30 March

 10 weird and wonderful things which happened on 30 March:

1. This date in 1853 saw the birth of Vincent Van Gogh, Dutch impressionist painter. His works include The Starry Night and Vase with twelve Sunflowers. He is also known for having cut off part of his left ear.
2. Staying with Vincent van Gogh, his Sunflowers sold for a record £22.5M on this date in 1987, almost four times the previous record paid for a single work of art. During his lifetime, van Gogh sold one painting.
3. Staying with ears, in 1988, a court in Exeter heard that a former paratrooper had bitten off the ear of his sister’s boyfriend after an ‘unprovoked attack’ following a heavy drinking session. The attacker laughed as he bit off half of the left ear, chewed and swallowed it in front of the victim and said ‘Yum, yum’. At the police station, the accused had said, ‘His nose was next’.
4. In 1984, Britain’s heaviest man, Peter Yarnall, 59 stone (826 lb/374.73 kg), who suffered from a glandular disorder, died in his flat in East Ham. 10 firemen took 5 hours to demolish the bedroom and winch his body out with a crane.
5. On this date 1867 Seward’s Folly happened when US Senator William H. Seward bought Alaska from the Russians for $7.2 million – approximately two cents an acre.‘A lot of dollars for an awful lot of ice,’ opined critics. Seward had the last laugh, however, when oil was found there.
6. In 1932, Amelia Earhart became the first woman to make a solo crossing of the Atlantic.
7. In 2001, Jim Shekhdar of Northwood in London became the first person to row unaided across the Pacific, from Peru to Stradbroke Island near Brisbane, a distance of 8,100 miles. His boat was called Le Shark.
8. In 1899, Butch Cassidy’s gang went into a bank and claimed that they knew of a bank robbery. When the manager asked how they knew, they replied, “We planned it – hands up!”
9. In 2002 a Bristol pub, The Victoria, put up a new sign after renovation. The picture of Queen Victoria was replaced by one of Victoria Beckham.
10. In 2012, the spire of The Shard at London Bridge was put in place.

The Power of Love

Willow believes in crystal healing, cosmic  ordering  and the significance of chance  encounters. She believes there's a spiritual  explanation for everything. Except she struggles to find a reason why she can turn herself into  mist and create a wave of energy which can slam a would-be mugger into a wall. Or why the love of  her life left her for a mysterious woman in sunglasses, who then disappeared without trace.  

A chance encounter with Firebolt, leader of the Freedom League superhero team, in a Glastonbury coffee shop, does turn out to be significant. He offers her a new start and the chance to use her powers for good.

Servant is a Christian who has joined the Freedom League in order to use his teleporting power to serve God. He and Willow clash from the start, yet they are drawn inexorably to one another.

When Willow leaves the team abruptly for reasons unknown, Servant knows he must put her out of his mind and find a nice Christian girl to settle down with. He is about to propose to devout and straight-laced Ruth, when Willow returns and turns his entire world upside down.

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