IN his continuing search for the more weird, wacky and wondrous in the world of travel, David Ellis says the following are amongst some of the more unusual quotes in British newspapers that travellers there tell him they’ve come across.
• COMMENTING on a complaint from a Mr Arthur Purdey about a large gas bill, a spokesman for North West Gas said: “We agree it was rather high for the time of year. It’s possible Mr. Purdey has been charged for the gas used-up during the explosion that destroyed his house.”
(The Daily Telegraph)
• POLICE say that a woman arrested for shoplifting was found to have a whole salami in her underwear.
When asked why, she said it was because she was missing her Italian boyfriend.
(The Manchester Evening News)
• IRISH police are being handicapped in a search for a stolen van, because they cannot issue a description.
It’s a Special Branch vehicle and they say they don’t want the public to know what it looks like.
(The Guardian)
• A YOUNG girl who was blown out to sea on a set of inflatable teeth was rescued by a man on an inflatable lobster.
A Coast Guard spokesman commented, “This sort of thing is all too common.”
(The Times)
• AT the height of the gale, the harbourmaster radioed a Coast Guard and asked him the wind speed.
The Coast Guard replied he was sorry, but he couldn’t get to his gauge – however, if it was any help, the wind had just blown his 2.5 tonne LandRover into the sea.
( Aberdeen Evening Express)
• Mrs IRENE Graham of Boscombe delighted the audience with her reminiscence of the German prisoner of war who was sent each week to do her garden.
He was repatriated at the end of 1945, but she recalled: “He’d always seemed a nice friendly chap, but when the crocuses came up in the middle of our lawn in 1946, they spelt out ‘Heil Hitler.’”
( Bournemouth Evening Echo)
