The Good Cop

I spend a lot of time trawling through the news sites, looking for stories that might inspire me. A lot of the time what I find depresses me beyond belief. Occasionally I find one so touching it brings a tear to my eye. There's one such story featuring on many sites today.
It's the story of a New York cop who bought a pair of winter boots for a barefooted homeless man. I'm linking to the Daily Mail's coverage of the story because, as is so often the case, they've given the story the most coverage.
For the cynics out there, from what I can gather having read the story on various sites, the police officer didn't know he was being photographed, he was just genuinely concerned for the poor guy.

Man's Best Friend

It snowed! Admittedly only a teeny bit, but still. We woke up to a smattering of snow! Last weekend the country was in the grip of howling wind and driving rain, this weekend it's frozen!
And it would seem that the UK is not alone in facing weather issues. A storm in the Netherlands left firefighters wrestling with a dangerously damaged tree. Their attempts to haul the tree safely to the ground with a rope seemed to be failing, until a passing dog came to the rescue.
I swear, they couldn't have done it without him!

New Story

There's a new story with a seasonal flavour on the Quirky Tales website today. It's called 'Crackers', which either describes the story or possibly myself, take your pick. In short, Christmas dinner turns up some unexpected treats for the family. There's no deep message in it, just a little dose of sentiment.
Hope you enjoy it.

Health and Safety Made Fun

The words 'health and safety video' typically inspire a feeling of dread and images of a rather dreary man in a hi-viz jacket speaking woodenly into a wobbling camera. It would seem that the Aussies do it rather better, however. Metro Trains Melbourne has come up with a cartoon designed to help people understand that dicing with their trains, trying to beat level crossing gates and not taking care on platforms are actually pretty dumb things to do.
I feel I must issue a couple of warnings:

• for those of a sensitive disposition: the film depicts cartoon characters in scenes of extreme peril and even suffering grizzly ends
• you're going to be singing that darned song for the rest of the day

An Unusual Sort of Home

We have a cowbell hanging up at the back of our house, a clichéd memento from a trip to the Alps. For the most part, I forget it's there, normally receiving an abrupt reminder when I clonk my head on it en-route to the garage. But recently we've been having some strange experiences in its vicinity. For instance, the other day when I blundered out there to unlock the garage door, I was shocked to hear a frantic fluttering of wings, mere millimetres from my ear as I walked by the bell. Now, admittedly it was getting dark, but I was pretty sure I would have seen any bird perched on it. I mentioned it to he who fixes the computer and he confirmed that he'd had similar experiences. Our suspicions rose as further incidents occurred.
So today when I went out to unlock the door I kept a careful watch on the bell. I'll confess right now, I did jump, and I may even have gasped, but as I passed by, a bird (we've since discovered it's a bluetit) flew out from inside the bell. Dry, impossible for predators to get inside, the enterprising bluetit has obviously decided it makes the perfect shelter.
I've yet to work out how he perches inside it. I have visions of him tying himself to the clapper so he can nod off without falling out. However he does it, he's definitely claimed our Alpine memento as his home.
Now, I must remember not to accidentally walk into it when going to the garage.

Crazy Coaster

Those of you who have been following this blog for some time might remember a post about a You Tube video of a guy haring down a monorail in Austria. The guy was David Jellis, the single-pipe coaster was the Mieders Alpine Coaster, and the video was of him riding the rail without using his brakes.

Well, David Jellis is back, this time on a slightly larger coaster, still abstaining from brakes. The coaster this time is the Imst Alpine Coaster, but his attempt to break the record descent time is foiled by his friend riding the car in front who, clearly thinking of a future beyond the next two minutes, has taken a slightly more cautious approach.

It's worth running the video just to listen to the insane giggling.

The Dreaded Ideas Clog

I was staring at a blank screen, tapping out sentences that I immediately deleted, fighting every word that tried to make the perilous journey from brain to keyboard. It was hopeless. I couldn't write. Ideas disintegrated, narrative became clumsy, dialogue absurdly laboured. At last in frustration, I got up and walked away from the computer taking my notepad and pen. Suddenly the ideas were flowing faster than I could get them down. My pen nib was at breaking point as I scrawled down a story plan, trying to capture all the key points before they vanished.
It added poignancy to the report on the BBC news site last week suggesting that some people favour old fashioned typewriters as they force a writer to focus so much more. The lack of an easy delete, or a swift peek at the internet, or the emails, or a You Tube video, means the ideas box finally creaks fully open and the brain is allowed to focus on that one task.
Maybe I need to restart my internet diet, turn off the radio, close the curtains, and pretend my worn out Comfort Curve keyboard is an old style Brother. While I'm at it, I might see if I can find a sturdy prop for my ideas box. Mine keeps slamming shut just as I'm reaching in.