Get your face on a stamp!

Posted on by admin

Have you ever wanted to send out letters or birthday cards to your family and friends with your very own stamps? The new “Smilers personalised stamps” service from Royal Mail now lets you create you own First Class stamps and actually use them.

What a nice (and quite unexpected) idea from Royal Mail! Imagine how happy and surprised your loved ones would be when receiving birthday or Christmas greeting cards with your very own face on them. 
The prices are £7.80 for 10 First Class or £13.95 for 20. Discounts are also available if you buy multiple sheets.

This move follows on from Royal Mail’s “intelligent stamp range” launched recently.  We are starting to wonder however, if someone at Royal Mail has miss-understood what the board meant when they said they wanted to “modernise” :).

Anyway, visit http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/content2?catId=3800007&mediaId;=3800008 to try it out if you like the concept!

Delivering to infinity and beyond

Posted on by Anthony Marriage
The Boeing Company is taking one giant leap forward in transportation services. A “Memorandum of Understanding” between the Boeing Company and Space Adventures Ltd. has been established to work on the future of transportation services to places in low Earth orbit (LEO). Boeing hopes to use the Boeing Crew Space Transportation-100 to man crew and goods transportation to the International Space Station (ISS) and future commercial LEO platforms.


Space Adventures, a US based space tourism company, has paved the way for privatised space tourism. Famous for sending wealthy businessmen into space, the company hopes to create a future market of commercial space travel and transport.

Although prices have not yet been set, a freight tariff would likely be astronomical (ahem). The priority for the moment is allowing a lucky, select few to take their place in of the seven seats on-board the CST-100. although the CST-100 is not scheduled to make its first journey until 2015, commercial shipping in outer-space is taking its first steps towards becoming a reality.

The most likely objects to be transported begin with will be provisions and the ashes of those wishing to be blasted off into space.

Cereal offender

Posted on by Anthony Marriage
News networks have picked up on the now infamous photo of a lorry driver eating his cereal whilst driving on the motorway. The hungry haulier has been snapped with both hands off the wheel, enjoying a bowl of cereal on the move. Spotted travelling along South Mimms, North of London, his dangerous antics have brought a barrage of cereal based puns from “he’s a crunchie nut” to “that’s the bowl truth.”


However, public outrage is not over spilt milk but a genuine concern for road safety that reckless negligence can bring. Joel Hickman, from road safety charity Brake, said, “To put it simply, motorists who eat behind the wheel are putting other people’s lives in jeopardy.”

The driver may have had his Weetabix but we are willing to bet he’s regretting it now!  Awful behaviour and we hope justice is done.

Holy Popemobile!

Posted on by Anthony Marriage
His holiness, Pope Benedict XVI has been eagerly awaited by Catholics across the UK. But if your not religiously inclined there is still reason to be excited….the popemobile!

The customised truck, affectionately dubbed the “popemobile” has wowed the public the world over during Papal visits. Coming in a variety of models and sizes, each one is designed with the Pope’s safety as top priority. The model to be used during the Pope’s visit to the UK will be a closed top, customised Mercedezs-Benz M-Class sport utility vehicle.

At Shiply we’re glad to hear the popemobile keeps up its eye-watering average of 6mph using green petrol. However, don’t let the eco-fuel or boxy form factor fool you as it can reach up to 160mph if a quick get-away is needed!
The customised truck comes with its own unique registration plate, reading SCV 1, short for Status Civitatis Vaticanae – the Latin name for the Vatican City State. Other features include bulletproof glass and reinforced side panels to ensure the Pope’s safety. To enter the truck, the Pope must enter through the back turret and use a hydraulic lift to elevate himself to the perfect position.
Dr Alberto Gasbarri, organiser of all the Pope’s trips, has stated, “the driver will be British and chosen by the local authorities in Britain. He will have to be a competent driver and he will get a chance to accustom himself to the Popemobile.’

Could you drive the Pope?



Aggressive hawk goes postal!

Posted on by Anthony Marriage

A motivated hawk has ruffled the feathers of an unassuming neighbourhood in Calgary, Canada, after its repeated attacks on a Canada Post employee has left over 150 homes without a mail service.
The Swainson’s hawk has singled out one postal worker in particular, who has endured multiple attacks by the bird of prey. Even protection could not stop the hawk, as the bird dive-bombed with enough force to break the postal workers bicycle helmet.
http://i.cdn.turner.com/cnn/.element/apps/cvp/3.0/swf/cnn_416x234_embed.swf?context=embed_edition&videoId=offbeat/2010/09/06/dnt.hawks.attack.mailmen.cbc
One local, Kathryn Kan, stated, “We had film crews out there on Thursday all morning. Nobody got swooped, nobody…It’s not that big an issue. It’s just that particular carrier that has a problem.”

Local residents are eagerly waiting for the winged menace to leave for its annual migration to Argentina.

Drunk courier loses $1.3 million painting

Posted on by Anthony Marriage
New York art courier, James Haggerty, is at the centre of a bizarre story in which the Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot masterpiece, “Portrait of a Girl,” valued at $1.3m was reported lost by Mr Haggerty after a night of drunken excess.


The revered painting was due to be shipped to a Manhattan hotel on July 28 for the inspection of a potential buyer. After meeting with London gallery owner, Offer Waterman, CCTV footage shows Mr Haggerty heading back to the front desk, stowing the artwork and returning to the bar, alone.
Surveillance cameras recorded a boozy Mr Haggerty after his time in the bar, recollecting the masterpiece as he continued to stumble past the hotel’s doorman. Two hours later it was missing.

“I think he’s a complete fumbling idiot,” said co-owner of the painting, Kristyn Trudgeon, who is currently suing Haggerty for $1.3 million – the work’s estimated value. The case is being treated as highly suspicious.

Truckers bring smiles to disadvantaged children

Posted on by admin

For 25 years since 1986, many truckers around Norwich have participated in the annual trucking convoy to bring smiles to the faces of disadvantaged children.

The 25th East Coast Truckers children charity convoy saw 101 lorries set out from County Hall, Norwich to Great Yarmouth seafront. In each lorry cab was a disadvantaged child enjoying the journey of their lives. 

East Coat Truckers have been bringing smiles to disadvantaged children for 25 years

Leading the convoy in truck number one was Glenn Johnson, who came up with the idea of the charity ride 25 years ago and has led every convoy since.

Mr. Johnson, from Fressingfield, said: “The last 25 years have been a real pleasure and a great testimony to everyone that has taken part.”

The East Coast Truckers became a charity in 2000 and has raised £350,000 for good causes over the last decade as well as the charity children’s convoy.

How to drift like a Japanese trucker

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If you ever watched “The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift”, you know how good the Japanese are at drifting.

This time, they show us how to drift like a Japanese trucker.

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCBdQqUGnjE?fs=1]