Strange

Funny cuckoo clock

A neighbour bought this silly cuckoo clock. Decorated with badly-carved animals, it chimes at five to and twenty-five past the hour, loses seven minutes a day and finishes its routine with a comic rasping sound. I think she paid £70 for it. But you can’t put a value on this kind of comedy.

How a fake descendent of the Russian Tsar fooled gay Manchester in 1991 (video)

It’s the evening of Monday 26th August 1991 and Manchester’s second ‘Carnival of Fun’ weekend is coming to a close. Of course, this is the forerunner of the current Manchester Pride.

In those days before the ‘no-money-left-for-charity’ scandal of 1999, the event attracted the support of some big names. Princess Diana sent a telegram wishing every success in 1991 and there was a buzz that someone important might make a surprise appearance on the final night.

Strange grey blur and circles on photographs

These are three photographs that I took on 11 February 2004 at about 6pm. At the time I thought they were rather odd and sent them to a few friends. Now it seems that other people have experienced strange circles and ‘orbs’ on digital images, so I thought I would publish them with some information.