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Spider Payment

From: Jane Gilles
Date: Wednesday 8 Oct 2008 12.19pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Overdue account

Dear David,
Our records indicate that your account is overdue by the amount of $233.95. If you have already made this payment please contact us within the next 7 days to confirm payment has been applied to your account and is no longer outstanding.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles



From: David Thorne
Date: Wednesday 8 Oct 2008 12.37pm
To: Jane Gilles Subject:
Re: Overdue account

Dear Jane,
I do not have any money so am sending you this drawing I did of a spider instead. I value the drawing at $233.95 so trust that this settles the matter.








Regards, David.






From: Jane Gilles
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 10.07am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Overdue account

Dear David,
Thankyou for contacting us. Unfortunately we are unable to accept drawings as payment and your account remains in arrears of $233.95. Please contact us within the next 7 days to confirm payment has been applied to your account and is no longer outstanding.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles



From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 10.32am
To: Jane Gilles Subject:
Re: Overdue account

Dear Jane,
Can I have my drawing of a spider back then please.

Regards, David.


From: Jane Gilles
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 11.42am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Overdue account

Dear David,
You emailed the drawing to me. Do you want me to email it back to you?

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles



From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 11.56am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Overdue account

Dear Jane,

Yes please.

Regards, David.



From: Jane Gilles
Date: Thursday 9 Oct 2008 12.14pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Overdue account

Attached












From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 09.22am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Whose spider is that?

Dear Jane,
Are you sure this drawing of a spider is the one I sent you? This spider only has seven legs and I do not feel I would have made such an elementary mistake when I drew it.

Regards, David.


From: Jane Gilles
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 11.03am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Whose spider is that?

Dear David,
Yes it is the same drawing. I copied and pasted it from the email you sent me on the 8th. David your account is still overdue by the amount of $233.95. Please make this payment as soon as possible.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles



From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 11.05am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Automated Out of Office Response

Thankyou for contacting me. I am currently away on leave, traveling through time and will be returning last week.

Regards, David.



From: David Thorne
Date: Friday 10 Oct 2008 11.08am
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

Hello, I am back and have read through your emails and accept that despite missing a leg, that drawing of a spider may indeed be the one I sent you. I realise with hindsight that it is possible you rejected the drawing of a spider due to this obvious limb ommission but did not point it out in an effort to avoid hurting my feelings. As such, I am sending you a revised drawing with the correct number of legs as full payment for any amount outstanding. I trust this will bring the matter to a conclusion.




Regards, David.







From: Jane Gilles
Date: Monday 13 Oct 2008 2.51pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

Dear David,
As I have stated, we do not accept drawings in lei of money for accounts outstanding. We accept cheque, bank cheque, money order or cash. Please make a payment this week to avoid incurring any additional fees.

Yours sincerely, Jane Gilles



From: David Thorne
Date: Monday 13 Oct 2008 3.17pm
To: Jane Gilles
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

I understand and will definately make a payment this week if I remember. As you have not accepted my second drawing as payment, please return the drawing to me as soon as possible. It was silly of me to assume I could provide you with something of completely no value whatsoever, waste your time and then attach such a large amount to it.

Regards, David.


From: Jane Gilles
Date: Tuesday 14 Oct 2008 11.18am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Whose spider is that?

Attached










The now inFAMOUS spider is currently up for auction on eBay .... And you guessed it, the starting price is $233.95 :)

Pensioner put on wrong flight

Employees at US Airways are looking into how an 83-year-old woman in a wheelchair flying from New York to Tampa instead found herself at an airport in Puerto Rico.

Elfriede Kuemmel had gone to Newburgh, N.Y., for a day trip on Monday. Kuemmel's family said that somehow, an attendant on a connecting flight in Philadelphia wheeled Kuemmel to the wrong flight.

She spent the night in Puerto Rico and arrived at the Tampa airport Monday. A US Airways spokesperson said the airline paid for her food and hotel and flew her back to Florida first-class.

Asked how she liked Puerto Rico, she said, "I didn't see it. I was in the airport the whole time,'' although she did get to spend the night in a nearby hotel room courtesy of the airline.

She said she loved flying first class after the tiresome, unexpected diversion. She has never been to Puerto Rico before, she said, "and I'll never go again.''

Then she got into the family's car, and away they went.

Free vegetables mayhem

PLATTEVILLE, Colo. - A Colorado farm couple say they got a huge surprise when they opened their fields to anyone who wanted to pick up free vegetables left over after the harvest.

Forty thousand people showed up yesterday and picked the fields so clean that Joe and Chris Miller had to cancel a second day of gleaning.

Chris Miller says she had expected as many as 10,000 people might show up for the free potatoes, carrots and leeks. Instead an estimated 11,000 vehicles snaked around the cornfields, creating a back up of more than two miles. About 30 acres of the 600-acre farm turned into a parking lot.

One woman taking part says with everybody "so depressed about the economy," the event turned into "a pure party" with "everybody having a great time getting something for free."

The farm's operations manager estimates the visitors gathered 600,000 pounds of produce.

Owner Chris Miller says "People obviously need food."

Meteorite lands in Canada

Scientists in Canada are hunting for pieces of a meteor that spectacularly lit up the night sky and then exploded into pieces before falling to Earth.Experts are calling it one of the biggest meteors seen in the country in the last decade.

Video footage has been broadcast of what appeared to be a fireball late on Thursday over Saskatoon.

It soared out of the sky, getting larger and brighter before disappearing as it neared the ground. Police in the province of Alberta received hundreds of telephone calls from people who say they witnessed the rare event.

Some heard a loud "boom" noise in the distance as the meteor struck.

Most meteors burn up completely after entering the Earth's atmosphere, but one in 1,000 drop meteorites that hit the Earth.

Would you like fries with that?

A US couple is suing McDonald's for $3m (£2m) after nude photos of the woman, which were on her husband's mobile phone, ended up on the internet. Phillip Sherman says he accidentally left his phone, with the photos, at a McDonald's in Fayetteville, Arkansas.

He says staff promised to secure the phone until he could retrieve it. The Shermans claim they had to move to a new home after the woman's name, address, and phone number appeared online along with the photos.

Tina Sherman says she began receiving offensive calls and text messages about the pictures from her husband's mobile phone after he left it at the McDonald's on 5 July. The couple then discovered that the nude pictures she had sent to her husband's phone had been posted online.

The Shermans are suing McDonald's Corporation, the owner of the franchise involved and the restaurant's manager, saying they have suffered emotional distress, embarrassment and damage to their reputations. They also allege loss of earnings and want to recover the cost of moving to a new home.

McDonald's Corp, the franchise owner and the manager have so far refused to comment on the case. The nude pictures have been removed from the website that had posted them.

Lost in space

It happens to everyone. Now a spacewalking astronaut has misplaced her handbag.

Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper was just starting to work on a solar panel when a grease gun inside her tool kit exploded and she accidentally let go of the bag.

She could only look on helplessly as the kit and everything inside floated away.

It was one of the largest items ever to be lost by a spacewalker, and occurred during an unprecedented attempt to clean and lube a gummed-up joint one of the space station's solar panels.

Stefanyshyn-Piper let the backpack-sized bag slip out of her grip while wiping grease off her camera and gloves.

"Oh, great," she mumbled.

Stefanyshyn-Piper was carrying out the spacewalk with Stephen Bowen. Luckily, he had his own tool bag with another grease gun, putty knife and oven-like terry cloth mitts to wipe away metal grit from the clogged joint.

Mission Control agreed the spacewalk would continue as planned, and that the two astronauts would share tools. Flight controllers were assessing the impact the lost bag would have on the next three planned spacewalks.

Earlier, the spacewalkers spotted a screw floating by, but were too far away to catch it. "I have no idea where it came from," Stefanyshyn-Piper told Mission Control. Mission Control said the screw was not considered a serious hazard, but did not immediately elaborate on the missing tool bag. Flight controllers were tracking its location in orbit.

My name is Earl?

The owner of an Indian food store in Bristol has received an apology letter and £100 from a former drug addict who stole cigarettes from the shop in 2001. Imran Ahmed, 27, who runs Raja Foods in St Marks Road, Easton, said he was stunned to open the remorseful letter.

It begins: "Dear Sirs, I am writing this letter to make amends to you for something I have done in the past."

Mr Ahmed said the thief's change of heart was "really good" and he intends to give the money to a drugs' charity.

The thief's letter continues:

"About seven years ago I was walking past your shop late one night when I noticed that someone had broken into it.
"I used this opportunity to enter your shop where I stole 400 cigarettes. The money enclosed (£100) is to pay for those cigarettes which I stole from you. At that time I was heavily using drugs and my life was in a mess, now I no longer use drugs and I strive to lead a decent and honest life. As part of my ongoing recovery I try to put right all of the wrongs I have done in the past, at least where I can, and this is why I am giving you back the money which I stole from you. I regret the harm I caused you in the past and I sincerely apologise to you for it. I was very wrong to do this and I hope that returning the money will make up for this harm, at least in some small way."

Pig theft

Two thieves were caught in southern Hungary with 12 pigs stuffed in their small van during a routine traffic check, Hungarian police said on Thursday.

Police stopped two men in a Renault Kangoo near the town of Szigetvar, about 220 km (137 miles) south of Budapest, as they attempted to drive off.

"The pigs weighed about 25-30 kg (55-66 lb) each -- they were really squashed into the car very tightly," a spokesman said.

Police said the pigs came from a nearby farm, where 35 pigs have gone missing in recent days.

Blinded pilot lands safely

A pilot who suddenly went blind while flying his plane at 15,000ft (4,572m) was guided in to land by an RAF plane. A plane was scrambled from the RAF base at Linton-on-Ouse in North Yorkshire to help stricken pilot Jim O'Neill, 65.

He was flying a two-seater Cessna aircraft from Prestwick airport in Scotland to Colchester, Essex, when he suffered a stroke and lost his sight. Wing Cdr Paul Gerrard, chief flying instructor, flew his Tucano T1 about 50m next to the Cessna to bring Mr O'Neill safely down.

Mr Hynd said: "He used his voice to guide him [Mr O'Neill] down by telling him to turn left and right, to lower the plane and to do his pre-landing checks. At very short range he still couldn't see the runway and it was only at the last minute that he could. He landed about halfway down and came to a halt just at the end.

"The RAF routinely practises shepherding but we are usually shepherding lost aircraft, we are not used to shepherding blind pilots, which is what makes this amazing. It was a fantastic team effort from all those involved and we're proud that we could get him to the ground safely."

Mr O'Neill was checked over by RAF medics before being transferred to Queen's Hospital in Romford, Essex where he is believed to be seriously ill.

Giant lego man appears on Brighton beach

A giant Lego man is attracting attention on a beach in Brighton - but mystery surrounds how it got there. It is thought to have washed up on the beach, and was spotted by children playing there.

The Lego man is 6ft tall in red, yellow and green. It is presumed to have washed up on the beach, but whether it has come from a cargo ship or from across the Channel is not clear.

Brighton resident Gerry Turner, 34, said: "It's very odd. God knows how it got here but people are saying it's from Holland because it's got some Dutch writing on it. It must have fallen off a boat of something. The kids love it."

Children helped stand the Lego man up on the beach, but are still mystified as to where it came from. One said: "It's great, but we don't know why it's here."

A spokesman for Brighton and Hove City Council said it didn't know the origin of the Lego man, but said it was fine for it to remain on the beach.

He said: "There's no problem at all. It will be interesting to see how long the Lego man stays there for. We'll keep an eye on it."

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