Life’s Ups & Downs!!

Man survives after getting stuck in lift for four days

A man who was stuck in a lift for four days without food or water has said he only managed to survive because he had received military training.
Thomas Fleetwood became trapped in the deserted Hotel Eden in Austria when he was travelling to the ground floor in the one man lift.
As well as there being no-one else in the building, the 58-year-old had also forgotten his mobile phone, which meant he could not call for help.
He said: ‘The lift has never broken down before, I just hadn’t expected anything to happen.
‘I broke a small glass panel at the front door of the lift and that gave me some fresh air, and tried to take off the roof of the lift to climb out, but that didn’t help either.’
Mr Fleetwood, from Sweden, only got out of his predicament when a friend noticed a bunch of piled up letters outside the hotel and then let himself in with a spare key to see if anything was wrong.
He contacted the fire service when he realised the hotel boss was trapped.
Mr Fleetwood added: ‘It was foolish to have gone in the lift in an empty hotel without a mobile telephone, but I am proud of myself that I didn’t panic and used my military training to get through.
‘I would talk to myself and was making my plans for the future while I was stuck there.’

Anything For The Weekend Sir??

Topless barber shop popular in Australia

A topless barber shop has become a hit in Australia, offering customers to have their haircut done by a barely-clothed female hairdresser.

'Barber Babes', based in Brisbane, sees employees wearing just hot pants or underwear, according to The Courier-Mail. In addition to haircuts, they offer head massages, eyebrow waxing, blow-dries and shaves.

Jasmine Robson, owner of the business, explained that the idea stemmed from her belief that most men find going to a barber inconvenient, and she wanted to provide them an extra incentive to get their hair cut.

She added: "We found that a lot of exotic dancers are qualified hairdressers and don't do what they love as the wages are quite abysmal.

"Some of the barbers are available for lap dances but not whilst you are getting your Barber Babes service. They are serious about their art and don't take it lightly."

While the service has proved popular, Collective Shout - a movement against the objectification of women - has made clear their disapproval.

Melinda Liszewski stated: "What we're seeing is the crossover of the sex industry into other more mainstream areas.

"It's reinforcing the idea that women exist for men's sexual arousal and titillation."

Where Am I??

Sat nav fail coach driver takes Welsh schoolchildren to wrong town

Typing one incorrect letter into his sat nav caused a coach driver to take children 123km (77 miles) the wrong way.
The vehicle, returning the 37-pupil party from Paris, arrived in Towyn, north Wales, rather than Tywyn, in the west.
However, no one realised the driver’s mistake until it was too late – because all the pupils, aged between 11 and 14, and teachers from Ysgol Uwchradd Tywyn school fell asleep before the major detour at the end of the 13-hour journey.
The school’s headmistress Helen Lewis said: ‘The driver, when he was told “Tywyn”, had made the incorrect assumption it was “Towyn”.
‘It is something that happens a lot here, although it is the first time we had a group of pupils end up in the wrong place.’
Parents waited for up to two more hours for their children to be ferried home.
A spokesman for coach company Llew Jones International said: ‘We have spoken to the driver of the coach and he was clearly instructed to go to Tywyn in Meirionnydd.
‘He then inputted the wrong destination into his sat nav and took the passengers to Towyn. He is not from the area.
‘We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.’

That Sinking Feeling!!

Driver rescued from sinking Porsche

A driver was dramatically rescued from his Porsche 911 by two quick-thinking eye-witnesses as his car sank in a river.

The stunned man, who has not been named, was dragged out of the sports car after he ended up in the water in Coltishall, Norfolk.
The freak accident happened at about 1.30pm on Tuesday when the motorist reversed into a moored-up boat off the River Bure and fell into the water.
Two men working on a nearby boat from engineering firm Ignition Marine leapt into action as the Porsche began to go down.
Mark Platten, 34, of Brampton, jumped in to get the driver out of his fast-sinking car as his mate Sam Hall, 24, of Coltishall, helped haul the man out of the water.
The Porsche was left with just its roof above water after plunging to the bottom of the 4ft deep river.

He said: "I heard a big revving of an engine and a bang where it had hit the side of a boat and the Porsche was suddenly sitting on the water.
"We were trying to explain to the driver to get out.
"I do not know whether he was in shock or whether the door was stuck and he could not get out."
The rescuers used the boat that the car had crashed into as a platform to reach the driver.
"The car was going down slowly and we thought he was not going to get out - so Mark jumped in and it took a bit of an effort do get the door open.
"When the door opened it went down quickly and we pulled him out just in time before his head went under," said Sam.
"He was in shock and I guess his foot must have slipped on the accelerator.
"It was something like out of a James Bond film and it all happened pretty quickly."
The shocked driver went back to the scene to thank his two Good Samaritan rescuers later that after drying off and recovering.
The tied-up boat suffered a smashed window in the bizarre crash.

To Swear Or Not To Swear?

Swearing ban for Middlesbrough man

A Middlesbrough pensioner has been banned from swearing within earshot of anyone in his home district of Coulby Newham, including in his own flat.
Patrick Gilmore's landlord, Erimus Housing, took out an injunction against him for verbally abusing staff and neighbours.
The housing association said it had warned its 74-year-old tenant in advance of the possible injunction.
He will now have to pay his landlord's legal costs of £4,000.
Stewart Tagg, head of neighbourhoods for Erimus Housing, said: "Mr Gilmore had been warned on numerous occasions regarding his attitude towards staff and neighbours.
"Taking out an injunction against a customer in a situation like this is not common and is always a last resort."

Popular Program?

Game of Thrones Broke Record in File-Sharing

Game of Thrones, created by Home Box Office, first aired two years ago and since then quickly gathered an incredible number of fans across the globe. Recently it turned out the HBO’s TV series broke another record: the third season premier collected 6.7 million viewers on BitTorrent.
Indeed, it took just a few hours for the first episode of season 3 to leak online, with people going completely berserk about it – this was quite an expected reaction, as Game of Thrones claimed the “most pirated show” title back in 2012.

It seems that the wait was too intense, with the first episode being downloaded 1 million times and accounting for an absolutely impressive number of seeders – 163,088. This makes it a new record on BitTorrent’s networks. If you take a look over the location of those seeds, you’ll see that Game of Thrones is particularly popular in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Such numbers would scare any Hollywood studio to hell, but HBO’s staff isn’t worried. HBO programming president sees it as a compliment of sorts – it shows the demand, and certainly doesn’t negatively impact the DVD sales. In the meanwhile, an Australian pay-per-view TV company Foxtel has recently announced that it will soon air episodes of 40 popular TV series, including Game of Thrones and Mad Men, within mere hours of their premieres in the United States. The company believes that the strategy is quite simple – you deliver the best TV to the audience once it becomes available. This is why closing the window between American or British premiere dates and Australian ones is Foxtel’s priority.

So, Game of Thrones will also be aired just 2 hours after the United States, while Mad Men is expected to have a 4 hour delay. Another popular series, True Blood, is going to be aired in the same day as the United States. The hope is that the strategy will make people choose a legal way of watching their favourite TV shows. Actually, this strategy proved to be quite successful – for instance, this season of The Walking Dead aired only 33 hours after US transmission and has attracted larger audiences to Foxtel.

George R. R. Martin, the author of the books “Game of Thrones”, said that it is the most pirated TV show throughout the globe, and a lot of it is coming from Australia. The reason is that the show delayed for six months there – of course, people won’t wait for that long when they can download it illegally and enjoy right now.

Oh Shit!

Beer made from elephant dung 'sells out in minutes'

A Japanese brewery has created a beer made from elephant dung.

The unusual beverage, which uses coffee beans that have passed through an elephant, went on sale on April Fools' Day and sold out within minutes.

There are no plans for the brewery Sankt Gallen to create another run of the drink, which was described as a coffee stout.

Tasting the drink, Mr. Sato told RocketNews24: "After taking my first sip there was an initial bitterness that got washed over by a wave of sweetness. Following that, a mellow body rolled in and spread out through my mouth.

"The combination of bitter and sweet stayed fresh and lingered in my head. It was a familiar aroma that accompanied me through the entire beer."

The creation follows on from elephant dung coffee, which sold for $1,100 per kilogram.

Oh Look….Snow?

Tourist drives hire car onto Germany ski piste

A Kuwaiti tourist who wanted to show his children snow for the first time slipped up when he drove his luxury hire car straight onto a ski piste in Bavaria, southern Germany.
Baffled skiers found the stranded top-of-the-range BMW 7 series abandoned in the middle of the slope at Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
Police eventually tracked it down to a wealthy family of five from the desert kingdom of Kuwait. They were visiting the resort on a day trip from Munich.
A fire crew and towing equipment was needed to remove the vehicle.
‘The father wanted to show his children snow, which they had never seen before,’ said a police spokesman.
‘Unfortunately he drove as far as he could up a forest footpath and then lost control and slid sideways on to the piste.
It is a miracle that no damage was done. If it had entered the piste just a few minutes earlier the car would have slipped right down the slope as it was much steeper.
‘The car would have lost grip and slid out of control and the consequences would have been much worse.’
The spokesman said the family ’were very lucky that they managed to escape without injury’.
‘It was a very thoughtless thing to do,’ he added. ‘The driver’s actions put his family’s lives at risk and endangered other skiers.’
Officials say the family will be charged the full cost of the £3,000 rescue by firefighters.
Garmisch-Partenkirchen is one of the top ski resorts in Germany and was a partner in the city of Munich’s bid for the 2018 Winter Olympics. But the IOC awarded the Games to Pyeongchang in South Korea.

Eat This…..Copper!

Woman guilty of assaulting police officer with a quiche

An Australian woman has been found guilty of assaulting a police officer with a quiche.
Franklin Jane Bugmy was found guilty of the offence after authorities said she struck constable James Wheatley with the quiche.
She allegedly also hit him with her pram at first.
The 41-year-old was reportedly angry about being given the wrong documents after she had been approached by police last year for an Apprehended Violence Order.
However the mother denied the charge and insisted she was just trying to protect her child.
Outside the court Ms Bugmy said: "They're saying I had room to move.
"I had no room to move. The quiche was thrown down to save my baby from tipping out of the pram."
But magistrate Geoffrey Dunlevy disagreed and said a police photograph showed she didn't have to hit the officer and the quiche had been thrown at him with a lot of power.
Bugmy will hear what her punishment is to be in three weeks' time.