A mother who parked in a shopping centre multi-storey for half an hour was stunned after returning to her car to discover the bill was a staggering £1,333. Diane Slater had only popped to the town centre to pay some bills and run a few errands. But the 49-year-old panicked when she discovered her half-hour trip had been charged at a rate of £44.43 a minute – or a mind-boggling 74p a second. The car park of the Clock Towers Shopping Centre, in Rugby, Warwickshire, normally charges shoppers 50p for an hour and £1.50 for up to three hours. But the token-operated machine had incorrectly calculated her stay as being a huge 308 days – even though the car park closes at 7pm daily and does not allow overnight stays. Finding herself short of over a grand in cash to pay the bill, she pleaded with the car park’s security guard to recognise the obvious technical blunder. But he initially told her she would have to fork out the money before his common-sense colleague came to Mrs Slater’s rescue. More
(AD Remarks ~ Atleast common sense prevailed in the end!)

Medical staff found a four-leaf clover stuck to the back of a young driver who survived a crash which left him speared through the chest by a fence post, it was revealed today. Raymond Curry, 20, was on his way to work when his Vauxhall Corsa overturned and rolled through a fence into a field near his home in Cramlington, Northumberland, on June 13. He was flown to hospital still impaled by the piece of wood, which by chance had missed all his vital organs. Two other posts had pierced his wrecked hatchback, but missed him by inches. An air freshener inside the car somehow ended up inside his wounds, and was later removed. It was at hospital that the lucky clover leaf was found on his back. Mr Curry was recovering at home after having surgery to remove the stake, and part of his bowel, and was too tired to speak. But he earlier told the Evening Chronicle newspaper after the crash that he felt incredible pain and believed he was going to die. “I know how lucky I am to be alive,” he told the newspaper. More
(AD Comments ~ A very lucky charm for this guy to keep hold of!)

A SINGLE car parking space in St Ives could have become one of the most expensive outside London after it sold for almost £60,000. The tiny plot of land in the town’s much-sought-after Downlong area was snapped up by a local resident for almost £20,000 over the asking price following a sealed bid auction. The cost of the space equates to more than three times the average annual salary in St Ives and is around two thirds of the cost of a secure under-cover parking space in London’s most expensive Park Lane area, currently advertised at up to £90,000. The new owner, who is thought to live nearby in Porthmeor Road, clinched the deal after beating offers from around a dozen hopefuls. Jonathan Payne, branch manager at Bradley’s Estate Agents who conducted the sale, said he cannot recall a parking space commanding a higher price. “I don’t know if it is a record but I cannot remember one going for more,” he said. “Spaces are always in short supply in St Ives and even going back years they made a premium price,” he said. “Downlong has been a favoured location for many years – it is a beautiful part of the world and people aspire to live there.” Mr Payne said the high price reflected the chronic lack of car parking in the old part of the town. The plot of land beside the entrance to the council-owned Island car park was sold two weeks ago. It was advertised for £40,000 but eventually changed hands for a figure “in the high fifty-thousands”. More
(AD Comments ~ That a lot of money for a small bit of land!)

A DAD has told how he cheated death after a car smashed through his living room wall and stopped just inches from him. A two-foot long section of the car’s front lights broke off and flew just above David Douglas’s head. He has been told his family’s home is now unsafe to live in and may have to be knocked down. David, 34, looked on in horror as the car crashed into his home as he lay watching The Godfather III. But even though he believes the car was travelling at around 60mph, the woman driver and her two passengers also escaped without serious injuries. David, a security worker, said: “I think it was a purple Ford Fiesta, although the front of it was so badly damaged I can’t be totally sure. “The emergency services told me they don’t know how anyone could have walked away from that accident. More
(AD Comments ~ Lucky escape for the guy. Bring HD to new realistic proportions.)

DRIVER Kenneth Hendy had a lucky escape when a block of ice from an airplane smashed through his windscreen — and landed in his driver’s SEAT. The 71-year-old had just stepped out of his Volvo when the frozen chunk — the size of a RUGBY ball — plummeted from the sky. It smashed through the glass and landed on the seat leaving shards of ice scattered across the inside of the car. Kenneth, a retired mechanic, said: “If I’d been there a couple of seconds later it would have killed me. It’s a miracle that I had stepped out of the car in time. Waste “I recently had a quadruple heart bypass operation and it would have hit me right in the chest. I would have been a goner.” The dad-of-seven had just returned from picking up daughter Lisa, 37, when the block fell outside his home in Plymouth, Devon. The Civil Aviation Authority said ice can gather on aircraft flying at altitude then drop off as the plane descends. A spokesman said although it was not a particularly common occurrence, it can happen if there has been a leak from a faulty seal or hose. The leaking fluid can then freeze at altitude, thaw and fall from the fuselage as the plane descends into warmer air. More
(AD Comments ~ Could have been much worse. Its not something that you look out for when you drive, and it would be bearly impossible to spot anyway!)

An artist has constructed a model of a £130,000 Porsche GT3 RS – using plastic tubing and gold-painted aluminium foil. Hannes Langeder, 45, spent six months and 1,000 hours constructing the life-sized pedal-powered eco-friendly car, which cost €13,000 (£11,000) to build. Despite resembling a real Porsche GT3 RS, it weighs just 99.6 kilograms and is a fine art project currently on show in the Lentos Museum of Art in Linz, Austria. Special features include a rear wing and massive air inlets on the front spoiler to help with aero dynamics and ‘save the driver from sweating too much’. The car’s base is made of steel-frame but the rest of the vehicle is made of plastic tubes, aluminium foil and rolls and rolls of tape. Unlike its mechanical counterpart which costs £129,950 and does 0-60 in 3.7 seconds, the model does not have a twin-turbo or produce 450bhp from a 3.6-litre air-cooled flat-six engine. It is entirely man-powered – thanks to a bicycle fitted underneath the hood and can reach a top speed of 10mph – when pedalled hard. More
(AD Comments ~ An amazing sight, and surprising light for something that size. Maybe it will spend its time in exhibitions, as it would take a lot of effort to travel even the smallest distances!)

As far as freebies go, a luxury supercar has got to be near the top of the list. But then if you’re already forking out £17million for a 122ft state-of-the-art super-yacht, you wouldn’t really expect anything less. This ultimate ‘buy one, get one free’ offer has recently gone on the market attracting attention from billionaires all over the world. But even if you could afford to buy the exclusive boat, you’d have to order sharpish, as the company are only making six models and has already attracted five possible buyers in the first week on the market. The luxury yacht has a plush Art Deco interior, boasts four large, double state rooms, a reception area, salon, 52in LED TVs and state-of-the art sound systems in every room – all of which can be personalised. And you will never be short of thrills as the ship can reach top speeds of 43 knots, with its twin MTU 16V000 engine, with the ability to achieve 55 knots with its optional Rolls Royce KaMeWa boosters offering a staggering 14,000hp. But not to be outdone, the supercar, which is powered by a 880hp twin turbo V12 engine, has a top speed of 233mph. More
(AD Comments ~ Its nice to dream!)

Service always came with a smile on the forecourt of Bentley’s garage. Right up until the last tankful of petrol, pump attendant Dudley Oliver was on duty for his customers. Not only would he fill their cars with fuel – he would check the oil, water and tyres free of charge. Sometimes he would even pass the time of day by telling a joke. But a century of proud service at the local High Street filling station came to an end when Mr Oliver and his employers hung up their pumps for the last time – driven into oblivion by crippling competition from cut-price supermarkets and health and safety laws from the EU. The closure of its fuel business marks the passing of one of the last garages in Britain that refused to bow to the rise of self-service forecourts and pay-at-pump technology. Instead, Mr Oliver maintained a tradition that most of the country abandoned long ago as part of a dramatic decline in the notion of customer service. Until last weekend, a trip to Bentley’s in the Devon seaside town of Exmouth was like turning the clock back to a different age. Although 68-year-old Mr Oliver’s official title was forecourt manager, there wasn’t actually much of a forecourt. Cars simply pulled up on the pavement while Dudley did his stuff. Mostly the drivers would hand their cash out of the window and drive off when he gave them the thumbs up. It was a priceless facility for mothers who didn’t want to leave their children alone in the car or unbuckle them to queue and pay inside. Not to mention smart-suited chaps who didn’t want to get their hands dirty, or little old ladies who weren’t quite sure which side the filler cap was on. When the garage opened for business in 1912, it filled five-gallon cans with petrol and delivered them by hand-cart to the fortunate few who could afford a car. More
(AD Comments ~ We all need to move on, and change for the better. But still nice to be nostalgic once in a while!)

Russian drivers are being left feeling more than a little wobbly after crossing a brand new bridge in Volgograd. Alarming footage of the quivering 4.5 mile bridge has spread like wildfire on the internet, prompting President Dmitry Medvedev to demand a probe into what went wrong with the design of the project. Reports say it bounces by more than three feet during strong winds, with a deafening screech accompanying the movement. One driver, who drove over the new bridge last week, said: ‘I was driving to my country house when my car started bouncing like a ball. ‘I thought there was something wrong with my suspension.’ Andrey Bystrov, who also crossed the bridge in his car, said: ‘My first feeling was that my wheels were going in different directions. ‘I started thinking, maybe something had happened with my suspension. ‘Then I looked ahead to the coming vehicles and they were all swinging up and down.’ A blogger added: ‘Maybe we used the same architect as that wobbling Millennium Bridge in London.’ The bridge, spanning the giant Volga River, cost £275million and was opened by deputy prime minister Sergei Ivanov – a close aide to premier Vladimir Putin – eight months ago. More
(AD Suggests ~ How scary must it be to drive over such a moving road??)

Bus CCTV footage shows toddler’s narrow escape Published: 8:44AM BST 21 May 2010 Email PrintAs Mike Hubbard was driving his regular bus route one night in San Antonio, Texas he made a startling discovery. In the middle of the road sat a baby, dressed in a diaper and looking straight into the lights of the bus. A surveillance video shows how Hubbard spotted something in the road and began to honk his horn. When the object did not move he stopped the bus, walked out into the road and surprisingly saw a toddler sitting there. “To me, he looked like he was 8-months old with a Pamper just sitting there. I couldn’t really tell if he was eating something or not but his eyes got real big when he saw the big old bus in front of him,” Hubbard said. More
(AD Suggests ~ The youngster is lucky to escape, with out getting seriously hurt or worse.)