A vampire hunting we will go.....

If you've got any vampire concerns this little item may be of interest. Left to a Yorkshire women by a member of her family it's a deluxe hunting box of any stylish vampire slayer. Estimated to have been made in the late 1800's and possible inspired by Bram Stoker's epic novel Dracula in 1897.

The box contains;

A crucifix

Pistol

Wooden stakes and a mallet

Glass bottle of holy water

Glass bottle of holy earth

Glass bottle of garlic

Rosary beads 

A book of Common Prayer dated from 1857

A handwritten extract from the Bible which quotes Luke 19.27 and reads

"But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, 

bring hither, and slay them before me"

The box and it's contents have been put up for auction at Oonagh Drage of Tennants Auctioneers in Layburn, North Yorkshire. The setting for the auction in Yorkshire seems most appropriate given that many of the scenes from Bram Stoker's novel were set in the Yorkshire seaside town of Whitby. If you feel like making a bid though you may need deep pockets, there is international as well as local interest and the box is expected to go for £1,500. to £2,000.

More information is on the BBC News website here

Editing to add that the box eventually sold for £7,500. Information on the sale is here.

New Goverment for the UK

Well just over a week ago I got a lift down to my local polling station where I toddled in and made my democratic mark in the general election. The next day dawned to the news that non of the parties had got a large enough majority to take charge of the goverment which lead to a hung parliament.

The Conservatives lead by David Cameron had the most votes and seats, Labour lost most seats but still came in second with the Liberal Democrats come in third. This meant that Labour still had the first option as the sitting goverment to try and form a new majority and goverment but the Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg stuck by his election promise of speaking to the party with the most votes and seats first. What followed seemed to be endlessly long meetings between the Lib Dems and Conservative parties and just as everyone thought things were reaching some sort of conclusion, Gordon Brown leader of Labour tried to make an alternative offer in hope that the Lib Dems would join in with him even thought this would still not had lead to a Lib Lab majority goverment. This plan did not work, now the dust has settled and we have a new majority coalition goverment of Lib Conservatives. Who knows if this will work, there are already so many people saying it won't but I wish it well. This country needed a change, who knows if this works it could be really good, lets give it a chance and see.

Volcano grounds all flights in Britain

Today has made aviation history because all flights in Britain and some northern european countries (Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland) have been grounded today. This is due to the volcano beneath the Eyjafjallajokull glacier, 120 km east of Reykjavik erupting yesterday, sending a giant cloud of volcanic ash into the air, with tiny particles of rock, glass and sand this has slowly drifted south over the British Isles. This ash makes it unsafe for planes to fly and it has been know to bring down planes and stop engines. Never before have the skys of Britain been cleared of planes due to a natural disaster. As it stands there will be no flights until at least 1pm Friday lunch time and this is open for review. The airports are saying the backlog of flights will take days to clear.

On a personal leavel, I'm happy my dad came back from his holiday last week so was not stranded an airport like many poor souls are this week. I know of 2 people thats had their plans for holidays affected today and while their being safe is the most important thing, I do sympathise with people who have looked forward to their holidays. And bad show to the insurance companys, many who are so far claiming that as this is a so called 'Act of God' no claims will be vaild.

While the cancellation of so many flights is a major inconvenience to many, I'm sure most if not all realise it is the only wise option to take in terms of safety. This will be causing far worst problems for the people of Iceland and hopefully they will all be safe and the volcano will calm down quickly.