You've Won A Jaguar...eh No You Haven't

An Irish "National Lottery has apologised after an error on its website last night led to a host of prize winners thinking they had won a Jaguar XK convertible. The car, worth €150,000 was up for grabs as part of a special promotion. However, it was only supposed to go to whoever won the jackpot. But an error on the National Lottery website meant that anyone who checked their ticket online and won a prize was told they also won a new convertible.

The National Lottery said it was very sorry for the mix up, but would not be offering any compensation."

That would be disappointing. Now if it happened in the USA...

Annoying Phone Call

A married couple were asleep when the phone rang at 2 in the morning. The wife, picked up the phone, listened a moment and said 'How should I know, that's 200 miles from here!' and hung up.

The husband said, 'Who was that?'

The wife said, 'I don't know, some woman wanting to know if the coast is clear.'

The Tywyn Train

It is 100 years since the birth of Thomas the Tank Engine creator, Rev W Awdry. When I went on a train ride in Wales some years ago, I wondered why the train had a Thomas the Tank Engine face on it. Apparently, the narrow-gauge former slate railway running inland from Tywyn in mid-Wales was the world's first preserved line, its society being formed in 1951 and WV Awdry was one of its earliest members. "He came and volunteered for the first time in '52. He and his family had a fortnight's holiday in Tywyn and he worked as a guard," says David Mitchell, the line's former managing director. "He used to come and oil fishplates and work on the track and things like that in his younger days. And when he died he left us the contents of his study which we have recreated here."

I can only assume his connection with the rail line led to the face. Whether I am correct on that or not, the article I read at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13872542 reminded me of that trip. The photograph below I took the day I visited.

Cruel Advertisement

When you put up a web page explaining a phobia, inserting an advertisement that may evoke that very fear would be cruel, don't you think? Well, that is what one website did.


I cannot believe this was an accident. How often do you see and advert with a duck looking at you? Yet it appeared on a page featuring a phobia of people fearing a duck is looking at them. An unusual phobia I agree, but to do this was cruel indeed...