According to this article an English sparkling wine has beaten some of the leading French champagne producers to win an international competition. The Champion of Worldwide Sparkling Wines competition is run by Italy’s wine magazine Euposia. It attracts sparkling wines from around the world which are tasted in a blind tasting by a panel of judges. The Nyetimber Classic Cuvee 2003 which is made in Sussex won the competition beating some notable French wines including Bollinger. Two other English wines also featured in the top 12.

According to this article people are increasingly choosing inexpensive pursuits such as painting and drawing during the recession. It seems people are moving away from more expensive hobbies as paint brush sales tripled and sales of A4 sketch books doubled at Tesco last year. They have put the increase down to their customers looking for cheaper ways to spend their free time and expect a further increase this year.

A half smoked cigar that was abandoned by Sir Winston Churchill has sold at auction for £4,500. The cigar was discarded when Churchill rushed away to an urgent wartime cabinet meeting. It was picked up by a member of staff at 10 Downing Street 69 years ago and was recently put up at auction. The cigar was expected to fetch around £350 but was snapped up by a private collector for the sum of £4,500.

I have always been sceptical about the claims that fortnightly bin collections will cut waste. I’m not surprised then by the results of a report recently commissioned by the Government. It suggests that fortnightly bin collections do not help to cut waste and in fact it forces people to dispose of their waste in other ways such as driving it to the local dump. The report which was commissioned by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs found that although fortnightly bin collections did reduce the amount of waste left in the street it had a knock on effect of home owners taking more rubbish to the tip. According to the shadow Local Government minister this has the effect of increasing congestion and pollution from traffic. Based on the findings the Conservatives have said they will work to establish weekly bin collections if they are elected.

According to this article Dyson have just launched a mini version of its vacuum cleaner. Designed for those who live in small flats or apartments the City DC26 is small enough to store in a bookcase but has all the features you would expect from the bigger model. At £250 its not cheap but I would certainly find this useful for cleaning awkward places like the stairs where I find lifting my larger Dyson a little difficult.

According to this article the recent cold weather has been responsible for a rise in the sales of bird seed. It seems people have been spending a lot of money on our feathered friends this winter. The demand for bird seed has helped the Garden Centre Group post a jump in profits as sales rose 8% in the five weeks up to 27 December. The combination of this and an increased demand for Christmas trees have meant the chain have posted a 17% rise in gross profits to £14m.

If you are tempted by the by one get one free offers when you go shopping but often find you can’t use the products before they go off, then you might find this article interesting. It seems Tesco are looking to reduce food waste by offering a buy one get one free later deal. Under the offer customers will be able to take advantage of the deal but instead of having to take both products at the same time, they will be given a coupon to redeem against the second product at a later date. It seems like a good idea to me and would certainly encourage me to take advantage of the offers on perishable items which I would usually bypass.

According to this article we will soon be able to watch 3D football matches in our living rooms. Sky have begun testing its technology by filming some matches in 3D and have promised that football will be a major part of its 3D channel content. In order to watch the 3D matches you will need to have a Sky HD set top box and wear 3D glasses but with many TV manufactures launching their 3D models this year it seems TV could be set to get a little bit more exciting.

This interesting looking creature is called the blobfish. The fish which can grow up to 12 inches in size lives at depths of up to 800m which means it is rarely seen. Unfortunately although the fish is not edible it lives close to others that are and so is often caught by mistake with other catches such as crabs and lobsters. Whilst other fish are protected the blobfish is not and so is now at risk of becoming extinct.

A Tesco store has put up notices asking shoppers not to wear pyjamas or go barefoot. It seems the store in Cardiff has more than its fair share of customers who like to do their shopping in their night clothes. A spokesman for Tesco has said that although they do not have a strict dress code they do not want people shopping in their nightwear in case it offends other customers. The signs read as follows "To avoid causing offence or embarrassment to others we ask that our customers are appropriately dressed when visiting our store (footwear must be worn at all times and no nightwear is permitted)." Some of the customers, however, have described the ban as ridiculous and one lady has claimed she has shopped at the store in her pyjamas regularly before being turned away a week ago. She has claimed that the store will lose custom as people will choose to shop elsewhere. I’m not really sure I agree. Are people really too busy to bother getting dressed before they go to the supermarket?

This is Amber the first cat to win the UK slimming champion in PDSA’s annual Pet Fit Club Competition. The cat has managed to lose 17% of her boy weight to win the title. She started off weighing 7kg in September 2009 and has lost 1.23kg. As you can see by the before and after pictures she is now a much sleeker pussy cat.

This is Missy the world’s first cat to receive a knee replacement. She was close to death after being run over by a car but after receiving pioneering surgery to rebuild her limbs and being fitted with a metal joint she is now recovering nicely. To repair her leg a collagen mesh made from a pigs bladder was used to re-grow tissue and cover the bone. The bones were then placed in a device called a spider which held them in place until the bone and tissue had healed. The implant itself was custom made to fit Missy’s measurements. It was made out of stainless steel and bonded to the thigh bone and shin bone using cement. The new implant should allow Missy to walk, run and jump around as normal.

According to this article nine out of ten food allergy cases are all in the mind. Researchers say that nine out of ten Britons who believe they have a food allergy or intolerance are actually perfectly healthy. Studies show that although 20 per cent of adults claim they cannot eat certain foods when in reality fewer than 2% actually have a problem. Internet searches, self testing kits and celebrity food fads are blamed for the problem which causes millions of people to restrict their diet unnecessarily. Other people could be suffering from a medical problem which goes untreated because they believe they are suffering a food intolerance instead. The advice here is to see your doctor to receive a correct diagnosis.

If you have some extra money to spare and fancy buying something a little unusual then you might be interested in this hole. It has recently been put up for sale by the owners for the first time in 150 years. The hole was once used as a quarry and has since been filled with water. It measures 142 metres (466ft deep). It is thought that it might attract interest from people wanting to use it as a leisure site for diving or perhaps to drain it to use for climbing. If you are interested in purchasing it, it is expected to sell for offers over £30,000.