As Michelle Ward is taking a well earned week off, I’m deputising for her on 3 days this week, today being the first outing.

Well the weather is still inclement but we can hope that Michelle is taking shelter somewhere. Without Michelle, I am not going to attempt her question of the day. But as usual when looking after things for her I do like to report on “odd ball” news items. For today’s selection I chose one story about a hippo which accidentally swallowed a dwarf during a circus act that went wrong. Seemingly the dwarf bounced sideways off a trampoline into the mouth of a yawning hippo which then had a gag reflex causing it to involuntarily swallow the dwarf. Unfortunately the audience thought it was part of the act and provided a standing ovation!

Then we had the story of a 4 year old New Zealand lad who used the family computer to submit a bit of the equivalent of £15000 for a real full size two-carriage train. Not surprisingly his mother was upset, but fortunately the sellers agreed to ignore the bid. I did suggest that this little lad might want to get friendly with a 9-year old boy from Norfolk who is set to become a millionaire after succesfully selling his paintings. He sold 24 paintings in just 15 minutes for an incredible £250,000. One painting alone fetched £34,950!

Finally we had news of another 4-year old, who disappointed at failing to win a stuffed toy from one of those arcade machines with a crane, managed to climb inside to collect the toy he wanted. It took the arcade staff more than half an hour to find a key to release him. It is not recorded if he was allowed to keep his prized possession!

Of course, in addition to these stories we enjoyed a heap of music including a whole host of new releases.

See you tomorrow morning at 11 for more of the same.

All the best,

Scott