The terrible flooding in Queensland, Australia in January 2011 is nothing new. The Sydney Morning Herald reported heavy rain in the area exactly 100 years ago this month, with the town of Murwillumbah receiving over nine inches.
Travelling by train today you visualise high speed locomotives rattling along at over 100 miles per hour, with few stops and your destination being just hours away. One hundred years ago, in the age of steam trains, travel by train was a far more interesting journey.
The Sydney Morning Herald from Australia on the 21st January 1911 included a great article on what it was like to take a journey on a steam train along a branch line 100 years ago.
Back in 1911 railways were still in their prime, and the main method of transporting freight and passengers overland, with the motor car being still in it’s infancy, and neither roads or refuelling stations set up to allow driving between anywhere but the larger cities.
Many Americans who arrive in the UK for the first time can find things very confusing, not the least of which is the language difference.
While Americans speak English (after a fashion), it’s not only the spelling of many words that is different between American English and British English, it’s the use of words and phrases that will very often completely confuse the visitor.
This is the tale that recounts some of the problems that a naïve American visitor to the UK might experience. I hope you enjoy it.
In this latest edition of News From A Weird World you can find bizarre news stories that include an elderly woman bashing a burglar, UK Motorists Top Ten Pet Peeves, Recreating 100 year old whisky, couple float down river on a sex doll, Pulpo Paul’s shrine, how to stop your local library from closing and more.
Almost everyone who has a blog or web site these days, who writes articles or creates pages on sites like Squidoo etc, will be familiar with what is commonly called Link Spamming. For those of you who are unfamiliar, I am sure you have seen comments on articles that advertise shopping sites, where to get Viagra, get rich quick schemes or dating sites etc. These comments are almost always completely unrelated to the content of the original article, and the creators try to get backlinks to them by adding them to Guestbooks and Comment boxes wherever they can. This is Link Spam!
The Walmart Clearance Sale begins the day after Christmas, with thousands of items on sale at unbelievable prices. If there is anything that you didn’t get before Christmas, or that you want to get at a special price after Christmas, don’t miss this great opportunity to save even more money than usual by shopping at Walmart.
It’s 10pm on Christmas Eve here in the UK, and Debbie and I wanted to wish all our friends and supporters of Off The Record a very Merry Christmas. Stay safe, stay warm (or cool), have a great time with family and friends. Best Wishes for the holiday season. Tony & Debbie
It’s hard to believe that the first post was published on our blog on New Years Eve 2008, which is almost 2 years ago.
A Purple Star Award is only given to lenses that are of a high standard, and also they must have been created by a Giant Squid, a lensmaster that has created at least 50 lenses of a high standard. This week I was awarded a Purple Star for my latest lens, which is The Top 25 Tom Hanks Movies, and which I hope to make the first in a series.
Christmastime is when families and friends should be together, celebrating the season of joy, but sadly it’s not always possible for everyone to be together at this special time of year. If you have family members or close friends who are overseas this Christmas and cannot be with you, why not give them the gift of being able to talk to their family for free by buying them the gift of a calling card.