The World’s Greatest Blog

Linda is a partner in 24 Hour Trading and brings you interesting news, nonsense and opinion from around the world, as well as reviews of varied places such as Ayers Rock and Rosslyn chapel.

Carol Ann Duffy is the Poet Laureate of Great Britain- a royal post awarded for a ten year period by the Queen on the advice of the Prime Minister. She has just written the following poem in response to the news that David Beckham has snapped his Achilles tendon, though I’m afraid some of the [...]

Not everyone’s very good a putting their thoughts and feelings into words and that’s what we have poets and writers for. If you’ve ever experienced one of a myriad of emotions that accompany falling in love, then there’s a poem, essay or novel that will capture the essence of the moment for you. If writing [...]

Santa’s reindeer are in Edinburgh until 24th December after trotting down from the Cairngorms. They were just having some supper before bed when we spotted them and the lead male was eating the lion’s share.
Santa was nearby in an igloo, handing out presents, and some children had got trapped in a snow globe next door.
There [...]

This song has been bugging me for while – what is he on about with the crooked letters? I only realised after reading all the lyrics that Mr Rida means that this girl (Alex Burke) likes crooked things so much that she would only sing the crooked letters of the alphabet if she was reading [...]

Whilst browsing through American retailers today, I found possibly the worst Christmas present ever touted as a “gift”. Trying sending this one to a friend or sibling with an interest in old-fashioned drugs testing:
These urine specimen bottles make a great gift for the official drug tester in your life. It also makes a great pencil [...]

I’d never bought a pumpkin for Halloween and when Co-op were selling them for just £1.50, I thought I’d have a bash at celebrating Halloween the American way.
Carving a pumpkin isn’t all that hard – just cut a circle around the stem and it lifts off easily owing to the hollow centre where the seeds [...]

Penrith is a market town in Cumbria on the M6. Many people pass the town on their way between England and Scotland or the Yorkshire Dales and the Lake District. There’s a castle ruin, an unusual Church and loads of tearooms and pubs.
If you’re looking for internet access, you can use a cafe on Devonshire [...]

I was wondering why everybody was singing “Red Wine” at the start of the big pop tunes of this year and last and figured it must be a 21st Century version of “Dark Child”.
Dark Child was a favourite producer of stars like Jenny Lopez and the Spice Girls in the 90’s and his name was [...]

Sunday 6th September 2009 saw the massive firework display which marked the end of the Edinburgh International Festival which had run since the start of August. To the sounds of Handel, thousands of pounds worth of pyrotechnics exploded and showered down from Edinburgh Castle ramparts. Speakers were set up at Inverleith Park and Calton Hill [...]

The Edinburgh Festival throws up some curious spectacles from busking opera singers in corsets to clowns doing monologues in the Radisson Hotel. The most strange thing yet, however, was the Cybraphon – a musical instrument whose tune changes depending on feedback given on social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter and the like.
The instrument itself [...]