Sarah Tucker tries out Britain’s scariest new attraction
80mph, approximately a mile long, 700 foot above a mountain lake, under clear blue skies in Snowdonia: Today, I became Wonder Woman for 55 seconds.
Tag: Daily Mail
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Picture of the week: Don’t phone home
Kevin Waldrum and his mobile: a pair who should be parted
Our picture of the week comes from today’s Mail Online. Featured in it is a former security guard named Kevin Waldrum, along with a letter from his mobile phone provider Vodafone demanding £91,184 in unpaid call charges for a period of just three months.
Mr Waldrum claims the bills stems from his having been depressed after his girlfriend left him and that he felt a “special bond” with a girl named Hannah. Despite an initial bill of £19,333.63, Mr Waldrum continued to call. He claims he “could not give up”.
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Picture of the week: Doubly dumb
Cambridge County Council create Britain’s shortest set of double yellow lines
A Liberal Democrat councilor named Damien Tunnacliffe has to be the most idiotic person we’ve come across this week and an image of him beaming proudly with Britain’s shortest set of double yellow lines just had to be our picture of the week.
Councillor Damien Tunnacliffe with Britain’s shortest double yellow lines in Humberstone Road, West Chesterton, Cambridge 
The two sets of double yellow lines are each 33cm in length The double yellow lines on Humberstone Road in Cambridge are 33cm in length and parking on either of them will result in a fine of £70. Of them, a resident of the street, Liz Hazell, told the Mail Online:
“It’s the craziest set of double yellow lines I have ever seen. It just defies logic as to why they bothered painting them on the road”.
A former mayor of Cambridge, Councillor Rob Dryden added:
“Perhaps a toy car could park there, but nothing else could”.
Meanwhile, Mr Tunnacliffe bizarrely stated that he was “tickled pink” with the “quirky” lines. In their praise, he stated:
“Cambridge has a reputation for breaking records and this is another one. We’re claiming it as a record for the shortest double yellows until we’re told otherwise… I think they’re cute and could be on the tourist trail. We should get the blue badge tour guides onto it”.
Elsewhere, a biography of the councillor reveals that he wishes to encourage closer cooperation between Cambridge and France in his role as head of the Alliance Française de Cambridge. No doubt Mr Tunnacliffe will be getting a call of congratulation from tax loving President Hollande shortly.
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“Where are they now?” – Monica Lewinsky
What has become of the world’s most famous intern Monica Lewinsky?
Monica Lewinsky, it seems, is making a return to public life. The world’s most famous intern was spotted at the birthday party of Heather Kerzner at the Downton Mayfair restaurant last Tuesday night. In the company of amongst others the Duchess of York, Princess Eugenie and her former Admiral Codrington barman boyfriend Jack Brooksbank, Donna Air and the Duchess of Cambridge’s brother, James Middleton, the Daily Mail described her as wearing “dark layers with gem-laden accessories”.
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Peter Scott (born Peter Craig Gulston, 1931 – 2013)
A modern day Robin Hood who claimed to have been “sent by God to take back some of the wealth that the outrageously rich had taken from the rest of us”. This Belfast born cat burglar was a meticulous planner whose roll call of marks numbered Sophia Loren, Zsa Zsa Gabor, John Aspinall and Maria Callas. He quoted Confucius, Oscar Wilde and Proust and targeted “rich prats” as it gave him a “sexual thrill”. The 1965 film He Who Rides a Tiger starring Tom Bell and Judi Dench was based on Scott and concluded that: “If I rob Ivana Trump, it is just a meeting of two different kinds of degeneracy on a dark rooftop”. Raffles would have been proud. -
Bankrupt in Barton Street
The story of “fallen tycoon” Brian O’Donnell, the differences between bankruptcy in the UK and Ireland and an £11 million mansion
In these straightened times, the media in general and the Daily Mail in particular quickly latch on to stories about benefit scroungers living in luxury homes. They’re less quick, however, with the exception of the case of Grant Bovey (“Mr Anthea Turner”), to make reference to stories of bankrupt individuals remaining in multi-million pound mansions.
Brian O’Donnell with his wife Dr Mary “Pat” Patricia O’Donnell A most newsworthy example, though, has to be that of Irish property investor Brian O’Donnell and his psychiatrist wife Dr Mary Patricia “Pat” O’Donnell. Mr O’Donnell, who bought the Sanctuary Buildings in London for £170 million and paid $172.5 million for a 199,000 square foot property on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington in 2008, started his career as a solicitor and eventually founded his own firm, Brian O’Donnell & Partners, in 1999. In time, he and his wife diversified into property investment and at the height of his success, Mr O’Donnell was described as “the Celtic Tiger poster child”. With the recession, however, came problems and by 2011, they owed Morgan Stanley €457 million, Aareal €235 million, and the Bank of Ireland circa €75 million.
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BT phone home
The future for red telephone boxes
The red telephone box is something that tourists often cite as being symbolic of Britain. Just like the red London bus and the red pillar box, though, these Sir Giles Gilbert Scott designed kiosks are sadly disappearing from our streets.
Decaying red telephone boxes are an increasingly common sight throughout Britain 
Traditional red “K6” model telephone boxes being removed from Warwick town centre Killed by the mobile phone revolution, British Telecom successfully lobbied to remove public telephones as usage has declined dramatically. The company state that calls from payphones have fallen by more than 80% in the last five years and that around 60% of the boxes cost more to maintain than they generate in revenue.
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Crashing Assange
The uninvited nuisances who are the nightmare of any party host
First published in October 2011 on a blog written by Matthew Steeples, we revisit the story of the leading gatecrashers who boldly go where no others would dare.
Gatecrashers are people who get into parties without invitations. Central London seems to be awash with them and though they lack the gaul of Washington’s Michaele and Tareq Salahi (who crashed President Obama’s White House state dinner for the Indian Prime Minister), they are truly a menace wherever they go.
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A Smart move
The sale of the home of a circus heir and the revival of Billy Smart’s Circus
Billy Smart, Sr. (1894 – 1966), a travelling showman and father of 10 children (he was himself one of 23), bought a circus in 1946 and quickly became known as an extraordinary entertainer. One of his son’s, Billy Smart, Jr. (1934 – 2005), made his debut at the age of 12 as an assistant ringmaster in Billy Smart’s New World Circus and performed with ponies, horses and eventually elephants. (more…)
