28 August: Space Hoppers

The record for the most bounces on a space hopper in one minute is 108 and was achieved by Mark Little (UK) at Butlins, Bognor Regis, UK, on 28 August 2011. 10 things you might not know about space hoppers:

1. In case you don’t know what this is, a space hopper is a heavy rubber ball about 60–70 centimetres (24–28 in) in diameter, with two rubber handles protruding from the top. The classic version is Orange with a Kangaroo face on it.

2. The space hopper was invented by Aquilino Cosani who worked for an Italian company which made rubber balls. He patented the idea in Italy in 1968.

3. He called it a “Pon-pon” after the sound it made as it bounced.

4. A British company called Wembley repackaged the Pon-pon and came up with the name Space Hopper.

5. In the USA these toys are called Hippity Hops.

6. Bouncing on a Space Hopper isn’t actually a very efficient way to get around, it’s just fun.

7. In 2018 Steven Payne from Chichester bought a space hopper on eBay and hopped 76 miles from Italy to Grenoble in Switzerland.

8. Mark Little’s bouncing record was equalled by Shane Summer at Blackpool Pleasure Beach on 26 July 2019.

9. The record for the most people on Space Hoppers simultaneously is 2,943 and was part of a campaign for energy efficiency organised by Eskom Holdings SOC Limited (South Africa) in 2013. The participants bounced on a kinetics plate to transform kinetic energy into electrical energy.

10. In science fiction, there is a race of aliens, “Hoppas” which live on the planet Profania Alpha, and are basically Space Hoppers. They appear in Terry Cooper's humorous science fiction trilogy Kangazang.

Character birthdays

Maisie O’Donnell Jr, Boulder’s sister.

Angel, Cham, Gauntlet, Goliath and Wolf, a group of beings with superpowers who return to Earth whenever the threat from their evil counterparts becomes significant. In Golden Thread, they appear on 28 August, as abandoned babies. They grow up and come together as adults to fight the threat. The group also includes two wolves. In Golden Thread, Gauntlet suffers amnesia, still traumatised from his experiences in Hiroshima during WWII. He is nevertheless drawn to the others although he cannot remember why.

Golden Thread

Terry Kennedy is inexplicably and inexorably drawn to the small town of Fiveswood as a place to live and work after university. He is sure he has never visited the town before, but when he arrives there, it seems oddly familiar.

Fiveswood has a rich and intriguing history. Local legends speak of giants, angels, wolves, a local Robin Hood, but most of all, a knight in golden armour. Fiveswood's history also has a dark side - mysterious deaths blamed on the plague, a ghostly black panther, and a landslide which buried the smugglers' caves.

Terry buys an apartment in The Heights, a house which has been empty for decades, since the previous owner disappeared. Now he has finally been declared dead, developers have moved in and turned it into six flats. Terry has the odd feeling he has lived in this enigmatic house before. But that is not all. Since childhood, Terry has had recurring, disturbing dreams which have been increasing in frequency so that now, he has them almost every night. To his dismay, the people from his nightmares are his new neighbours.

Except, that is, for Eleanor Millbrook. She is refreshingly unfamiliar. After Terry saves her from a mysterious attacker, they become close. However, Terry's nightmares encroach more and more on his waking life, until they lead him to a devastating discovery about who he really is.

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