A Stranger's London
A private function
British Telecom has a tricky problem. The company, whose privatisation has proved a resounding success, must decide what to do about their first annual general meeting later this year.Where on earth can they find a centre suitable for holding the huge number of shareholders who might want to turn up?
At the last count there were 1,700,000 investors and if only a small percentage turned up British Telecom would have to lay on the biggest outdoor festival since Woodstock.
A welcome stumble
A woman blind for 16 years, can see again after stumbling in the street and hitting the back of her head. The woman, 58, and from Surrey, lost her sight through progressive tunnel vision and was away with 150 other blind people in Torquay when it happened. She said: "I feel so excited, but also frightened in case it doesn't last."Number ten job man is back on the dole
A 20-year-old who landed a job after a visit to Mrs Thatcher is back on the dole. Ian Sharratts was one of 24 young people who went to No. 10 to plead for more jobs on Merseyside.A fortnight after the trip Ian, of Tower Hill, Kirby, was taken on as a labourer with a meat company. But a month later, he has been told his attitude to work is wrong and he has been sacked.
Now Ian, who was earning £100-a- week, claims the job was a publicity stunt to boost the success rate of the trip.
"As far as I'm concerned I really did work very hard, and the bosses didn't seem to have any complaints about me," he said.
War games for hard- up forces
The Army is spending £24 million on a laserbeam "war game" to cut costs in mock battles. At present a single shell fired from a tank can cost up to £1,000 and an anti- tank missile more than £7,000. So Army officers have been telling soldiers on exercises to shout "Bang!" when attacking an "enemy". Now special new arms from tank guns down to rifles will be equipped with low-strength laser beams. Tiny receivers on target vehicles and soldiers will trigger noises or smoke to show a "hit".What a carry on
Patrolmen of the AA and RAC weren't surprised at the story of the 79- year-old widow who, after bursting a tyre, drove for eight miles on three wheels and turned up the car radio to drown the noise.They're used to the eccentric behaviour of motorists.
One woman kept her choke out so that she could hang her handbag from it and wondered why the car kept stalling.
And an 83-year-old called at a garage for petrol and ran up a repair bill for more than £25,000.
She didn't pull up at the pump quickly enough, struck a Volvo, which ran forward into a Metro which rammed a BMW on show in the forecourt.
When she tried to reverse her car shot forward and hit the Volvo again. This time it struck another BMW which ran into a Mercedes.
Called out after a burst, an AA patrolman couldn't find the spare wheel. The woman admitted that she thought a wheel made the boot look untidy, so she had put it in the garage.
Every summer there are complaints from Americans. They say their hired car is too noisy and greedy on petrol. Used to automatic cars, they haven't got out of first gear.
The 30-stone owner of a mini gave a lift to a girl weighing almost as much. The mini collapsed.
Charge parson
Minister Clive Thomson indecently assaulted a young girl in the pulpit of his church, a jury was told.The girl was practising Bible reading for a family service at the United Reform Church at Coggeshall, Essex.
She had to stand on a pile of books so that she could be seen over the lectern. Thomson, 32, allegedly stood beside her and "wiggled" his finger over her clothes.
The prosecution said that Thomson once rubbed the girl between the legs and touched her breasts. Another time he took off her pants. Thomson, of Hawkes Road, Coggeshall, denied indecently assaulting her and two other girls.
He is said to have told police: "I might have had my hand touch their thighs while passing the Bible to them or pointing out a passage."
Married but she didn't know
Nurse Elspeth Boyd went on holiday and ended up married without knowing it.She was tricked into signing a marriage certificate, written in Arabic, thinking it was a visa form. But 26-year-old Elspeth, from Ealing, West London, has won an order cancelling the marriage from the London Divorce Court.
Elspeth became friends with a 36-year-old Jordanian driver while on holiday in Bulgaria. He phoned her after she returned home to say his son from his first marriage had been killed.
Elspeth went to see her friend in Jordan - only to find that he was still married and his son had not died. She became a virtual prisoner, forced to dress as an Arab woman and unable to get out.
Finally, after two months of pleading, Elspeth was allowed to return to Britain.
She later discovered that the Arabic document she thought was a visa was actually a marriage certificate.
Twins are killed by 'sweets'
Twin baby girls have died after mis- taking drugs for Smarties.Naomi and Tanya Dodds, aged 16 months, were poisoned after swallowing quinine tablets while playing at their home in Winterton, Humberside.
Police Chief Geoff Walker said: "The tablets are white in colour, sugar-coated and about the size of Smarties."
The tablets, prescribed for a member of the twins' family, are used mainly for treating malaria.
The twins were taken to hospital in Scunthorpe but died soon afterwards.
