This is quite cool its actually three parts of a tree that appear to look like one big tree from outside the house. Greig Howe cut a 35ft Christmas tree into three parts and put one part in his sitting room, another in a bedroom and the last part on the roof. It took  several people two days to put the tree in place and some of the branches are so big that the windows of the house need to be kept open. The tree is decorated with 160 baubles and 2,000 lights.

I appreciate that products that contain nuts need to have warnings on them to alert people who suffer allergic reactions but I sometime wonder whether this policy goes a bit too far. The reason I say this is that I picked up a large bag of unshelled mixed nuts in the supermarket the other day. The product is clearly labelled as "unshelled mixed nuts" and it is clearly what it says on bag. On the back is a large label saying "warning may contain nuts". I find the wording somewhat amusing "may contain nuts", I thought I had brought a bag of nuts, is there any doubt that the product has nuts in it, what else would it contain?

This article suggests that otters are now starting to become much more common in Britain. Otters have previously struggled to survive in Britain and have been restricted to isolated parts of the countryside. Although they were widespread in the 1950's they were nearly wiped out by the 1970's due to the use of pesticides which poisoned both the otters and the fish they depend on for food. It appears that improvements in the water quality of rivers and increasingly fish stocks now means that the creatures are becoming more common. Some otters have also started to adopt an urban lifestyle with reports of them being seen in gardens, parks and churchyards.

Burger King have released a barbecue scented cologne. It is called Flame and is being promoted as "the scent of seduction with a hint of flame-broiled meat". It is currently only available in the US and costs $3.99. It is being marketed as a novelty stocking filler but I'm guessing it is not suitable for vegetarians.

This huge crab was caught by fishermen in Norway and was put on sale at a fish merchant in Swansea Market. At 3ft by 1ft and weighing in at 3kg, the crab which is as big as a table would cost you £75. I'm not entirely sue what you would do with all that crab meat, but this is one seriously large crab.

I got an invitation to download the beta version of Playstation Home a few weeks ago and after a good 45 minutes I had managed to install it. I was then prompted to install some further updates which the Playstation apparently requires in order to run Playstation Home. After around an hour of installation time I prepared myself to enter the virtual world and explore. First I created my avatar which despite my best efforts didn't look much like me but I did my best with the limited range of hair and features available. On entering the virtual world I then found myself in my virtual apartment and spent a few minutes looking around to see what I could do. I quickly found out that there there was not a great deal to do here. I could move the furniture around so spent some pointless time moving all my furniture out of the apartment onto the balcony before getting bored. Then I tried to throw myself off the balcony and found that I couldn't. Having exhausted all the possibilities of the virtual apartment I decided I would go outside and look around, so I approached the door expecting to be able to walk straight through. The system then promoted me to install the next section so that I could move on. I spent another 15 minutes in my apartment moving all my furniture back into the apartment and trying to stack it in the centre of room whilst I was waiting for the installation to finish.

Then I eventually stepped out into the virtual world. Once there I found that was not an awful lot I could do here either. I spent some time exploring before trying my hand at a game of draughts against another player in the square. After beating him soundly I looked around for more amusement. I found there was a bowling alley which always seemed to be full so I was unable to try this, a cinema where you could watch movie trailers and a shopping centre where there were lots of shops but with nothing to buy. All of these sections also require further downloads to access them. I tried some of the games in the arcade and played a rather poor game of pool whilst trying to avoid the other male players who seem to cluster around the female avatars like flies. After spending a couple hours in the virtual world the majority of which was spent downloading new sections of the world I took my avatar back to the apartment and went back to the considerably more interesting real world. In some ways I can see where Playstation are trying to go with Home, but it could certainly use a little more excitement.

This article suggests that the average Briton spends more than three and half years of their lives suffering from colds and flu. That amounts to an average of three colds a year and around three weeks a year off sick. Over the course of an average adult lifetime this amounts to an surprising three years, five months and 15 days suffering from a cold or flu. I guess I must be one of the lucky ones, I can't remember the last time I got sick.

A pub landlord who lived all his life in the same pub has had his ashes buried at the bar. Jack Woodward was born in the Boat Inn near Towcester in 1924 and lived there all his life until he died aged 83. In his will he said that he wanted the bar to be his final resting place. His remains now lie under a flagstone with a plaque reading "Stand here and have a drink on me. Jack 1924 – 2008."

The lightsabre used by Luke Skywalker in Star Wars has recently sold at auction for £133,000. The prop was sold at an auction of Hollywood props and memorabilia. Other items for sale included an original section of the Death Star which sold for £13,300 and C-3PO's helmet which fetched £66,444. My husband was love a lightsabre but I think I might have to look around for something a little cheaper.