'Sick thieves stole my dead hamster'Dec 30 2006

Anna Hammond, South Wales Echo

When Tim Barker's hamster died, the most fitting coffin happened to be his old mobile phone box.

But on the way to bury his beloved Bella at the family home, she was stolen from his car along with 20 Christmas presents, leaving Tim devastated.

The thieves must have believed they had got their hands on a Sony Ericsson Bluetooth headset phone however little did they know it was a makeshift coffin for Bella who had been dead for two days.

'Bella died of complications. She had a lump on her nose and she was sneezing all the time,' said Tim.

'She was on tablets, but she died on the Thursday, December 21.

'It was a really big shock, especially with it coming up to Christmas. I was taking her to my family house to bury as I don't have my own garden.

'When I realised she had been stolen, my heart sank.'

The 22-year-old, who works for a mental health organisation in the Rhondda, was driving to his parents' home in Ammanford on Saturday when his red Peugeot 306 was forced open.

It was parked in Doe Close, Penylan, where Tim had stopped to feed a cat belonging to a friend who was away on holiday.

Christmas presents for his family, along with his own Nintendo Wii, Nintendo DS and HP iPAQ computer, were stolen - together with Bella.

'It left me feeling pretty helpless, to be honest,' said Tim, who lives with his partner, Yael White, in Tudor Street, Riverside, Cardiff.

'I came back to the car and the door was bent back,' he said. 'I couldn't believe someone would do this at Christmas which is a time for giving presents, not stealing them. I was distraught.'

Heartbroken Tim continued his journey to spend the festive season with his parents, John and Pauline, but on Christmas Eve he had a phone call from the police with the news that Bella had been found dumped in a garden, along with some of the presents.

Bella's body was taken care of by Pc Geraint Jones and she spent the night in the property store at Llanishen police station before Tim collected her and went ahead with the planned burial on Boxing Day.

'When Bella was found she had been taken out of her coffin,' he said.

'My partner had written a eulogy on the box which said 'To our precious Bella. We have so many mem- ories with you. You will never be forgotten'.

'It had been ripped open and Bella was found at the bottom of another bag.

'The police were really helpful and they put Bella back in the box and sealed it up which I was very grateful for.'

Among the valuables still missing is Tim's dark blue Nintendo DS, which unusually has white buttons.

A spokesman for South Wales Police said: 'Sometime between 7pm and 7.30pm we received a call regarding the theft from a car parked in Doe Close of various items including 20 Christmas presents and a dead hamster which was in a box with a eulogy written on it.

'If anyone has information about this incident, we would urge them to get in touch.'

If you can help contact police on 029 2022 2111.

Tomorrow sees the end of 2006 - a year that has had some very deep lows for me. I shall not be sorry to see the year gone.

I must be growing up (a bit) at last as I now scan the weather forecast before going far! Tomorrow I am off to a New Years Party and instead of going as a Bunny Girl or St. Trinian's schoolgirl the weather dictates (along with age) that I choose something a little warmer!

So I am going as Morticia from the Addams family. I still get to wear nice boots! And my very long (home-grown) fingernails will get 3 coats of black nail varnish for the occasion.

Tried the dress on earlier and thank goodness I lost that weight because now I look fairly reasonable in what is a thin and clingy long black fish tail dress.

Well if I look half as good as her I think I might enjoy myself!

Even Chavs have grandparents!D

Optimist vs. Pessimist: A family had twin boys whose only resemblance to each other was their looks. If one felt it was too hot, the other thought it was too cold. If one said the TV was too loud, the other claimed the volume needed to be turned up. Opposite in every way, one was an eternal optimist, the other a doom and gloom pessimist.

Just to see what would happen, on the twins’ birthday their father loaded the pessimist’s room with every imaginable toy and game. The optimist’s room he loaded with horse manure.

That night the father passed by the pessimist’s room and found him sitting surrounded by his new gifts crying bitterly.

“Why are you crying?” the father asked.

“Because my friends will be jealous, I’ll have to read all these instructions before I can do anything with this stuff, I’ll constantly need batteries, and my toys will eventually get broken.” answered the pessimist twin.

Passing the optimist twin’s room, the father found him dancing for joy in the pile of manure. “What are you so happy about?” he asked.

To which his optimist twin replied, “There’s got to be a pony in here somewhere!” D

A Chav's Collector Piece Perhaps?

PRINCE CHARLES and Camilla's new country hideaway hides a dark secret, with five horrific deaths in its tragic past, it was revealed yesterday.

Local historians have uncovered a chain of tragedies to hit the country estate deep in the Welsh countryside where Charles and Camilla have bought their new rural retreat.

Villagers have revealed the haunting history of the Llwynywormwood estate in Myddfai, near Llandovery, since the mid 19th century.

Former owner Gilbert Stroud - whose father was killed in one accident - said, "It has more than its fair share of tragedies there.

Two young girls were killed in a house fire in a lodge house on the estate in 1845.

The parents had gone from home, leaving three young sisters alone in the house.

The eldest girl went out to open the entrance gates to a visitor, and the clothes of the younger ones caught fire.

Then another tragedy struck in the 1930s when a pupil from the nearby Llandovery College drowned in the estate's lake.

Gilbert said, "When we moved to Llwynywormwood in 1963, the lake was drained because a boy from the college had drowned.

"It had been empty for a long time but I refilled it."

But then the Stroud family, who farmed the estate for 35 years, were also touched by tragedy while living there.

Gilbert's father Ted was killed 10 years ago when he was crushed to death when a tractor fell on him in a silage pit.

Then in 1997 a farmer on a neighbouring farm crashed into a boundary wall next to Llwynywormwood.

Gilbert said, "The neighbouring farmer at Cefn Cerrig hit a wall on his quad bike and died. It was really tragic."

But Gilbert played down rumours of a flaxen-haired ghost who haunts the area, allegedly a Princess Diana lookalike who was mistreated by a rich husband.

He said, "There was a boy working with us who ran in one day and said he'd seen a ghost.

"I was down there like a shot. I would have loved to have seen it.

"But it was just some thistle blowing through the mansion, throwing up dust. It was most disappointing."

Gilbert, 72, and his wife Patricia, 63, raised a family in the three-bedroom coach house which will be the next royal residence when Charles and Camilla complete the sale in March.

Other villagers know about the tragedies on the estate but hope it will not put off visitors - as Prince Charles aims to rent it out for holiday lets.

Farmer's wife Eluned Thomas said, "A lot of people enjoy knowing about the history of places. It adds colour and mystery.

"You also have to admit the Royal Family has seen more than a few tragedies over the centuries themselves."

Coming to the countryside near you soon no doubt

Life is not all eating, drinking and watching DVD's! Although I might find a spot later on to watch "Brief Encounter"

I have done quite a bit of work on my Spanish learning, I am finding it easier because I have all day to pick it up and put it down as suits and there is no pressure so notes can be written legibly rather than my usual hurried scrawl! My language buddy is away until the 2nd week of January but I am sending him my efforts by email! He will correct them and we will go over them when he returns, at the same time he is also sending me his work which I have to correct before we meet again.

However when I finish this I must devote some time to Excel 2003 as I have a database at work from which I have to create graphs, charts and reports for the Regional & National Annual Reports!
I return to work next Wednesday and must admit this is already worrying me so today I will copy yhe database from my company laptop to my home PC and using my recently purchbased "Excel 2003 for Dummies" I am going to manipulate the data and see how I get on. If I can achieve this I will feel free to enjoy the rest of my time off. If I fail miserably I do have a back-up plan - Usksider a fellow blogger is well versed in Excel - he teaches it - and he will advise me if I get stuck It is a big weight off my shoulders knowing there is someone out there who can manipulate this programme effectively

So I hope to see you all later and I hope everyone is enjoying their time off

Just surfing around the net when I came across this and I think I might have a go! Anyone else joining me? A £1000 would be a nice bonus eh? The theme is "TIME"
Closing date is 5pm on Friday 5th January 2007

Write a short story and win you could £1000
Are you an aspiring short story writer?

You could win £1000 for the first prize, or one of 5 runner-up prizes of First Class Virgin Trains tickets to a destination of your choice.

Full details via this link:- (cut whole thing and paste or it won't work)
http://books.guardian.co.uk/virginshortstories/competition/0,,-1003,00.html

We did not rush out to SCS, DFS, DHSS or anywhere else to buy a leather suite/recliner/corner group (delete as appropriate)!

From the TV ads you would think the whole country desparately needed lounge seating and that previously there must have been a national shortage!

No we got up, had some breakfast and took a pleasant drive to Ross-on-Wye, although the day was grey it was nice to travel through the countryside on almost deserted roads.

We reached our destination "Ross Labels" just a few minutes before they opened. There were quite few vehicles already in the car-park, about one third were of the 4 x 4 type but you cuold see these owners actually do live in the countryside and number a few farmers and smallholders amongst them.

The doors opened and everyone filed in quietly, no rushing, shoving or pushing - a very civilised place to shop, with polite and helpful staff. Best of all there were no kids running about screamingD

We both had some good bargains in the ladies clothes department which we paid for and put into the boot of the car. Then we returned and went to the coffee shop for a well deserved bite of lunch.

After this it was onto shoes, handbags, jewellery, books and homewares. I bought a very nice tablecloth and managed to resist all the other bargains!

We drove home at a leisurely pace and arrived back just before 3pm.

That how sales should be! Well done Ross Labels - I can highly recommend it to all including the gentlemen as they have a super department that caters for them too

Christmas Day arrived, bleak, grey and jolly cold as it happens. Thsi being the case we decided not to go out in search of an ale house with open doors but to stay in for the day.

The morning started with tea for me and coffee for my daughter. I then opened the stocking that had mysteriously appeared in my room overnight!

Contents

"The Little book of Shite Excuses!" (could be very useful!!D

An orange

Some chocolate money

2 pairs of thermal socks (1 pair blue, 1 pair pink)

Laughed my head off - years since I have even seen a Christmas stocking and I did not know you could still get choccy money

The the prezzie opening began in earnest, perfume, money, book tokens, CD's, DVDs, books, pajamas (for her), a nice towel with anchors on (Uncle for her), chocolates, hair straighteners, pastels (the colouring sort) and all manner of bits 'n' bobs.

Ahhh marvellous

The we had sausage snadwiches for brekkie Fabulously decadent and naughtyD

Phonecalls were made and received from here there and everwhere, telephones bleeped with texts and finally silenced.

We had roast lamb and all the trimmings including leeks (well we are Welsh). A bottle of red and a bottle of Rose were consumed and we sat down to watch a DVD.

As our film ended we were summoned by the "only gay in the cul-de-sac" to go for drinkies at his

We saw off half a litre of Vodka between us and had a good old time.

We had a nice supper and reclined in front of the box for the rest of the evening only disturbed once when my daughter's half sister telephoned to say "Happy Christmas" and tell her all the half-family news

A very nice day all roundD

Hope you all enjoy a glass of this fine champagne with me D

NADOLIG LLAWEN to you all!

Your Peculiar Aristocratic Title is:

Lady Welshceltgirl the Free of Lower Slaughter

Courtesy of WestWing!

Link Here

http://www.masquerademaskarts.com/memes/peculiartitle.php

Picture the scene, I am hard at work tackling a pile of ironing just before lunch. Outside my kitchen window thick fog swirls about cutting visibility down to about 16m/50ft.
I heard an alsatian barking hard so this tells me that someone is approaching the cul-de-sac where I live, on foot. Must be the postman

A minute or two later the tell-tale clatter of my letter box alerts me to a flurry of post which has fanned itself out on the hall floor. I gather it up and return to the kitchen and sit down at the table and open the post.

Cards from former colleagues (now firm friends), notice of a Boxing Day sale at my favourite outlet, my professional journal, a little junk mail and an envelope written in a hand I do not know

Opening the final envelope reveals a card and a cheque! I telephone the sender and I am told it must be spent on champagneD
So what can I have done to deserve this? Why I won the Friday night Bloggers'Arms Christmas QuizD D

So thank you very much to mine host Michael St. Mark for his generosity and long may the Bloggers' Arms remain a place to meet and chat to others some of whom I have never come across previously but who now have become friends

Lady Luck visiting on the Winter Solstice

Before Christianity came to the British Isles the Winter Solstice was held on the shortest day of the year (around the 21st December). The Druids (Celtic priests) would cut the mistletoe that grew on the oak tree and give it as a blessing. Oaks were seen as sacred and the winter fruit of the mistletoe was a symbol of life in the dark winter months.

The Solstice is just after midnight tonight so actually falls on the 22nd December this year.

Apparently there were some very embarassed people at Stonehenge earlier today who thought they were celebrating the Solstice there today!!D

Rage rage!! Following an email from Blog. co. uk and doing what the email said I had to do I have lost my header piccy

How do I put put my header piccy back on my blog? Please someone give me the easy step by step guide.

This global warming has a lot to answer for

Today we had a massive "spring clean" at our house the like of which does not usually occur until around March

What is going on

Where will it all end, gone are the grubby windows, the dusty skirting boards and the lightswitches are all pristine aganD

TOns of ironing was tackled and defeated. All this by 3:25pm!

Then there was a long period of Rugby

Leinster beat Agen (just)
Munster beat Cardiff Blues (thrilling match)

Then being all worn out from our efforts we had fish 'n'chips from the chippy for our tea - a very rare treat indeed

All the Xmas cards were written last night in one marathon session, For once I did not spend hours thinking "would this one be suitable for so and so?" and dithering . Just got them out and wrote them - no messingD
Quick trip up the Post Office (whilst it is still there) and just under £9 lighter in the purse I have them all winging their way to their destinations.
Home then to deliver the ones to neighbours and then a nice hot coffee because it was pretty cold out first thing - well I say first thing it was about 10:00am

I was posting on Molt's blog (Moltsplace) earlier and empathising with his feelings. Living alone can be so hard sometimes, now and then it would be great if someone else changed a lightbulb, went out for milk, was there to give you a hug etc.
I said just occasionally it would be nice to brought a cup of tea in bed...

My daughter just phoned, the time of her last watch on ship has changed and she says she will be here very early tomorrow morning and "what time shall I bring you a cup of tea" - so wishes do come true sometimesD

A man was leaving a cafe with his morning coffee when he noticed a most unusual funeral procession approaching the nearby cemetery.

A long black hearse was followed by a second long black hearse about 50 feet behind the first. Behind the second hearse was a solitary man walking a pit-bull on a leash.

Behind him was a queue of 200 men walking in single file.

The man couldn't stand the curiosity. He respectfully approached the man walking the dog. "I am so sorry for your loss, and I know now is a bad time to disturb you, but I've never seen a funeral like this with so many of you walking in single file. Whose funeral is it?"

The man replied, "Well, the first hearse is for my wife."

"What happened to her?"

The man replied "My dog attacked and killed her."

He inquired further, "Well, who is in the second hearse?"

The man answered "My Mother-in-law. She was trying to help my wife when the dog turned on her."

A poignant and thoughtful moment of silence passes between the two men.

"Can I borrow the dog?"

"Join the queue mate"

10 little piggies!

2 calves!

large number of hares!

1 ass!

1 pussy!