Wednesday, June 23, 2010

 

World Cup sweepstakes - North Korea

On learning that I'd received North Korea in the workplace World Cup sweepstakes, my first reaction was one of doom and gloom. Typical, I thought, I pay five pounds in order to get the tournament's only dead-cert failure; even after the first match against Brazil it is clear it will all be over.

But then I Googled the North Korean team and discovered that, actually, they have a World Cup record comparable to that of England.

Okay, they may only have got there once, in 1966, but when they did they beat Italy – perhaps the greatest World Cup upset of all time – and only narrowly lost to the Portugal of the legendary Eusebio in the quarter-final.

Not bad, eh. That's a quarter final average.

Whatever one thinks about the politics of the "Democratic People's Republic" of North Korea, it would be hard to begrudge the team's players any sort of upset in the tournament.

Unfortunately for the people of the country, where only one person in a thousand owns a car, they won't be able to watch the tournament following a political stand-off with their neighbours from the South. But after seeing television pictures of the North Korean players training in a mere South African municipal gym, I can't help but hope that they, not only for the sake of my sweepstake, but also for reasons of pure romance, spring a few surprises this summer.

Image © yeowatzup via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence

# posted by Fuse @ 5:31 AM 0 Comments

Saturday, June 12, 2010

 

Newly weds crash Ferrari on way to reception

A newly wedded couple in Italy faced their first marital crisis only moments after stepping out of the church. The pair had rented a 180mph Testarossa Ferrari for an hour to drive themselves from the church to their reception venue.

Sadly for the pair, after just going a few yards in the supercar, the groom swerved off the road straight into a traffic light.

When hiring the car, the pair had to sign over a £20,000 insurance deposit which they are unlikely to ever see again.

On top of the £20,000, they also had to pay £50 for damaging public property.

According to a police spokesman, neither of the pair had been drinking but due to the power of the car, it only takes a small mistake to crash.

[Image Zero One via Flickr, under Creative Commons Licence]

# posted by Fuse @ 1:18 AM 0 Comments