31 October: Zebra Crossings

Zebra Crossings were introduced in the UK in 1951. Here are 10 things you might not know about zebra crossings:

1. Before 1951, pedestrian crossings were marked by metal studs in the road, but these weren't easy for drivers to see before it was too late to stop.
2. One solution for this remains in use today - the Belisha beacon, the amber orb on top of a black and white striped pole was placed on either side of crossings in the 1930s. The first Belisha Beacon was erected in Wigan on the corner of Mesnes Street, and became operational on 4 July 1935. It was named after Leslie Hore-Belisha, the Minister of Transport who added beacons to pedestrian crossings. A Belisha beacon increases visibility, especially at night as the light inside the orb flashes, usually one second on and one second off.
3. The Ministry of Transport considered a number of colour combinations such as blue and Yellow or red and white, but eventually concluded that black and white was the most visible.
4. The name "zebra crossing" was coined when an MP called James Callaghan (who later became Prime Minister) visited the Transport Research Laboratory and was shown the proposed black and white design. He commented that it looked like a zebra and the name stuck.
5. The stripes on a zebra crossing are typically 40 to 60 centimetres (16 inches to 2 feet) wide.
6. At certain times of day zebra crossings near schools may also have a school crossing patrol, commonly known as a "lollipop lady" or "lollipop man" because of the round stop signs on the end of a pole that they use to stop traffic.
7. In the UK, drivers must by law give way to pedestrians on zebra crossings. If they fail to do so, they get a fine of £100 and three licence penalty points, unless there is a lollipop person present. Then they can be fined £1,000 and may be disqualified from driving. In some other countries, like Belgium, the fine for failing to stop is even higher at the equivalent of £2,000.
8. In 2013 a zebra crossing was used for a political protest in Helsinki. The crossing outside the Russian Embassy in the city was re-painted in Rainbow colours to protest about the Russian government's policy towards lesbian and gay people.
9. Zebra crossings were the first, but as different types of crossing have been introduced the animal theme has been maintained. As well as zebras there are also Pelican, Puffin, Toucan, Pegasus and Tiger crossings.
10. The most famous zebra crossing in the world is no doubt the one in Abbey Road, West London (which is nowhere near the Abbey Road DLR station in East London which had so many tourists showing up there looking for the crossing that they put up a sign explaining to them that they were in the wrong place and telling them, with the use of numerous puns on Beatle songs, how to get to the right place, ending with a reminder that they would need a "Ticket to Ride".) The crossing has been incorporated into the logo of Abbey Road studios. English Heritage has given it Grade II Listed Building status.

30th October: Great Pumpkin Carve

Today is Great Pumpkin Carve, presumably because people will be carving their Jack O' Lanterns today in readiness for Halloween tomorrow. Here are 10 things you might not know about pumpkins:

1. The word pumpkin originates from the word pepon, which is Greek for “large melon". The French adapted this word to pompon, the British changed it to pumpion, which eventually evolved into the word we use today. The first written reference to the word "pumpkin" is actually in the original version of the fairytale Cinderella.
2. Pumpkins are part of the Cucurbita family which also includes squash, Cucumbers, honeydew melons, cantaloupe, watermelons and zucchini.
3. A pumpkin typically has about 500 seeds. The seeds are edible and can be roasted to make a tasty snack. Another word for pumpkin seeds is pepitas.
4. The flowers of the pumpkin plant are edible, too. In some parts of the US, they not only use them to garnish dishes but cover them in batter and deep fry them.
5. Pumpkins are native to North America, but now are grown all over the world. The only continent where pumpkins are not grown is Antarctica.
6. A common use for pumpkins is carving them into Jack o' Lanterns. This very old tradition originated in Britain and Ireland, where Turnips, Potatoes and beets were used. Emigrants took their customs to the New World with them, and when they got there, started using pumpkins because they were much easier to carve.
7. The origin of Jack o' Lanterns goes back to an old folk tale about a drunken con man called Stingy Jack. The devil came to claim Jack's soul, and Jack asked for a last drink before going to hell. Satan granted the request, took him to the pub where he drank a lot of beer, and at the end of the night, convinced Satan to turn himself into a coin to pay for the drinks. When Satan did so, Jack put the coin in his pocket, where there was also a crucifix, which meant Satan was stuck in the form of a coin until he could strike a deal with Jack that he wouldn't carry him off to hell for ten years. When the ten years was up, Satan returned and again Jack hoodwinked him, by asking for an Apple. When Satan climbed the tree to get him one, Jack placed crucifixes all around the trunk, so Satan was stuck up the tree and Satan had to agree never to take his soul to hell before Jack would set him free. When Jack eventually died, he was refused admission into Heaven because of his sinful life, but because of the deal with Satan, he couldn't get into hell, either. So he is doomed to wander the earth for all eternity with just a hollowed out turnip with an ember in it to light his way.
8. The world's largest pumpkin was more than five feet in diameter and weighed over 1,800 pounds. It was presented in Minnesota in October 2010. The largest pumpkin pie ever baked weighed 2,020 pounds.
9. Pumpkins were once recommended for removing freckles and curing Snake bites.
10. Pumpkin juice is a favourite drink of Harry Potter and his friends.

29 October: National Cat Day

Today is National Cat Day. Here are 10 little known facts about our feline friends:

1. Some cat related words you may not know: The technical term for a cat’s hairball is a “bezoar.” A group of cats is called a “clowder.” A cat lover is called an Ailurophile. A female cat is called a queen or a molly. While on the subject of cat words, researchers believe the word “tabby” comes from Attabiyah, a place in Baghdad, Iraq. Tabbies got their name because their striped coats resembled the famous wavy patterns in the silk produced in this city.
2. Given how popular cats are now (500 million domestic cats in the world), in the middle ages they were actually thought to be evil. During the time of the Spanish Inquisition, Pope Innocent VIII condemned cats as evil and thousands of cats were burned; and people would "celebrate" holy days by burning cats or throwing them off church towers. There was some poetic justice to this. The mass murder of so many cats led to an explosion in the rat population and Rats spread the plague.
3. Christians in medieval Europe may have hated cats but elsewhere they were more popular. Mohammed is said to have loved cats and had a favourite cat, Muezza, a tabby. Legend says that tabby cats have an “M” for Mohammed on top of their heads because Mohammad would often rest his hand on the cat’s head. We all know the ancient Egyptians virtually worshipped their cats and would have their pets mummified when they died. You might not know that they would mourn the passing of a pet cat by shaving off their Eyebrows and would hold elaborate funerals at which much Wine would be consumed. Just as humans would be buried with a supply of food for the afterlife, the cat would be buried with the tiny mummies of Mice. The Egyptians were so protective of their cats that smuggling a cat out of the country carried the death penalty.
4. The cat flap was invented by Isaac Newton. He had an intelligent cat called Spithead, who learned to open doors, and would frequently wreck any of Newton's experiments which required total darkness. Newton came up with the idea of a cat flap to solve this problem.
5. Cats make excellent spies. The Dutch embassy in Moscow had two Siamese cats. They noticed that the cats kept meowing and clawing at the walls in certain places. Thinking they must have an infestation of mice, officials investigated, and found hidden microphones. The cats could hear the noise they made when switched on. In the 1960s, the CIA tried to turn a cat into a spy by implanting a microphone into her ear and a radio transmitter at the base of her skull. She survived the surgery but got hit by a taxi on her first mission.
6. The first cat in space was a French cat called Felicette (a.k.a. “Astrocat”) In 1963, France blasted the cat into outer space. Electrodes implanted in her brain sent neurological signals back to Earth. She survived the trip.
7. We don't know for sure why cats purr (they do it when nervous as well as when contented) but the frequency of a domestic cat’s purr is the same at which muscles and bones repair themselves, so it may have a healing function.
8. A cat can run at approximately 31 mph (49 km) over a short distance (Usain Bolt can only manage 27mph). A cat can jump up to five times its own height in a single bound. It can't, however, climb down a tree head first. Because all its claws face the same way, it has to climb down backwards.
9. A cat’s nose pad is ridged with a unique pattern, just like the fingerprint of a human.
10. In the 1930s, two Russian biologists discovered that Siamese kittens have albino genes that work only when the body temperature is above 98° F. If Siamese kittens are kept in a very warm room, they won't develop the characteristic dark "points" on their legs and faces; they will stay white all over.

My Books

Death and Faxes

Several women have been found murdered - it looks like the work of a ruthless serial killer. Psychic medium Maggie Flynn is one of the resources DI Jamie Swan has come to value in such cases - but Maggie is dead, leaving him with only the telephone number of the woman she saw as her successor, her granddaughter, Tabitha Drake.

Tabitha, grief-stricken by Maggie's death and suffering a crisis of confidence in her ability, wants nothing to do with solving murder cases. She wants to hold on to her job and find Mr Right (not necessarily in that order); so when DI Swan first contacts her, she refuses to get involved.

The ghosts of the victims have other ideas. They are anxious for the killer to be caught and for names to be cleared - and they won't leave Tabitha alone. It isn't long before Tabitha is drawn in so deeply that her own life is on the line.

Paperback - CreateSpace or Amazon 

Or get the E-book: Amazon Kindle (Where you can use the "Look Inside" function and read the first few pages for free!)

Glastonbury Swan

Every few weeks, there is a mysterious death in Glastonbury. They seem completely unrelated - an apparent suicide, a hit and run, a drug overdose, a magic act which goes horribly wrong - but is that what the killer wants people to think?

The police are certainly convinced - but one of the victims is communicating to medium Tabitha Drake that the deaths are linked.

Who is killing all these people and why? 

This is what Tabitha has to figure out - before it is too late to save someone very dear to her.

Paperback CreateSpace or Amazon

E-book Amazon Kindle

Jigsaw

The first ten short stories from my writing blog. Within these covers you will find murder, mayhem, ghosts, romance, dungeons and dragons and alien vampire bunnies.

You can, of course, read all these stories and more on the blog for free by following the link above, and you're welcome to do that, but if you find you'd like to read them over and over without looking at a screen, or you know your friend who hates technology would absolutely love them, the book is available.

Paperback CreateSpace or Amazon 

E-book Amazon Kindle

October 28: Evelyn Waugh

Quotes from Evelyn Waugh, born this date in 1903:

1. Your actions, and your action alone, determines your worth.
2. Money is only useful when you get rid of it. It is like the odd card in 'Old Maid'; the player who is finally left with it has lost.
3. Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.
4. We cherish our friends not for their ability to amuse us, but for ours to amuse them.
5. Don't hold your parents up to contempt. After all, you are their son, and it is just possible that you may take after them.
6. Manners are especially the need of the plain. The pretty can get away with anything.
7. What is youth except a man or woman before it is ready or fit to be seen?
8. Other nations use 'force'; we Britons alone use 'Might'.
9. Where can we hide in fair weather, we orphans of the storm?
10. No one will write books once they reach heaven, but there is an excellent library, containing all the books written up to date, including all the lost books and the ones that the authors burned when they came back from the last publisher.

27 October: Turkmenistan Independence Day

Turkmenistan celebrates independence day - it became independent from the USSR on this date in 1991.

1. The name of the country means "Land of the Turkmen". The Turkmen are the nomadic Oghuz tribes which moved there from Mongolia in the 8th century. These people were traditionally known for breeding war Horses (they still breed horses today but for racing), and are recognisable by their traditional headgear, "telpek" hats, which are large black sheepskin hats that look like afros. The Turkmen are also known for making Turkmen rugs, very colourful rugs with designs specific to their clans.
2. Five of these tribal rug designs appear on the national Flag, in a vertical stripe near the hoist side. The rest of the flag is Green with a crescent moon and five stars, representing Islam and the five regions of the country.
3. At 488,100 km2 (188,500 sq mi), Turkmenistan is the world's 52nd-largest country. It is slightly smaller than Spain.
4. The capital and largest city is Ashgabat. The name in Persian means "city of love" or "city of devotion".
5. Censorship is big there. Despite the launch of Turkmenistan's first communication satellite—TurkmenSat 1—in April 2015, the Turkmen government banned all satellite dishes in Turkmenistan the same month. They didn't want people watching news channels from the rest of free Europe. During President Niyazov's time (1985 - 2006) all broadcasts began with a pledge that the broadcaster's tongue would shrivel if he slandered the country, flag, or president.
6. The highest summit in Turkmenistan is Ayrybaba in the Kugitangtau Range – 3,137 metres (10,292 ft), and the principal river is the Amu Darya.
7. The country possesses the world's fourth-largest reserves of natural gas and substantial oil resources.
8. It is claimed that the Turkmenistan city of Merv was briefly the largest city in the world in the 12th century. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There is also a city called Mary. According to tradition, the Virgin Mary is buried there.
9. Over 80% of the country is covered by the Karakum Desert, one of the driest deserts in the world; some places have an average annual precipitation of only 12 mm (0.47 in).
10. President Niyazov wrote his own religious text, published in separate volumes in 2001 and 2004, the Ruhnama. The regime demanded that this book be given equal status with the Quran (mosques were required to display the two books side by side). Knowledge of the Ruhnama is required even for obtaining a driver's license. In March 2006, Niyazov was recorded as saying that he had interceded with God to ensure that any student who read the book three times would automatically get into heaven.

26th October: Howl at the Moon Day

It's Howl at the Moon Day, so in honour of that, and in time for Halloween in a few days' time, here are ten things you may not know about werewolves:

1. How do you become one? The common method in modern literature is to be bitten by a werewolf, but in the ancient legends, this is hardly mentioned at all. Instead, werewolves are created by: eating a mixture of wolf and human meat; eating wolf brains; being cursed; being conceived under a new moon or by two parents who are werewolves; eating certain herbs; sleeping under the full moon on Friday; drinking water that has been touched by a wolf; drinking water from a wolf’s pawprint; making a pact with the devil or wearing a wolfskin belt.
2. In some countries, they believe that the seventh child, in particular a seventh son, will become a werewolf. A seventh son in Portugal was often named Bento (Portuguese for Benedict) which means blessed, which would prevent him becoming a werewolf.
3. The word werewolf means "man wolf" as "wer" is an old word for man. Wolves are not the only creatures people could turn into. There are were-foxes, were-Dogs, were-Tigers, were-Snakes, were-Hares, were-bears and were-crocodiles; not forgetting the were-Rabbit of Wallace and Gromit fame.
4. The legend of the werewolf has been around a long time. There are werewolf tales dating back to Ancient Greece. Herodotus, in his Histories,wrote about the Neuri tribe who were transformed into wolves once every year for several days, and then changed back to their human shape.
5. Most fictional werewolves tend to be depicted as men, but in Armenian lore, there are female werewolves. They are women who have committed deadly sins and are condemned to live as wolves for seven years. They will be ordered by a spirit to wear a wolf skin which causes the transformation. They will eat their children, then their relatives' children and finally strangers' children. Locked doors spring open when such a creature approaches so bolting the door to keep her away from the kids is ineffective.
6. Some of the legends may have originated from medical conditions which mimic the appearance or behaviour of a werewolf. These include hypertrichosis, which creates unusually long hair on the face and body; and porphyria: extreme sensitivity to light (thus encouraging its victims to only go out at night), seizures and anxiety. There is also a recognised medical condition called lycanthropy where a person believes they are an animal - not necessarily a werewolf, although in some cases people will make such a claim. Today, such people will be treated with drugs or therapy but in the middle ages they would not get off so lightly. In 1589, a German man named Peter Stubbe claimed to own a belt of wolfskin that allowed him to change into a wolf with a craving for human blood. He was decapitated on Halloween 1589, and his headless body burned at the stake.
7. The codename used by the Nazis for one of Hitler's headquarters was Werwolf (as it's spelled in German).
8. Although usually associated with curses and the devil, Christian saints have been known to turn people into wolves. St Thomas Aquinas said, "All angels, good and bad have the power of transmutating our bodies". St Patrick was said to have transformed the Welsh king Vereticus into a wolf; St. Natalis cursed a whole family whose members were doomed to be wolves for seven years. In 1692 a man named Thiess claimed, not only that he was a werewolf, but that werewolves were not evil but in fact were "the Hounds of God" - warriors who went down into hell to fight witches and demons to stop them stealing the abundance of the earth and carry it off to hell. When werewolves died, their souls were welcomed into heaven as reward for their service. Thiess got ten lashes for superstitious belief.
9. How to cure a werewolf. While some legends suggest it is a lifestyle people can choose and control, eg by putting on a wolfskin belt, for most it is a curse and they are unfortunate victims. So apart from the commonly quoted Silver bullet/dagger, how does one get rid of a werewolf? Unlike vampires, they have no problem with crucifixes and holy water, but they do have an aversion to the herb wolfsbane. Other cures include: surgery; exorcism; drinking vinegar; removal of the animal belt or skin; kneeling in one spot for a hundred years; striking three times on the forehead with a knife; having at least three drops of Blood drawn; throwing an Iron object over or at the werewolf, to make it reveal its human form. Some of the so called cures were so brutal that the "werewolf" wouldn't survive to become "normal."
10. How to recognise a werewolf. Listed below are some of the signs which can indicate that someone is a werewolf:

• Red hair
• Eyebrows that meet in the middle
• Broad hands with unusually long ring fingers and reddish, almond shaped fingernails
• Hair on the palms of their hands or under the skin and bristles under the tongue.
• In the hours before they change werewolves gain acute hearing, animal strength, and a heightened sense of smell. Their skin also darkens during this time.
• They are thirsty, pale and tired looking the day after a full moon.
• Werewolves have long swinging strides like that of a prowling wolf.
• Werewolves have extra glands that emit nasty smells such as stale hay and horse manure.
• Unusually early sexual attraction to the opposite sex (ie by about the age of seven).
• They keep large pets which often disappear and are replaced by new ones.
• A tendency to hang around graveyards, mortuaries and fatal accidents.
• Bluish-red blood and deep purple urine.

25 October: Pablo Picasso

Artist Pablo Picasso was born on this date in 1881. Here are some things you may not know about Picasso:

1. Picasso was baptised Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso, after various saints and relatives.
2. The name Picasso was from his mother's family, not his father's.
3. According to his mother, his first words were "piz, piz", a shortening of lápiz, the Spanish word for "Pencil". When he was seven, his father, an art teacher, began instructing him.
4. A number of very early Picassos were lost when the artist was living in Paris in the 1900s. He was so poor that he had to burn some of his work to keep warm.
5. His love life was complicated. He married twice: Olga Khokhlova in 1918 and Jacqueline Roque in 1961. He had numerous affairs, often with women much younger than he was. The most significant of these was with Marie-Thérèse Walter, who was 17 when they met and he was in his 40s. Both Marie-Thérèse Walter and Jacqueline Roque killed themselves after his death.
6. During the second world war, the French Resistance smuggled bronze to Picasso so he could continue sculpting.
7. He was a writer as well. Between 1935 and 1959 he wrote over 300 erotic poems, and later he wrote two plays, Desire Caught by the Tail (1941) and The Four Little Girls (1949).
8. Picasso's most famous work is his depiction of the German bombing of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War – Guernica. Asked to explain its symbolism, Picasso said, "It isn't up to the painter to define the symbols. Otherwise it would be better if he wrote them out in so many words! The public who look at the picture must interpret the symbols as they understand them." During the second world war, a Gestapo officer who was searching Picasso's apartment, asked, "Did you do that?" Picasso replied, "No, You did".
9. On 11 May 2015 his painting Women of Algiers set the record for the highest price ever paid for a painting when it sold for US$179.3 million at Christie's in New York.
10. More of his paintings have been stolen than any other artist's. The Art Loss Register has 550 of his works listed as missing.

24th October: Zambia Independence Day

Zambia declared independence from the UK on this date in 1964. Here are 10 things you might not know about Zambia:

1. Zambia declared its independence on the day of the closing ceremony of the 1964 Summer Olympics, thereby becoming the first country ever to have entered an Olympic Games as one country (Northern Rhodesia), and left it as another (Zambia).
2. The name Zambia was derived from the Zambezi river. Zambezi is thought to mean "God's river".
3. Zambia’s capital, Lusaka, was originally designed to hold 200,000 people. Today, Lusaka has a population of roughly 1.5 million.
4. Zambia’s Lake Kariba was Africa’s largest man-made lake until Egypt’s Aswan Dam was built in 1971. Lake Kariba is so big that people who don't know Zambia is landlocked think they have reached the sea. In fact, it's 600 miles to the actual sea.
5. The country's highest point is Mafinga Central at 2,339 m or 7,674 ft.
6. The background of the national Flag is Green, symbolic of the country's natural beauty, with three vertical stripes in the lower right corner. The three stripes are: red, symbolic of the country's struggle for freedom; Black, representing the races of the majority of the population; and Orange, symbolic of the country's mineral wealth. A copper-coloured eagle in the upper right corner symbolises the country's ability to rise above its problems.
7. Copper mining was very important to the economy of Zambia, accounting for 80% of its exports in 1996. The saying "Copper is King" was a very common saying in the country for many years.
8. 97% of the population is comprised of seven main tribes and a collection of seventy-five minor tribes. English is the official language, but each of the seventy-five tribes has its own language. The main languages are Bemba, Lozi, Luanda, Luvale, Nyanja, Tonga, and Tumbuka.
9. The earliest European to visit the area was the Portuguese explorer Francisco de Lacerda in the late 18th century. He died during his visit. Another early visitor was David Livingstone of "Dr Livingstone I presume" fame (although that meeting took place in neighbouring Tanzania). Livingstone, too, died in Zambia from malaria and dysentary. Although his followers transported most of his body back to England, they first removed his heart and buried it in Zambia, under a Mvula tree.
10. Victoria Falls is situated on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe. It was David Livingstone who was the first European to see them, and named the falls after Queen Victoria. He said of the falls, "Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight". The local name for the falls is Mosi-oa-Tunya (Tokaleya Tonga for the Smoke that Thunders).

My Books

As well as this blog, I also write fiction and have published two novels (Death and Faxes and Glastonbury Swan) and a collection of short stories (Jigsaw). If you like ghost stories, crime stories, a bit of romance and anything slightly bizarre you might enjoy them. 

Further details on my books page

23 October: iPod Day

iPod Day: The first ever iPod was released, this date in 2001. Here are 10 things you might not know about your music device:

1. There have been 25 different models of the iPod since its introduction. There are three current versions: the ultra-compact iPod Shuffle, the compact iPod Nano and the touchscreen iPod Touch.
2. The team of engineers commissioned to design the iPod included Jon Rubinstein, Tony Fadell, Michael Dhuey, and Sir Jonathan Ive.
3. The name iPod was suggested by Vinnie Chieco, and was inspired by the film 2001: A Space Odyssey, in particular the line "Open the pod bay door, HAL!" It refers to the white EVA Pods of the Discovery One spaceship. Chieco saw an analogy to the relationship between the spaceship and the smaller independent pods in the relationship between a personal computer and the music player.
4. However, when Apple looked into it they found the name was already in use. Joseph N. Grasso of New Jersey had originally listed the name "iPod" for internet kiosks, but these were no longer in use and Grasso agreed to let Apple use the name.
5. As well as playing music, iPods have been put to work in the business and education worlds as a way of delivering training.
6. The volume can reach 120 decibels, but when in France, beware of cranking up the volume, because it is illegal there to play your iPod louder than 100 decibels.
7. Although the iPod was released in 2001, the iTunes Store didn't come along until 2003. Customers bought one million songs in the store’s first week. There are over 43 million songs available on the iTunes Store in over 119 countries.
8. By September 2012, about 350 million iPods had been sold.
9. The first iPod ever made had 5GB of capacity (about 1,000 songs). It cost $399 and only connected with Macs. The original iPod had the game Brick (invented by Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak) included as an easter egg hidden feature.
10. The world's most expensive iPod is the iPod SUPREME Fire, which costs over $200,000. The case is made of solid 24ct gold. The logo and navigation buttons incorporate flawless diamonds. Only about three of them have ever been made.

22nd October: Laos Independence Day

It's Laos Independence day. 10 things you didn't know about Laos.

1. Laos is the only landlocked country in South East Asia. It's bordered by Myanmar, China, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.
2. The first name for the area we now call Laos was Lan Xang, which means Million Elephants.
3. In 2009, archaeologists found a human skull in Northern Laos which is at least 46,000 years old, the oldest human fossil to be found in South East Asia to date.
4. The Capital and largest city is Vientiane.
5. During the Vietnam war, more bombs were dropped on Laos than were dropped in Europe during the second world war. This makes Laos the most bombed country ever. Even today, it's not possible to visit its highest peak, Phou Bia at 2,818 metres (9,245 ft), because of all the unexploded ammunition there.
6. Laos is home to the Plain of Jars, a megalithic archaeological landscape with thousands of huge stone jars scattered around the valleys. Archaeologists believe it is an ancient cemetery although local legends tell different stories. One says that the land was once inhabited by giants and the jars were made to hold the Wine and Beer they brewed to celebrate their victory in a battle; another says they are there to catch rainwater for thirsty travellers.
7. Laos is not an ideal holiday destination for trainspotters as it has no railways, except a short link to connect Vientiane with Thailand over the Thai–Lao Friendship Bridge.
8. New Year celebrations in Laos last three days and take place from April 13 to 15.
9. Laos is home to the largest waterfall in south east Asia, The Khone Papeng.
10. Laos is the second biggest solar energy consumer in the world after Luxembourg.

21st October: Alfred Nobel

Alfred Nobel was born this date in 1833. 10 things about the man who founded Nobel Prizes.

1. Most people know that Alfred Nobel invented dynamite - but he also invented gelignite (which was what made him very rich) and ballistite, a predecessor of cordite.
2. Explosives were the Nobel family business from Alfred's father's time. The motivation for inventing dynamite and gelignite arose from an explosion in their nitroglycerine factory which killed one of Alfred's brothers. He set out to create an explosive which was more stable and safer to handle, and the result was dynamite. At first, Nobel was going to name this substance "Nobel's Safety Powder", but in the end went with dynamite, derived from the Greek word for power.
3. Nobel's father invented plywood.
4. Alfred Nobel never married, but there were several relationships with women, one of which lasted eighteen years. Nobel's first love was in Russia with a girl named Alexandra, who rejected his proposal. In 1876 Austro-Bohemian Countess Bertha Kinsky became Alfred Nobel's secretary. She left him to marry her previous lover, Baron Arthur Gundaccar von Suttner. Nobel's longest-lasting relationship was with Sofie Hess from Vienna, whom he met in 1876.
5. Nobel could speak six languages, Swedish, French, Russian, English, German and Italian.
6. He was also a poet. He wrote a poem in English, called Nemesis, a prose tragedy in four acts about Beatrice Cenci, partly inspired by Percy Bysshe Shelley's The Cenci. It wasn't well received. It was regarded as scandalous and blasphemous, and the entire print run was destroyed after his death, except for three copies.
7. When his brother Ludvig died, a French newspaper erroneously published an obituary of Alfred, which gave him an insight into how he was likely to be remembered. "Le marchand de la mort est mort" ("The merchant of death is dead"), it said. It went on to say, "Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday." Despite his work with explosives, he was actually a pacifist and this disturbed him, prompting him to think of ways to make his legacy more positive.
8. The idea he came up with was the Nobel prizes. On 27 November 1895, at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Nobel signed the will to set aside the bulk of his estate to establish the Nobel Prizes, to be awarded annually without distinction of nationality. After taxes and bequests to individuals, Nobel's will allocated 94% of his total assets, the equivalent of £1,687,837 at the time.
9. Two people Nobel knew personally became recipients of his peace prize. One was the pastor of the church he used to attend, Nathan Söderblom who won the 1930 Nobel Peace Prize, and Bertha von Suttner, his former secretary, who received the prize in 1905. It's thought that it was her influence which prompted Nobel to include a peace prize on his list.
10. Nobel has a synthetic element named after him. Nobelium, a radioactive metal, has the symbol No and atomic number 102. Its discovery was announced by physicists at the Nobel Institute in Sweden in 1957.

20th October: Bela Lugosi

Bela Lugosi, Hungarian-American actor, famous for playing Count Dracula and for his roles in various other horror films. Born this date in 1882.

1. Best known for playing Dracula, Bela Lugosi was actually born in Transylvania. in Lugos, Kingdom of Hungary (now Lugoj, Romania) to be exact. His real name was Béla Ferenc Dezső Blaskó. When appearing in Hungarian silent films, he used the stage name Arisztid Olt. In the US, he used the surname of Lugosi, based on the name of the town where he was born.
2. Lugosi's first film appearance was in a Hungarian silent film, Az ezredes (The Colonel, 1917).
3. During World War I, he served as an infantryman in the Austro-Hungarian Army. He rose to the rank of captain in the ski patrol and was awarded the Wound Medal for wounds he suffered while serving on the Russian front.
4. He was forced into exile in 1919 during the Hungarian Revolution. He fled to Vienna, then Germany and finally to America in 1920.
5. His first acting work in the US was in stage plays for the Hungarian immigrant community. He acted in his first Broadway play, The Red Poppy, in 1922.
6. His first American film role was in 1923, in The Silent Command. Several more silent roles followed, where he played villains or continental types, all in productions made in New York.
7. His first appearance as Dracula was on stage rather than on film, in a Broadway production of Dracula adapted by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston from Bram Stoker's novel. He almost didn't get the movie role - Universal Pictures actually wanted Lon Chaney to play the part, but Chaney died before the film went into production.
8. Boris Karloff was a frequent co-star with Lugosi and rumours abound as to whether or not the two actors actually got along. Some say they were good friends; others say Lugosi was openly resentful of Karloff because he always got top billing and because Karloff could get other good roles outside of the horror genre. Lugosi was frustrated at being typecast. Other rumours say that Karloff didn't think Lugosi could act, and that Lugosi was annoyed by Karloff's insistence on an afternoon tea break.
9. Brides of Dracula. Bela Lugosi was married five times. His first marriage was at 34 to 16 year old Ilona Szmik. They divorced after three years, reputedly over political differences with her parents. In 1921 he married another woman called Ilona - Ilona von Montagh de Nagybanyhegyes. After two and a half years she filed for divorce on the grounds of adultery. In 1929, Lugosi married wealthy San Francisco widow Beatrice Weeks, but she filed for divorce four months later, citing actress Clara Bow as the "other woman". In 1933 he married 19 year old Lillian Arch, the daughter of Hungarian immigrants. This marriage lasted twenty years. The marriage broke down when Lillian took a job as an assistant to Brian Donlevy and Bela got jealous. His fifth and final wife was a fan who'd written to him while he was in hospital battling drug addiction. Her name was Hope Lininger - she would sign her letters 'A dash of Hope'. She outlived him.
10. Lugosi was buried wearing a Dracula Cape costume, but contrary to popular belief, he didn't request this, but his son by Lillian Arch, and Lillian Arch herself, made the request, believing it was what he would have wanted.

19th October: Philip Pullman

Today some quotes from Philip Pullman, author of the His Dark Materials Trilogy, who was born on this date in 1946.

1. Argue with anything else, but don't argue with your own nature.
2. That's the duty of the old, to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old.
3. After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.
4. I think it's perfectly possible to explain how the universe came about without bringing God into it, but I don't know everything, and there may well be a God somewhere, hiding away. Actually, if he is keeping out of sight, it's because he's ashamed of his followers and all the cruelty and ignorance they're responsible for promoting in his name. If I were him, I'd want nothing to do with them.
5. I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are.
6. People are too complicated to have simple labels.
7. All the history of human life has been a struggle between wisdom and stupidity.
8. Can is not the same as must. But if you must and you can, then there's no excuse.
9. Children are not less intelligent than adults; what they are is less informed.
10. What is worth having is worth working for.

18th October: Feast Day of St Luke the Evangelist

Today is the feast Day of St Luke the Evangelist. Here are 10 things you may not know about him.

1. Saint Luke is probably best known for writing the third (and longest) of the New Testament gospels. Scholars sometimes group Luke with Matthew and Mark as they tell about the same events and use similar language, and call them the Synoptic Gospels.
2. He wrote a sequel. The book of Acts, the fifth book of the New Testament, which relates the history of the early church, was also written by him.
3. Luke was a doctor who lived in the city of Antioch in Ancient Syria. Scholars are divided about whether he was a Jew or a Gentile.
4. Unlike Matthew, Mark and John, Luke was never a disciple of Jesus Himself. He was in fact a disciple of Saint Paul, and doesn't claim in his gospel to have witnessed any of it first hand - but in Acts, he often uses the word "we" when describing events, suggesting that he was actually present at that time.
5. Luke is viewed as a first class historian by many, because his descriptions of places are accurate and use of his official titles is correct. Sir William Ramsay wrote that "Luke is a historian of the first rank," and Professor of Classics at Auckland University, E.M. Blaiklock, wrote "The Acts of the Apostles is not shoddy product of pious imagining, but a trustworthy record." Others, however, the atheists, presumably, question whether someone who wrote about supernatural events could be deemed reliable.
6. Traditionally, Luke is also said to have been a painter, and that he was the first painter of icons, particularly of the Virgin Mary and child.
7. His symbol is a bull or an ox, often with wings.
8. Luke is the patron saint of artists, physicians, surgeons, students and butchers.
9. He died unmarried at the age of 84.
10. The relics of St. Luke can be found in the following places: his body is in the Abbey of Santa Giustina in Padua; his head in the St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague, and one of his ribs is at his tomb in Thebes.

17th October: Haiti

National Holiday in Haiti, commemorating the death of Jean-Jacques Dessalines, leader of the Haitian Revolution and the first ruler of an independent Haiti under the 1801 constitution.

1. The name Haïti comes from the indigenous Taíno language and was the name given to the entire island of Hispaniola. It means "land of high mountains."
2. Haiti is the most mountainous nation in the Caribbean and its highest point is Pic la Selle, at 2,680 metres (8,793 ft).
3. The capital and largest city is Port-au-Prince, founded in 1749 and was named for the Prince, a French ship anchored in the bay. The city's layout is similar to that of an amphitheatre; commercial districts are near the water, while residential neighbourhoods are on the hills above.
4. The currency of Haiti is the gourde, deriving from the fact that gourds were very important to the people. In 1807, President Henri Christophe (1761-1820) made them the base of national currency and declared all gourds the property of the state.
5. The flag consists of a blue and a white stripe with the coat of arms in the middle. The Flag was created by Jean-Jacques Dessalines (1758-1806), Haiti’s first ruler, in 1803. He ripped out the white stripe in the French red, white, and blue flag, claiming he would rip white people from the nation.
6. Haiti is one of only two countries in the American Continent having French as an official language. The other is Canada.
7. Haiti is the only country in the world with Vodou as an official religion.
8. Haiti is the second oldest independent nation in the Western Hemisphere, declaring independence 33 years after after the United States. The United States did not recognise Haiti's independence until 1862 even though became independent in 1804. Haiti is the first and only country in the history of mankind whose independence is the result of a successful slave rebellion.
9. In the eighteenth century, St. Dominique (Haiti) was the richest colony in the French Empire and was known as the “Pearl of the Antilles.” Now, however, it is one of the poorest countries in the world.
10. A popular way of getting around in Haiti is the tap tap bus. These buses are usually very brightly painted and follow a fixed route. They will only leave when the bus is full. The name "tap tap" comes from the sound of the passengers tapping on the body of the bus to indicate that they want the driver to get going.

My Books

As well as this blog, I also write fiction and have published two novels (Death and Faxes and Glastonbury Swan) and a collection of short stories (Jigsaw). If you like ghost stories, crime stories, a bit of romance and anything slightly bizarre you might enjoy them. 

Further details on my books page

16 October: Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde was born on this date in 1854. Here are some things you may not know about Oscar Wilde:

1. His mother was a poet and an Irish nationalist. She wrote poetry for the revolutionary Young Irelanders using the pseudonym "Speranza" (the Italian word for 'Hope').
2. His father, William, was a renowned ear and eye surgeon and philanthropist. He also wrote books about Irish archaeology and peasant folklore.
3. Wilde was baptised three times during his life. First, as a baby in St. Mark's Church, Dublin, the local Church of Ireland (Anglican) church. Later, his mother was befriended by a Catholic priest and would attend Mass with her sons. She asked for her sons to be baptised into the Catholic faith. On his deathbed, Wilde asked to be baptised as a Catholic again. As a young man, he'd arranged to be baptised as he was seriously considering joining the church, but at the last minute changed his mind and at the appointed time of his baptism, sent a bunch of altar lilies to the priest instead.
4. In Oxford, Wilde was a Freemason for a time, reaching the rank of "Sublime Degree of Master Mason". His biggest regret about joining the Catholic church was having to give up Freemasonry.
5. As a student, he decorated his rooms with peacock feathers, lilies, Sunflowers, blue china and other objets d'art, once remarking to friends, "I find it harder and harder every day to live up to my blue china."
6. While Wilde and his friends generally refused to take part in "manly" sports, Wilde did box a little. Enough to fight off four fellow students who physically attacked him once, much to everyone's surprise.
7. Despite being known for homosexual affairs, Wilde did have relationships with women. His childhood sweetheart, Florence Balcombe, married Bram Stoker. Wilde married Constance Lloyd and they had two sons, Cyril and Vyvyan.
8. When it was first published, The Picture of Dorian Gray was slated by critics. The Daily Chronicle called it "unclean", "poisonous", and "heavy with the mephitic odours of moral and spiritual putrefaction".
9. After prison, Wilde left Britain for good. Wanting to revitalise his spiritual life, he applied to the Society of Jesus requesting a six-month Catholic retreat. They turned him down. During his exile, he used the name "Sebastian Melmoth", after Saint Sebastian, and the titular character of Melmoth the Wanderer; a Gothic novel by Charles Maturin, Wilde's great-uncle.
10. His tomb in Paris bears the epitaph: "And alien tears will fill for him/Pity's long-broken urn,/For his mourners will be outcast men,/And outcasts always mourn." This is a verse from The Ballad of Reading Gaol.