And when the queen stops
By Skip • Jun 25th, 2008 • Category: SkipI have an aversion to bugs. Six, eight and of multiple legged variety and it all stems from a holiday on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus when I was 7 years old. There I was, enjoying a summer holiday for more than a week or two, six to be precise and on a day out with family at a war museum. One of the things that caught my eye was an anti aircraft gun. Well I say gun, what I mean is a huge fuck off cannon, certainly to me at that age. So I did what any normal child with an over active imagination would do, I stood behind that cannon and started shooting down the enemy. Whether this was the other half of the island’s inhabitants, I can’t remember. It was more likely to be Imperial TIE Fighters.
Well, imagine my surprise to be suddenly no where near the cannon and in the arms of my aunt, crying. Once they ascertained that I hadn’t been bitten by a snake, my uncle discovered that there was wasps’ nest in the barrel of the cannon. To this day, I can remember NOT remembering what happened to me, I simply blacked it all out. Suffice to say that I had been attacked by a number of the little winged bastards, all over the face and one hand. It wasn’t a pretty sight and I must have looked a bit like Joseph Merrick with all the stares I was getting. Of course I got over my injuries by the end of the end, but my scars run deep…
So you can understand why I’m glad I wasn’t in Exeter enjoying a bite to eat at Bella Italia…
Bees cause a buzz in city centre
Police had to cordon off a Devon street after a swarm of bees landed on a chair outside a restaurant.
It happened outside Bella Italia on Exeter High Street to the amazement of people enjoying a bite to eat in the open air.
The city council has called in a local beekeeper to move the swarm to a safer location.
Swarming is mainly a spring phenomenon but can happen at other times, depending on the location.
Local beekeeper John Easton was called in to gather the swarm and take them away.
“My personal view is that the queen runs out of energy and she stops,” he said.
“And when the queen stops the rest of the bees stop with her.”
A few days earlier and I could have been in a lot of trouble as I was meeting fellow Twitter users and shopping at the Apple Store. And while the queen bee was stopping for a rest, this queen would have been running for the hills!
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Skip is the nerd out of the GSFN partnership. Skip enjoys nothing more than good sci-fi and horror, be it on the big screen, TV or in a book. He also likes the bad stuff too. Skip also has a thing for faces and continuously likes to point out actors from one film to the next, much to the annoyance of Drew.
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