Interesting Facts

The EU has already banned powerful vacuum cleaners, sparking a rush to buy the last remaining models with motors above the new EU limit of 1,600 watts, but now Europe has its sights on other domestic appliances. (Toasters, kettles and juicers will have their power consumption reduced. Other items under the spotlight include heated greenhouses, power tools, gym equipment, food mixers, rice cookers, blenders, deep fat fryers and believe it or not aquarium lights and filters. I guess that's what you call pulling the plug.)

According to an article from the Sun newspaper, Police canteens in the UK serve mostly junk food and it's all subsidised by the tax payer. (In Humberside, a fry-up is £3.80 for “ten items, including bacon, sausage, eggs, beans and crumpets." Lunch choices in Cumbria include scampi and chips, burger and chips and deep-fried spicy battered chicken, all for £3.20, which wouldn't buy you a sandwich in a normal cafe. In Herts a pizza costs £2.35, and Manchester sells pies for £1.12. I think I'll have the chicken piri piri and rice from the Met. I visited the website to see if I could find the price, and it told me it uses cookies (I bet it does.))

The Duke of Edinburgh was given a baby elephant when visiting Sri Lanka. (In fact, the Royal family usually receive presents when they go on holidays (sorry - state visits), and some of them are quite ridiculous. Princess Anne was given a brown Syrian bear by the then Soviet Union. Prince Andrew was given a newborn Gambian crocodile. The Queen was given a pair of sloths in Brazil in 1968. It's not always animals either. Prince Andrew was given two bags of basmati rice by the Pakistan High Commission 2008 the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall were given two wristbands, two baseball caps, four T-shirts and 18 CDs by the Bob Marley Museum in Jamaica. When the Prince of Wales married Lady Diana Spencer, she received a pair of 100-year-old silk mittens, a silver-plated mousetrap and, most esoteric of all, a piece of crocheted lace made from yarn spun by Mahatma Gandhi. Other gifts have included a box of volcanic ash from Montserrat, a yellow metal hatpin from J...

Rice was once considered so important in Japan that it was worshipped as a god. (Inari, the god (or goddess) of rice is related with general prosperity. A bit like football in the UK then.)