Gold diggers in Sunbury ?

Late Sunday evening, some thieves stole 4 material bags from a small factory in Walton on Thames, just next to Sunbury on Thames.
The 4 bags contains cyanide and is used in some chemical reaction to modify metal. Maybe the thieves thought they could break the ancient secrets around alchemism and start producing gold ?
No I think not. It is just another day in Sunbury.

Struck by disappointment the thieves must have escaped by train from Upper Halliford station, which has been closed today.

Upper Halliford train station is the concrete slap just next to Acergy's office building. So when I say closed, I mean two police cars were parked on the pavement of the walkway leading from the bridge and beneath.

Click here to read article from BBC News

What can the Danes teach us about happiness

The following is a transcript of an article in BBC News:


Danes are the happiest people in Europe, a survey suggests. But what is the secret of their contentedness?

Something is markedly unrotten in the state of Denmark.

Asked to rate both their happiness and long-term life satisfaction, Danish people trounce their European cousins.


Many in Denmark put this regularly-surveyed contentedness down to a dynamic economy and a pleasant work-life balance, with people leaving the office on time, jumping on effective public transport and heading off to pick up their delightful children from a shiny, well-run kindergarten.

But there are others out to savage the myth of the happy Dane, arguing that low expectations of life account for their unusually happy disposition.

Kevin McGwin, from Maine in the US, works on the Copenhagen Post newspaper, and is well-used to surveys suggesting the Danish love of life. It could all be down to a pleasant quality of life, he suggests.

"Denmark is very consumer-oriented and very family-oriented. People are sure to leave work at 4.30pm. They work their eight hours and go home. Pressure to work overtime doesn't exist."


Denmark has a 37-hour week. Parents get 52 weeks of maternity/paternity leave to be shared between them - 24 weeks is usually at full pay, with the rest often at as much as 90% pay. Much of it can be spread over the first nine years of the child's life. Childcare is subsidised with no parent being asked to pay more than 25% of the cost.

Danish ambassador to London Birger Riis-Jorgensen says he doesn't find it surprising Danes rate themselves as happy.

"In other parts of Europe globalisation is perceived as a threat. For Danes, 78% think globalisation is an opportunity.

"We have high taxes but we have generous unemployment benefits, a lot of life-long learning. We feel secure and we feel that we have opportunities.

"We have a lot of faith in government as an institution. The authorities are normally competent, uncorrupt and approachable."












Public transport is ominously clean

Danes fundamentally believe their state is well run, Mr Riis-Jorgensen says, but citizens are still capable of complaining when there are problems with public services.

"If 5% of trains are running late it is a political problem."

And the safe streets of Copenhagen can be a surprise to foreign visitors.

"When foreigners are finding out they can safely let their children bike to school in the suburbs of Copenhagen they get pretty amazed."

But a study by the University of Southern Denmark earlier this year found success in happiness surveys might be down to low expectations.

Fears not realised

Researcher Kaare Christensen looked back over three decades of surveys that had created the legend of the "happy Dane".

"In countries such as Italy and Spain, people have much higher expectations for what the coming year will bring, but they're not especially happy or satisfied with their existence."

But Danes take a more realistic view of life, he suggested at the time.

"Year after year we're just happy that things didn't go as badly as we'd feared."

And even McGwin, who is married to a Dane, is sceptical that Danes' happiness is all its cracked up to be.

"The weather here is pretty lousy and half the year it's dark. They are as depressed as Hamlet some days."

£809,995 car crash

I Shepperton only a few miles down the road from Sunbury there was a car crash on Sunday. I am sure there is almost every Sunday but this particular one was interesting.

An GBP 800,000 Bugatti Veyron was hit by a pregnant lady in a Vauxhall van. No serious harm to the involved drivers but the insurance companies are VERY interested in witnesses... More so because of the 800,000 bill than the Vauxhall repairs...

Bugatti has only made 300 of the Veryons and there are only 12 (sorry 11) in the UK. This particular one is going to be a write off.

Eartquake in Kingston?

On Sunday the 25/2, Nicole and I sat in the car, pulling of to go and see
Elvira.

All of the sudden we heard this rumbling and the one of the 4 rubbish sheds
belonging to our property collapsed right in front of us......

We think that the lady in the blue Beetle may by accident have gone forward
as opposed to reversing. Still the shed should be able to withstand a lot
more pressure than that. Particularly as there was nothing but brick dust
on her front bumper.

The lady was a bit shaken and was quick to light up a cigarette.

When we got home in the evening someone had removed the rubbish from under
the rubble and fenced off the area.

We will let you know, when the shed has been rebuild.

Motor registration in Denmark

Many times, I have with friends and family discussed the outrageous car taxing policy in Denmark.

Lately we attended a football match between Denmark and Australia in Shepherds, here in London. On the one wall, there were advertisings for Danish viewers to buy a Huyndai Getz for DKR 117,000, which for the same amount of money could buy you a Minor ONE, Small VW Golf or Citroen C4 Picasso in the UK.

Disregard the fact, that I would rather spent DKR 117,000 on busfares than being the owner of a Hyundai Getz, I thought it could be funny to compile a chart of what are the manufacturing prices versus the street price in Denmark.

As an example DKR 300,000 will buy you a very nice car in Denmark but of that price DKR 294,000 will got to the tax man...

When mentioning a very nice car, I refer to a Volkswagen Passat or a well specified VW Golf. Both costing around GBP 15,000 in a reasonable spec....

Nicole the cocolatier

On Friday Nicole went to Manchester to attend a chocolatier course, which was a birthday present. She left with the 07.00 flight from London to Manchester, being slightly nervous about what to expect.

I didn't hear a thing from her the entire day and only when I met up her in Manchester in the evening did I get to see what she had been up to...

The course was scheduled from 9.30 in the morning to 15.30 in the afternoon. Initially they went through the history and the theory behind chocolate. Apperantly the chocolate beans grow on trees and when they are ripe they are plucked and barried underground until they ferment.

Apparently the Venezuelan 47% chocolate is the best type (according to Nicole's taste that is).

Thereafter they started on making pralines with all sorts of filings. Some where with a nougat type, some with coconut.

After having done those they went on to make truffles which I think Nicole had a hard time with because the cream and the chocolate started curdling when she added the hot coffee for flavour. The second batch went a little better. She teamed up with another guy, who instead of coffee used brandy for flavouring. The coffee flavoured where the best...

Later in the afternoon they went on to make a coating for a cake and chocolate lollipops.

All in all she came home with more chocolate than we could possibly eat during our continued stay over the weekend in Windermere in the Lake District.

New sofas