.

Jenny King, from Jacobstowe in Devon, told how she went to investigate noises in the night only to find three naked male guests making a joint effort to repair a broken bathroom tap.

Winning landlady, Pearl Taylor from Herefordshire, said she was faced with an eccentric South American guest who came down to breakfast wearing only white designer underpants: “Luckily the pants were quite big ones,” she recalled.

ON THE BUSES: Bradford Telegraph & Argus has gone “on the buses” as part of a new advertising campaign across the district. Striking new adverts, featuring the newspaper’s “Part of the family” logo, will be seen by thousands of people as they appear on First Bradford buses.

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