DAVID ADAMS writes about the odder side of life…
A pigeon builds a nest with collected poppies at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra, Australia in these recent undated handout photos. PICTURES: The Australian War Memorial via Reuters
• What happens to all the poppies left at the Australian War Memorial to commemorate the sacrifice made by armed service members? More than a few have ended up in the nest of a pigeon which has been helping itself to the red flowers left at the memorial’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. The bird’s thieving was discovered in the lead-up to Remembrance Day last Monday with the nest found at the base of a stained glass window. A War Memorial spokesman told the West Australian newspaper that the nest of poppies was a “poignant reminder of the powerful bond between man and beast on the battlefield”.
– with Reuters.
• It has been a marathon effort. Nick Butter, of Dorset, in the UK, has become the first person to run a marathon in all 196 countries recognised by the United Nations. The 30-year-old former banker, who reportedly embarked on his mission in January last year to raise money for health charity Prostate Cancer UK, ran his final marathon in Greece on Sunday. The run took his lifetime marathon effort to a massive 592. He’s raised more than £65,000 for the charity so far.
• It didn’t take long for a chocolate replica of the Berlin Wall to be torn down. Among commemorations marking the 30th anniversary of the fall of the wall in the past week was one which saw chocolate sculptor Patrick Roger recreate a section of the wall using 200 kilograms of chocolate on the pavement in front of his Paris shop. The six metre long by three metre high wall, which was marked with writing including the words “freedom” and “I am a Berliner”, took a week to build. But it only took minutes for Roger and an assistant to bring it down with their hammers last Saturday with the chocolate then carried away by delighted bystanders.
