Dahn Unda Chinese water: Second class mail: The Toylet: Cave women: Engrish part 2: and the spotted lake.

Cold, damp and dismal at the Castle this morn, managed to catch up on several years sleep in the last 24 hours and his Maj has discovered the joy of opening the fridge.

And just after I have puchased my new Kodak digital camera-they go bust, sods'law.

Thames water who is not known for cheap H2o

Has flogged almost nine percent of itself to the China Investment Corporation (CIC), Thames Water is owned by Kemble Water, a consortium of investors led by Australian bank Macquarie.

CIC was set up in 2007 to invest some of China's huge $3.18tn (£2tn) in foreign exchange reserves.

In a one-sentence statement on its website, CIC said it bought the stake through a wholly-owned subsidiary. No purchase price was disclosed.

Thames Water, acquired by Kemble in 2006, is the UK's largest water and sewerage company, serving about 14 million customers.

No wonder my water comes out upside down and sideways....

And allegedly:

The price of second class stamps is set to rise by more than 50 per cent, under plans laid out by Royal Mail last night.

The national mail organisation said it is hoping to increase second class stamps by 53 per cent from 36p to 55p, and insisted that the increase was still “affordable” for “vulnerable groups”.

Royal Mail, which posted group profits of £1million a day for the most recent six month period, would then be free to increase the price of second class stamps from as early as April.

The price of second class stamps would then rise further by inflation every year for seven years. There would be no limit on the price of a first class stamp, which currently costs 46p.

Bye-Bye Royal Mail....

East to the land of WC lovers

Sega unveils the Toylet, a games console powered by the user's urine, for use in Japanese bars.

The games are 'Mannekin Pis' - simply measures how hard you can pee.

Then there is 'Graffiti Eraser' - lets you remove paint by pointing a hose in different directions.

Or perhaps 'The Northern Wind, The Sun and Me' - where you play as the wind trying to blow a girl's skirt up, and the harder you pee, the harder the wind blows.

Finally, the very odd 'Battle! Milk From Nose' is a multiplayer game where you compete against the person who last used the urinal. The strength of your urine streams are compared, and translated into milk spraying out of your nose. If your stream is stronger, your milk-stream knocks your opponent out of the ring.

At my age I have enough trouble just trying to keep my shoes dry....

West a fair bit to the land of cheese and hairy armpits

Anne Cautain and Bernadette Touloumond suffer from hypersensitive reactions to electro-magnetic radiations.

The symptoms include unbearable burning and terrible headaches, so bad that they couldn’t stand to live in the outside world anymore. After trying several other options, a cave has become their ultimate refuge.

 Anne and Bernadette’s cave is located outside the town of Beaumugne, on the edge of the Vercors plateau range, in France. To gain access to the area, a small ladder needs to be scaled while clinging to a rope.

A sign reading “Mobile Phones Prohibited” is displayed on the hillside. 52-year-old Anne says, “I can’t take any sort of electro-magnetic waves, whatever they may be: Wi-Fi, mobile phones or high-tension wires.” She was the first to settle down in the cave, and is now spending her third winter there.

 

What they need is the aluminium hat.

More Engrish

An advertisement for a “fuckin’ sale” at Gallerie (which appears to sell handbags and women’s clothing) has been making the waves on the Internet since it appeared earlier this year.

And:

And finally:

West even more

 Located near the city of Osoyoos in British Columbia, Canada’s Spotted Lake draws visitors from around the world. The Spotted Lake has a very highly concentration of numerous different minerals such as magnesium sulphate, calcium and sodium sulphates. It also contains extremely high concentrations of eight other minerals as well as some small doses of four others such as silver and titanium.

Most of the water in the lake evaporates over the summer, leaving behind large “spots” of minerals. Depending on the mineral composition left behind, the spots will be of white, pale yellow, green or blue in colour. The spots are made mainly of magnesium sulphate, which crystallizes in the summer to form harden natural “walkways” around and between the spots.

Lucky I spotted that....

That’s it: I’m orf to read up on the new WEEE law.

And today’s thought:

Angus