Grumpy Old Man

Have you accidentally broken your phone by dropping it down the toilet, knocking it off a window ledge or leaving it in the oven?

Okay few people will have done the last one, but Land Rover claim it's new S1 phone can survive all three.

They have teamed up with Sonim Technologies to launch what has been dubbed the 'world's toughest' mobile.

The Land Rover S1

In tests the £299 mobile was found to be impervious to dust, dirt, shocks and drops from 6ft in the air onto concrete.

Land Rover claim it is completely waterproof to a depth of one metre for up to 30minutes and can stand the pressure of almost 100lbs.

Unveiled by Sir Ranulph Fiennes on his return from Mount Everest last month, the handset is equipped for the explorer.

It is being sold with the tagline: 'The first mobile phone rugged enough to be called a Land Rover.'

The rugged mobile, which has gone in sale in Tesco today, can be used in extreme temperatures. It should work in -20C conditions to a sweltering 60C. It can even survive short bursts of 100C heat.

While it isn't the most streamlined of phones, the S1 Land Rover does come with a 2MP waterproof camera with flash, built in GPS, torch light, FM radio and WAP browser.

It also has an extra-long battery life with over 1,500 hours of standby time and 18 hours of talk time - useful in case you get lost in the jungle. There are extra-loud speakers for use in extremely noisy environments.

Lindsay Weaver from Land Rover said: 'Like our vehicles this phone is extremely capable and will work in the toughest of environments.'

And should the unthinkable happen and it does break down, the phone comes with a three-year unconditional guarantee.

(Daily Mail)

Sir Ranulph Fiennes shows off his S1 Land Rover mobile.

THE QUEEN IS GOING TO BLACKPOOL

For only the second time in the history of the Royal Variety Performance Her Majesty is heading up the M6 to the real throne of British entertainment.

It will take place on December at the Opera House and will be shown on ITV.

The last time the Royal Variety Performance was staged in Blackpool in front of the Queen was in 1955 and George Formby and Arthur Askey were on the bill.

So it’ll be a different treat in store for her this time with the amazing boys from Diversity performing their Britain’s Got Talent winning act.

There’s been a fair bit of change in Blackpool since then too. It went from being the jewel in the British showbiz crown to a cheap and tacky piece of costume jewellery.

But Blackpool is on its way back up – and a visit from the Queen is just what we need.

There is nothing like the hospitality and spirit of the people of Blackpool to make people feel at home.

She’ll get a proper northern welcome. And I for one can’t wait to see Her Maj in a Kiss Me Quick hat and eating a plate of chips!

(Abridged from an article in the Mirror by Coleen Nolan, one of the singing group 'The Nolan Sisters' who will be appearing at the Blackpool Opera House in October)

For those overseas readers who may not know:

"Blackpool is a seaside town in Lancashire, England. Lying along the coast of the Irish Sea. It rose to prominence as a major centre of tourism during the 19th century, particularly for the inhabitants of northern mill towns.

The inter-war period saw Blackpool attain pre-eminence as a holiday destination. By 1930, Blackpool claimed around seven million visitors per year, three times as many as its nearest British rivals, still drawn largely from the mill towns of East Lancashire and West Yorkshire.

The rise of package holidays sent many of Blackpool's traditional visitors abroad, where the weather was more reliably warm and dry, and improved road communications, epitomized by the construction of the M55 motorway in 1975, made Blackpool more feasible as a day trip rather than an overnight stay."

(From WikipedIa)

Further to my post here a couple of days ago, it is well worth looking in your pocket again.

Collector's piece: Coins were minted missing their date

20p COIN SELLS FOR £7,100 ON EBAY (THAT'S 35,500 TIMES ITS FACE VALUE)

Soaring demand pushed the price of a rare 20p piece up to £7,100 on eBay yesterday.

Experts had predicted that the coins, minted without a date mark, could be worth £50 each.

But collectors have been scrambling to buy the currency after it emerged that the Royal Mint made an error when producing tens of thousands of 20p pieces earlier this year.

eBay has been inundated with coins for sale as those who have found them attempt to cash in.

Many sellers are offering purchasers the chance to 'buy it now' at prices of up £6,200.

Several are hoping to get more than £3,000 for their 20p. But the top seller fetched £7,100 at 2pm yesterday - 35,500 times its face value - although it is not clear whether the coin has been paid for.

Bidding on the auction site started at 99p and it gradually crept up to £100 by Monday evening.

Yesterday one potential buyer started bidding off at £600, soon followed by a bid of £800.

Then it shot up to £5,000 and kept rising until the price reached £7,100.

A spokesman for eBay said: 'The winning bid was definitely £7,100, but I can't confirm yet whether the actual transaction has been completed yet.'

The coins were left dateless when the 20p piece was redesigned.

The Mint does not know how many undated coins were released into circulation, but estimates range between 50,000 and 200,000.

(Daily Mail)

Rising tobacco sales suggest that pipe-smoking is making an unlikely comeback.

Rough shag, anybody?

Many ye olde things eventually become trendy again and the latest yesteryear fashion making a comeback is pipe smoking.

No one tracks how many young people smoke pipe tobacco. But the evidence, at least in the US, is of a renaissance.

According to the Cigar Association of America, 4,900,000lb of pipe tobacco were sold in 2006, from a high of 52,000,000lb almost 30 years ago. In 2008, sales climbed again to 5,300,000lb.

This modest increase is credited by many to retro-loving students. Facebook and MySpace have thousands of members signed up to groups such as “The Ladies’ Pipe Smoking Salon”.

The most popular Facebook group is “The Collegiate Gentlemen’s Pipe Smoking League”, with around 1,500 members globally. One 19-year-old member of the club recently told The Wall Street Journal: “They say everyone has an inner child. I guess I have an inner old man.”

(The Times)

When I was young I smoked a pipe for a few years - I think copying my father.

However, I don't think they are less of a health risk than cigarettes. I know someone who has been a lifelong pipe-smoker and developed cancer of the mouth.

Smoking a pipe was considered 'manly' for men, but what about women - does that make them manly too?

I remember some years ago seeing a woman on an archaeological dig in Winchester, sitting on the edge of a trench, smoking a pipe.

She certainly looked decidedly 'butch'. On the other hand, it might have been a long-haired man!

Incidentally, a woman using a long-stemmed cigarette holder, as in the twenties and thirties, can appear quite attractive and alluring.

Take a close look at that shiny new 20p piece in your purse or pocket - it could be worth a lot more than you think.

A rare error at the Royal Mint means that tens of thousands of the coins produced earlier this year don't have 2009 stamped on them.

Coin experts say the lack of a date makes them worth £50 each, and potentially much more in future.

The blunder occurred after a redesign of the 20p piece. The Mint does not know exactly how many undated coins were produced and released into circulation, but estimates range between 50,000 and 200,000.

This is the first undated British coin to enter circulation in more than 300 years - the last occasion was 1672, when Charles II was on the throne.

The error has caused a great deal of excitement among coin collectors because the Royal Mint, in Llantrisant, South Wales, is normally so careful about the manufacture and release of coins into circulation.

The problem occurred after all the coins from the 1p through to the £1 were redesigned last year. The designs for the 5p and 10p had been unchanged for four decades.

There is an unwritten convention that designs should be changed at least every 40 years to keep the coinage fresh.

The Royal Mint's usually impeccable quality control somehow slipped up and the so-called 'mule' escaped into circulation.

A 'mule' is a coin that has mismatched sides - a reference to the mule being a mismatch of a horse and donkey.

The change of the 20p design meant moving the year date from the tails side to the side with the Queen's head.

However, thousands of coins were minted using the old version of the Queen's head, which does not have the year date, and the new version of the tails side, which also does not have a date.

This created thousands of coins without any date, a rare and valuable mistake in the world of coin collecting.

No one knows how much the undated 20p is worth. However, The London Mint Office, which is a private company with no connection to the Royal Mint, is offering £50 a time to anyone who has one.

In 1983, the Royal Mint made an error with the 2p piece and struck some with the wording 'new pence' rather than 'two pence'.

The 1983 2p mule is currently worth a few hundred pounds, however its value was enhanced because only a very few of these reached the public.

Nick Hart, coin expert at the London Mint Office, said: 'Mistakes like this not only fascinate people but also have considerable value-increase significance.

'We believe this extremely rare error will certainly get the public looking at the coins in their pockets again and noticing the excellent new designs launched by the Royal Mint on our coinage.'

People who find an undated new 20p need to register their details with The London Mint Office before sending in the coin and claiming their reward.

Full details of how to register are available online at www.undated20p.com.

(Daily Mail)