BIRD'S EYE VIEW
Page 34
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
BY THE HAWK
• Schoolboy Francis Nock thought it a bit fishy when a jobsworth bus driver demanded a 12p fare for his new pet — a tiny angel fish, small enough to fit inside a matchbox (younger readers are warned that this would, in fact be a very silly thing to do as it could make the matches soggy).
Stunned, but determined to make the six minute ride home, 15-year-old Francis paid up; but when he got home his furious parents complained to the operator concerned, West Midlands Travel.
WMT admits a mistake was made and says it is not its policy to charge for pets. It plans to refund Francis and apologise. Talk about herring on the side of caution . . . could be skating on thin ice there. . . (that's enough fish — ed).
• Here's an idea for the waste disposal industry. A reader visiting the Taiwanese port of Kaohsiung was awakened at 6am by the sort of musical chimes used in this • This mobile workshop, donated by British Telecom and refurbished by Tecalemit Filters, will soon be providing servicing and repair facilities in the desperate search for water in drought-stricken Sudan.
Tecalemit Filters, the overseas marketing arm of TJ Fil country by ice cream vans.
Finding it difficult to believe that the Taiwanese breakfasted on ice cream, he got up to investigate and saw that the music came from the local refuse cart, inviting residents to bring out their sacks.
The surprising tune chosen for this humble operation was the Victorian parlour piano piece "The Maiden's Prayer". My correspondent, who had been forced to play this piece in his long-ago youth, admits that he had often innocently wondered what the Victorian maiden was praying for. It never occurred to him that it was the dustbin man.
• A £3 million up-market truckstop planned for West Bromwich has had its main attraction scuppered by police. The police are objecting to an application for a drinks licence at the truckstop on the basis that they fear truckers might have too much to drink before going back on the road.
The Hawk strongly believes ters of Plymouth, joined forces with BT to help Action Water, a Cornwall-based charity engaged in water exploration in drought-hit Sudan.
The workshop carries a wide range of spare parts, including Tecalemit filters and gaskets which will be used to service a the police are being insensitive on this point. Although a great believer in anti-drink/driving laws, I must point out that the number of truck drivers charged with this offence still remains minute. The truck variety of vehicles and plant engaged in the project, including pumping equipment and a 4x4 mobile drilling rig. It will operate around the Sudaness capital of Khartoum before moving south to Kadugli where the problem of water shortage is particularly severe. stops with a bar that [have visited offer drinks to drivers pulling in for the night, yet I have never seen truckers abuse this.
Old Bill should look closely at this case before objecting.
• Talking of drink/driving, the London Evening Standard appears hell-bent on wiping out any initiatives from Peter Bottomley on this subject. A joint campaign by Auberon Waugh of The Spectator and Peter McKay of the Standard has been attacking much of the good work done by Bottomley. Waugh devoted one of his columns in the Spectator to the assertion that Bottomley is quite insane. The minister has a "crazed campaign" and an individual's rights to liberty "are being shuffled away by a comprehensively educated lunatic in bathing pants", he says, with the subtlety for which he is so revered.
What upset Waugh the most was Bottomley's request that wine correspondents should review non-alcoholic drink (nobeer beer). Regular readers will recall the Hawk's review of the delicious non-alcoholic Norfolk Punch before Christmas.
The Hawk will never see the logic of allowing a driver to drink as much as he wants just because this is a free country. Doesn't the good of the majority overrule the self-indulgence of the minority any more?