Africa: The home of Low Technology and Firm Determination

Now this what Portable means to this hard-headed business man, in the non-consumerist world! Never mind your iPods.


This the local pickup truck heading to work!


I think this is truly fantastic and a must for every student flat! Hot water from a cold tap!


So how else do you get the goat to the market? The trick is how to get him to hold on with those cloven hooves! Room for one on top! Mind the Gap!


Right! Now your full! Get going and no speeding this time!


When we say we are closed, we are closed! Why should we explain to you! You can go away now, quickly please!


Emergency which service please? No, don't worry the Ambulance is on it's way! We are using the fastest donkey we have!


What? How do you know it's wrong? It said 'SPOT' before we got here! Is that an Ambulance walking towards us?


Special Offer! This week only! No Fuel! Take it or leave it! Your choice!

Small Emergencies call for different strategies

Small minds make small emergencies. Several unnecessary reasons for calling the police include;
Running out of Credit on your mobile phone

Leaving your coat on a bus

Arguing with a bookie who refuses to pay out your winnings

Another car or van is obstructing the road in front of you and you need to get your kids to school

Chinese Aircrew Practice Emergency Procedures

Here you can see them 'Assuming Crash Positions'!

Chinese Lanterns Spark Alarms in UK

The Chinese Lantern, they provide an inexpensive way of bringing wedding celebrations and parties to a spectacular and memorable close. They also appeal to the spiritual and romantic side of our nature, in the absence of religion.

However, the increasing popularity of flying Chinese lanterns is also triggering emergency searches costing up to £10,000 because they are being mistaken for distress flares.

Coastguards have appealed to revellers to think again before launching the candle-powered lanterns, which can rise to 10,000ft, after 12 incidents this weekend alone.

They include three dealt with by Forth Coastguard, with one involving a lifeboat being launched to search the coast near Cockenzie in East Lothian.

In another incident, coastguard teams were scrambled following multiple reports of red and white flares at Bamburgh Castle, south of Berwick-upon-Tweed, on Saturday night.

Do you think they have the same problems in China, Hong Kong and Singapore? Where these lanterns are regularly used to mark birth, deaths and marriages.

Perhaps the Emergency Services should ask their Chinese colleagues what they do. Perhaps the Chinese have a better way of determining between a paper balloon, with 1 candle power and a genuine distress flare, allegedly.