Weekender Alicante North Issue 120

Alex Trelinski’s
Back In Britain
SISTERS KEEP
BOBBY
GETS
MAKEOVER
DOING IT!
SHE may have just turned 100 ceived six birthday cards from
years old – but Lil Thomas is still the Queen.
the youngster when it comes to Both sisters have received
her sister.
one to mark their 100th, while
Lil(pictured-left), from Newport in Amy – known as Win – was also
South Wales, has just become a centenarian,
following in the footsteps and has had one every year since.
sent a card when she turned 105
of her 108-year-old sister, Amy Winifred
Hawkin.
War One, Lil was Wales’ first female
Born a year after the end of World
With a combined age of 208, they bus conductor in World War Two between
her career as an entertainer.
are thought to be among the oldest living
sisters in the UK, as well as Wales. Lil’s advice for a long life is:- “Never
Between them, they have re-
lose your sense of humour because if you
can’t
laugh, especially at yourself, you will
never get through it all.”
Meanwhile, Win will turn 109 next
month, when she can expect her sixth
letter from the Queen.
“I got a stack of them there, a boxful!”
she added.
HUNGRY
A 100-year-old teddy bear that helped a
World War Two airman convalesce has undergone
a delicate restoration.
Bobby Bear was the childhood toy of RAF
wireless operator Joe Mack, who flew with
one of the elite Pathfinder crews based in
Bourn, Cambridgeshire.
The “treasured keepsake” was faithfully mended
by a team of specialists for the BBC TV Repair
Shop series series.
Mr Mack’s daughter, Kris Johnston, said the
family wanted Bobby “conserved rather than
changed”, keeps his trademark wonky smile.
The “fragile” bear was loaned to the Pathfinder
collection at RAF Wyton in Cambridgeshire and
formed the centrepiece for its 75th anniversary
last year.
Joe Mack died at the age of 72 in 1994 but
his family said he would have been “overjoyed
that Bobby Bear is still going – and will go on
for generations”.
HUSKY
A husky dog started a house fire after managing to turn the
microwave on.
The husky, which was left on its own in the semi-detached
home in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex managed to turn on the worktop
appliance.
A packet of bread rolls, left inside, began to burn, causing a
small fire, Essex Fire Service said.
The owner saw smoke in the kitchen from a camera feed on
their phone.
Geoff Wheal from the Essex Fire Service called it a “very
strange incident” and said firefighters found the kitchen filled
with smoke, but they made sure the flames did not spread to the
rest of the house.
The dog was not hurt, the service added.
DOUBLE
RAGS TO
RICHES
SNIPING DISCOVERY
YOU never know what you might find but may now legally have to be handed over
when you get your hands dirty...or even to the National Museum of Scotland or the
wet, as
Natural History Museum.
Britain’s largest gold nugget, weighing The gold was actually found in two pieces,
just over 121 grams has been unearthed in which slot together perfectly, earning it the
a Scottish river. An unnamed explorer made name The Reunion Nugget.
the find used the traditional method of sniping,
which involves lying face down in a may have been caused by a strike off a rock
It also has a hole in the middle, which
river wearing a snorkel and dry suit. or glacier or even a tool used by a farmer
The nugget is thought to be worth £80,000 during the Iron Age.
A mother-of-four claiming benefit
became an overnight millionaire
after scooping two huge online
bingo wins in the space of 10 days!
Anita Campbell, from Seaham
in County Durham, won £597,000
within hours of opening her Mecca
account and followed it with another
£552,000 jackpot just over a
week later.
She described how she struggled
to make ends meet on Universal
Credit for more than a year, during
which time she lost weight from not
eating properly and her diabetes
was affected.
Following the win, she told Mirror
Online: ‘It’s still a bit of a dream. ‘I’m
over the moon, I still can’t believe it. I
thought straight away I can help my
kids with this money.’
Anita has moved out of her rented
home into a new property and given
away her old furniture to people she
felt might need it.
She also used a chunk of the windfall
to pay off debts following her
mother’s funeral last year, buy her
73-year-old father a new home and
foot the bill for her daughter to undergo
IVF treatment.