APROPOS OF NOTHING #13 - 30 APRIL 1938 - AUDEN & ISHERWOOD IN CHINA

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping, the golden age of Hollywood (esp westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very, very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #13 – 30 April 1938 

W. H. Auden and Christopher Isherwood visited the front during the Sino-Japanese War and then went to Kuling hill station in the hope of bagging an interview with Chiang Kai-shek leader of China’s nationalist forces.  They were not impressed, describing him as lounging in a deckchair surrounded by bankers and military advisers.  They were impressed, however, by their hotel, Journey’s End.

“So, we had tiffin under the camphor tree, aware, in a trance of pleasure, of the smell of its leaves; of the splash of the stream over the stones; of the great gorge folding back, like a painting by Salvator Rosa, into the wooded hills behind the house.  There were snipe to eat, and rainbow trout.  It was all far too beautiful to be real.”

“One could arrive for the weekend and stay fifteen years – eating, sleeping, swimming, standing for hours in a daze of stupefied reverence; writing in the porch, the book that was altogether too wonderful to finish and too sacred ever to publish.”

APROPOS OF NOTHING #12 - 29 APRIL 1947 - KON-TIKI

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joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very, very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #12 – 29 April 1947 

The Kon-Tiki expedition was a 1947 journey by raft across the Pacific Ocean from South America to the Polynesian islands, led by Norwegian explorer and writer Thor Heyerdahl. The raft was named Kon-Tiki after the Inca god Viracocha whose original name was said to be Kon-Tiki.  29 April 1947 was the raft’s first full day at sea.  Heyerdahl believed that people from South America could have sailed to Polynesia in the days well-before European influences reached the Americas.  He wanted to show that by using only the materials available at the time, there were no technical reasons to prevent them from making the journey.  The expedition came to an end after 101 days when the raft struck a reef about 740 km north of Tahiti.  The journey’s length was just under seven thousand kilometres.  

  

The crew:

Thor Heyerdahl (1914-2002) - Leader

Herman Watzinger (1910-1986 - Engineer

Erik Hesselberg (1914-1972) – Navigator

Torstein Raaby (1918-1964) – Radio transmissions

Bengt Danielsson (1921-1997 – Supply/rations steward

Knut Haugland (1917-2009) – Radio transmissions

Some Heyerdahl musings:

“For every minute, the future is becoming the past.”

“One learns more from listening than speaking.  And both the wind and the people who continue to live close to nature still have much to tell us which we cannot hear within university walls.”

“Progress is man’s ability to complicate simplicity.”

“If we begin thinking about the world being over 100 million years old, then it’s absolutely by chance that you and I are sitting here alive today, while others are dead or have never been born.”

Sources: Various

APROPOS OF NOTHING #11 - 28 APRIL 1789 - MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping, the golden age of Hollywood (esp westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very, very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #11 – 28 April 1789 

In the early hours of 28 April 1789, in the south Pacific Ocean, there was a mutiny on the Royal Navy Vessel, HMS Bounty.  Disaffected crew members, led by Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from their captain, William Bligh, and set him and eighteen loyalists adrift.

The following is an extract from a letter to Bligh's wife, written from Timor, a couple of years later: 

My Dear Betsy,

I am now in a part of the world I never expected, it is however a place that has afforded me relief and saved my life, and I have the happiness to assure you that I am now in perfect health.

I have lost the Bounty. On the 28 April at daylight in the morning, Christian with several others came into my cabin while I was asleep, and seizing me, holding naked bayonets at my breast, tied my hands behind my back, and threatened instant destruction if I uttered a word. I however called loudly for assistance, but the conspiracy was so well laid that the officers' cabin doors were guarded by sentinels, so Nelson, Peckover, Samuels or the Master could not come to me. I was now dragged on deck in my shirt and closely guarded. I demanded of Christian the case for such a violent act but he could only answer – "Not a word sir or you are dead”. I dared him to the act and endeavoured to rally someone to a sense of their duty but to no effect.

Captain William Bligh

Fletcher Christian

Sources: Wikipedia and others

APROPOS OF NOTHING #10 - 27 APRIL 2000 - ALAN LOTHIAN IN BAIKONUR HAVING FORGOTTEN TO PACK SOME THINGS

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping, the golden age of Hollywood (esp westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very, very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #10 – 27 April 2000

Alan Lothian, a Scottish writer working for the European Space Agency gave an unofficial glimpse into his mission to Baikonur, Kazakhstan, site of Russia’s space launch facility.  When packing luggage, he forgot some essentials.

“Land at Baikonur, which turns out to be about 5,000 sq km of industrial wasteland set like a jewel amidst about five billion sq km of ballsachingly flat, boring and frequently radioactive Kazakh steppe.  Stagger out of plane into icy wind and whimper with regret for forgotten coat.

Wind penetrates ribs as climb stairway to stars on nearby launch gantry, reached by way of rickety steel plates over weeping stained puddles. Regret absence of sturdy boots.

So, retire as potential hypothermia case to bus and bottle of whisky self has wisely secreted in baggage.  At least did not forget the whisky.”

Sources: Private Correspondence; 
The Traveller’s Handbook/Fergus Fleming/Atlantic Books/2012

APROPOS OF NOTHING #9 - 26 APRIL 1867 - AFTER A FIRE, HOUSE-BUILDING IN JAPAN

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping, the golden age of Hollywood (esp westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very, very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #9 – 26 April 1867

In 1865, 19-year-old Marquis de Beauvoir left France with a group of aristocratic friends on a voyage around the world.  Two years later, they reached Yokohama.  There, they were awoken one night by a fire in a neighbouring property.  The party was dismissive of local attempts at fire-fighting but were in awe of Japanese house builders.

“The town is a perfect tinderbox, built as it is entirely of wood, with braziers and lanterns in every house.  Last November, during a gale, it was entirely burnt down.  But the Japanese are not of a melancholy turn of mind; three days after the fire they began to rebuild; and, by the way, it is very interesting to see them building a house!  First, the roof is made upon the ground and covered with little wooden tiles, two fingers wide and as thin as paper; then this is raised and supported on four posts, and in less than no time the many-folded transparent screen, which services as a wall, is slipped into double grooves, and you have a charming house, finished to minuteness in its smallest details and built without a single nail!”

Sources: The Conclusion of a Voyage Round the World;
The Traveller’s Handbook/Fergus Fleming/Atlantic Books/2012

APROPOS OF NOTHING #8 - 25 APRIL 1352 - IBN BATTUTA'S ODYSSEY

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping, the golden age of Hollywood (esp westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very, very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #8 – 25 April 1352

Ibn Battuta was a Moroccan scholar who, at twenty-one, went on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1325, and thereafter just kept going.  For almost thirty years he travelled the length and breadth of the Islamic world before returning to his homeland.  On the final leg of his journey, in 1352, he spent time in Iwalatan (Walata, Mauritinia).  He observed:

“The women are of surpassing beauty and are shown more respect than the men.  The state of affairs amongst these people is indeed extraordinary.  Their men show no signs of jealousy whatever; no one claims descent from his father, but on the contrary from his mother’s brother.  A person’s heirs are his sister’s sons, not his own sons.  This is a thing I have seen nowhere in the world except among the Indians of Malabar.  But those are heathens; these are Muslims.”

 

 Ibn Battuta

Sources: Travels in Asia and Africa;
The Traveller’s Handbook/Fergus Fleming/Atlantic Books/2012

APROPOS OF NOTHING #7 - 24 APRIL 1895 - JOSHUA SLOCUM SAILS THE GLOBE

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping, the golden age of Hollywood (esp westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very, very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #7 – 24 April 1895

In 1898 the Canadian-born Joshua Slocum became the first person to sail single-handed around the globe.  He did so in the Spray, a ship he had built himself.  He began his remarkable journey on 24 April from the eastern seaboard of America.  The journey took over three years.

“A thrilling pulse beat high in me.  My step was light on deck in the crisp air.  I felt that there could be no turning back, and that I was engaging in an adventure the meaning of which I thoroughly understood.  I had taken little advice from anyone, for I had a right to my own opinions in matters pertaining to the sea.”

 

Joshua Slocum

Sources: Sailing Alone Around the World;
The Traveller’s Handbook/Fergus Fleming/Atlantic Books/2012

APROPOS OF NOTHING #6 - 23 APRIL 1922 - JOSEPH ROTH ON THE BERLIN OVER-GROUND

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping, the golden age of Hollywood (esp westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very, very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #6 – 23 April 1922

The Austrian writer Joseph Roth found Berlin's public transport system a never-ending source of fascination and conjecture.  In 1922 he wrote about his observations and thoughts while riding on the S-Bahn - Stadbahn - the over-ground railway.

‘I have come to know one or two apartments near certain stations really quite well.  It’s as if I’d often been to visit there, and I have the feeling I know how the people who live there talk and move.  They all have a certain amount of noise in their souls from the constant din of passing trains, and they’re quite incurious because they’ve gotten used to the fact that every minute countless other lives will glide by them, leaving no trace.”

Joseph Roth


Sources: What I Saw: Reports from Berlin, 1920 - 23;
The Traveller’s Handbook/Fergus Fleming/Atlantic Books/2012 

APROPOS OF NOTHING #5 - 22 APRIL 1936 - JEAN COCTEAU IN RANGOON

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping, the golden age of Hollywood (esp westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very, very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #5 – 22 April 1936

On this day in 1936, pausing at Rangoon on the next stage of his global circumnavigation, French writer Jean Cocteau was drawn inexorably to the seedier side of town.  He embarked on a night-time journey, hauled by a rickshaw driver who trotted “almost airborne between the shafts”.

Re sleeping bodies on the streets: “It is next to impossible for our driver to avoid them and find a passage for the rickshaw wheels.  A wheel passes over an arm, a leg, without waking the strange heap riveted to the ground.  And everywhere the insidious poppy spreads its deep forbidden odour.”


Jean Cocteau

Sources: My Journey Round the World;
The Traveller’s Handbook/Fergus Fleming/Atlantic Books/2012

APROPOS OF NOTHING #4 - 21 APRIL 1934 - RICHARD BYRD ALONE IN THE ANTARCTIC

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping, the golden age of Hollywood (esp westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very, very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #4 - 21 April 1934

On this day in 1934, American explorer Richard Byrd wrote about his five months alone at an advance station in the Antarctic.  He was far less keen towards the end of his stint gathering meteorological data on the beauties around him than he had been at the beginning.  His work was rapidly turning into a personal trial of introspection and endurance.

"The morning is the hardest time.  It is hard enough anywhere for a man to begin the day's work in darkness; where I am it is doubly difficult.  One may be a long time realising it but cold and darkness deplete the body gradually; the mind turns sluggish and the nervous system slows up its responses.  This morning I had to admit to myself that I was lonely."

Richard Byrd

Sources: Alone;
The Traveller’s Handbook/Fergus Fleming/Atlantic Books/2012

APROPOS OF NOTHING #3 - 20 APRIL 1908 - COOK/PEARY NORTH POLE DISPUTE

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping, the golden age of Hollywood (esp westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very, very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #3 - 20 April 1908

On this day in 1908.  American explorer Frederick Cook was Robert Peary's compatriot and rival in the race to reach the North Pole.  Cook claimed to have reached it a year ahead of Peary, a triumph that was initially applauded by the geographical community.  But, without any hint of proof on Cook's part, such as navigational records, ultimately he was dismissed as a cheat.  Some supported Cook's claims. Others say both men were frauds.  Whatever the truth, both reputations were damaged forever.

"We were thin, with faces burned, withered, frozen and torn in fissures, with clothes ugly from overwear.  Yet men never felt more proud than we did, as we militantly strode off the last few steps to the world's very top."

Sources: My Attainment of the Pole;
The Traveller’s Handbook/Fergus Fleming/Atlantic Books/2012

Frederick Cook

Robert Peary

APROPOS OF NOTHING #2 - 19 APRIL 1927 - WILLIAM BEEBE ON THE SEA FLOOR

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping, the golden age of Hollywood (esp westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very, very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #2 - 19 April 1927

On this day in 1927, the zoologist William Beebe was nearing the end of his stay in Haiti when he paused on the seabed for a moment's contemplation.  A pioneer of underwater exploration, he was perpetually fascinated by the play of colours beneath the waves.

"The view from beneath was of green, wrinkled, translucent ceiling cloth, never still for a moment, crinkling, uncrinkling, waving and flapping as in a breeze, or rather cross breezes."

Sources: Beneath Tropic Seas;
The Traveller’s Handbook/Fergus Fleming/Atlantic Books/2012

William Beebe

APROPOS OF NOTHING #1 - 18 APRIL 1960 - PETER MATHIESSEN IN A BALSA WOOD CRAFT

Available for freelance writing commissions on a variety of subjects including family history, nostalgic Belfast and its famous people, shops, shoppers & shopping, the golden age of Hollywood (esp westerns) and humorous pieces on life's weird and wonderful. Op-eds, columns, non-fiction book reviews too. 

joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I have a portfolio of features, reviews, poetry and short fiction published in all sorts of places - Belfast Telegraph, Tribune, Ireland's Own, Dalhousie Review, Fairlight Books, Reader's Digest, Reality, Lapwing Poetry, Ink, Sweat & Tears, Spillwords, Dear Reader, Amethyst Review, to name a selection.  Oh, and the odd BBC radio contribution. 

This is a series of very, very short items that have nothing to do with the current news agenda.  Swift diversions for a moment or two.

Apropos of Nothing #1 - 18 April 1960

On this day in 1960, the US naturalist Peter Matthiessen was travelling down the Rio Urubamba in Peru when he and his companions braved the whitewater canyon of Pongo de Mainique. Their balsa-wood craft was called Happy Days.




Sources: The Cloud Forest: A Chronicle of the South American Wilderness;

The Traveller’s Handbook/Fergus Fleming/Atlantic Books/2012

Peter Matthiessen

ENTERING COMPETITIONS - A HOBBY THAT PAYS OFF (SOMETIMES)

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joecushnan@aol.com & @JoeCushnan

I posted this in June 2019, but it might be of interest for people who like to stay occupied in these interesting times.

In case I fail to make this clear in the post, NEVER, EVER (UNLESS YOU ARE LOADED) ENTER COMPETITIONS BY PREMIUM RATE PHONE. STRETCH TO A SECOND CLASS STAMP BUT NO MORE.  MOST COMPS ARE AVAILABLE TO ENTER FREE ONLINE.)

Soon, I will be flying off to New York, on a 5-star luxury trip, all expenses paid, thanks to a competition I entered relating to the film Ocean's Eight. Lucky guy!

Luck.  Here's the Chambers definition:

luck noun 1. chance, especially as it is perceived as influencing someone's life at specific points in time. 2. good fortune. 3. events in life which cannot be controlled and seem to happen by chance...........

"You make your own luck" is one of those glib expressions that work colleagues and bosses have said occasionally over the years. I have never believed that. How can you make something happen with certainty that is down to the roll of the proverbial dice? You can have a go, make a bet, buy a lottery ticket, enter a competition, apply for a job, etc, etc but you can't make those things a certainty for you unless you cheat or enter into some criminal activity, but then even that kind of chicanery is not a guarantee of success. 

You can prepare for things to the nth degree for what you believe is a sure thing, but it is still a game of chance. I heard someone say "you make your own luck" recently on the radio and it got me thinking about the sheer amount of meaningless claptrap that permeates business life, sports punditry, social networking and life in general.

God knows, we only have to spend a few minutes on Twitter to read all kinds of pseudo-sage advice. I'm as guilty as anybody. I add my tuppence on a regular basis. But if you really can make your own luck, it can be either good luck or bad luck, can't it?  Either way, you're not in the driving seat. Depend on the rabbit's foot if you like but remember it didn't work for the rabbit. In the Sunday Times Rich List, for example, there are winners of huge lottery jackpots in the ranks.  Did they make their own luck or did they just buy a ticket that happened to coincide with the big money balls?  

Ladies and gentlemen, I have an admission to make. 

I am a competitions junkie.  

If I see a prize worth going for, I enter.  In the past several years, I have won:

a Mini car (that's a real car, not a toy!)

a £4,500 holiday to Alberta, Canada
a £500 cosmetics/perfumes hamper

a TV

an X Box

tickets to see The Three Tenors at Wembley

a bench top tool system/saw set

a weekend in Cornwall
a cookery school weekend in Aldeburgh

several National Lottery tenners

several Premium Bond £25s

an outdoor jacket

a laptop computer

a selection of computer accessories

a lot of books

a lot of DVDs

a lot of CDs

several gift cards

etc

etc
£1,000 cash in a radio competition
a hamper of ancient grains, flour, yeast and a bread recipe book

Entering competitions is fun and can be very cheap. I go for free entry comps or, if interested enough, I'll stretch to postcards and stamps. I never, ever enter by phone call or text. Those methods of entry are mugs' games, very expensive at rates that might hover around £2 or more a minute and they keep people hanging on for far longer than a minute.

If you are looking for a fun hobby, go on, have a go. If you're not in, you can't win.

Good, er, luck!