Strike Factory

am in mourning at Strike Towers, whereas England lost one of its greatest comedians recently in Norman Wisdom, it was Canada's turn when one of my heros and great influences growing up Leslie Nielsen passed away last night! I will never forget the great Naked Gun movies, and will be keen to watch the great movies again.

RIP Legend

Meanwhile I finally managed to win my first ever Quiz Night, at The Greyhound although there was just one other team formed from scratch and the main team that always wins decided to pull out at the last minute. The prize just a foil FA Cup. Apart from the work experience continuing at Oxfam and St Catherines Hospice (where the staff seem to enjoy the way I put away the hangers), not a lot has gone on.

Next month there should be a fair bit about various antics I get up to that includes Christmas partys, 50/50 chance of attending a school reunion, 90's retro theme nights and a wedding reception! Hopefully won't be as skint, then.

It was widely reported inside and outside the UK (hat tip Louise Riley!), that British childrens toy shop The Early Learning Centre had taken a pig out of one of its farm sets so it did not upset Muslim and Jewish (As in the Torah and Quran it is forbidden to eat Pork!) religious groups! This follows on from the supposed craziness of political correctness that includes Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep from a few years earlier and when I used to help out at a disabled care organisation I had to call blind people 'visually impaired'!

I decided to pay a visit to the Early Learning Centre store at County Mall, Crawley to find out if there was some truth in the news was it something blown out of proportion by The Sun or is it really true? First thing that struck me on arrival at the shop was the massive presence of cute little cuddly toy pigs at one end of the shop. I began my search for the farm set! I managed to find a farm set that included a pig for older kids on my search around the shop! Eventually I came across a farm set for 3-8 years the packaging showed a farmer, a cow a sheep, a chicken but no pig mentioned at all on the packaging! Was this the farm set the world has been banging on about? Eventually I went to the till to ask some kind ladys about this farm set! They claimed they had received no complaints from any religious groups, they said there was a pig that was optional with the farm for free of charge, and that it had been taken out for some bizarre religious reasons!

So there was some truth in the farm set but the pig is still available for those pork lovers!

Note a contact from Scotland has informed me that the Early Learning Centre issued a statement that the pig was being reinstated due to complaints from mothers! Although it was still packaged without a pig when I saw it, I suppose the pig is the option I was told about!

As people may have noticed I am starting to drift the site away a little bit from just diary entrys and now adding a random article on some strange random facts from around the world! The diary entrys like this will remain though. In truth the last two weeks have been a little quiet apart from the work experience and resuming the cooking course!

There will be a new Strike Factory Quote Of The Year competition and there are currently two entries I would like to nominate Sarah Steeples for her 'Do they make porridge?' in reference to the Quaker House that Strike Towers used to be based close to! The other is a surprise challenge from Woking manager Graham Baker for his comment pre penalty interview 'My players will close our eyes and hope for the best' and the Cardinals did just that against the Seagulls! Its up to the public to decide who wins by posting comments here or on facebook!

I have been addicted to old skool computer games from the old Sega Mega Drive (Genesis for my North American fans) the last few weeks, using an emulator and enjoying the likes of Sonic, Mortal Kombat 3, and Super Fantsy Zone! Dont make games like that anymore!