Did you know

THAT Zappo The Magician has a Magic Carpet Ride show at Equippers Church Masterton in the School Holidays.  Thursday 12 July at 10.30am.  $4 per child, parents and caregivers FREE.

THAT last month Mike got a bit ahead of himself noting July facts of interest in the June Did you know column.

THAT the once widespread practice of adding sugar and water to the available grape juice resulted in 1980 New Zealand appearing to achieve the world’s highest production of wine per hectare of bearing vines.

THAT Town Hall Centennial Cabaret is being held Sat 22nd September with a theme ‘The First 50 Years’.

THAT diamonds have a boiling point of 4,027 degrees centigrade.

THAT there is still a lectures in the Medici 2012 series. Gaylene Preston, Film maker is the guest speaker for Thursday July 12.. Drinks and nibbles from 6 p.m. talks begin at 7.15.  $20 per lecture. Seats limited – bookings recommended.  Cafe Medici phone306 9965

THAT on July 23rd 1914, following a disagreement with Psychoanalytical Association founder Sigmund Freud over the definition of the term libido, Carl Jung resigned from his position as president.

THAT after water, tea is the most common drink in the world. Tea is recorded to have been brewed in China around 5,000 years ago. Tea was later introduced from China to India by a Zen monk, Bodhidharma.

THAT the little plastic end which keep shoe laces from shredding is called an aglet.

THAT Nelson Mandela, John Glenn and Richard Branson share July 18th as their birthday.

THAT the surface temperature on the planet Pluto is minus 183 degrees centigrade.

THAT on July 21st 1960 Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike became Prime Minister of Sri Lanka and the world’s first woman prime minister.

THAT following disastrous wheat harvests due to droughts and fertilizer shortages bread rationing was introduced in Britain on July 22nd 1946.

THAT tourism guest nights for the year ended March were up 3.7% on the previous year and the highest numbers since 2008.

THAT Mormon leader Brigham Young leading a band of 147 members of his church (including his numerous wives) arrived at the Salt Lake valley on July 24th 1847.

THAT nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.

THAT the Korean war, which cost an estimated five million lives, finally ended on July 27th 1953 with the signing of a ‘Peace Pact’ at Panmunjom between the armies of North and South Korea, the United Nations Forces and The Chinese People’s Volunteers.

THAT on July 28th 1586 Sir Walter Raleigh returned from a voyage to the Americas. Along with captured gold he carries the tubers of a South American plant which he planted at his estate in Cork considering it to suitable as stock food. And so potatoes were introduced to Ireland and subsequently Europe.

THAT hospitality is making your guests feel at home even when you wished they were.

THAT on July 29th 1981 750 million people switched on their TVs to watch the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Dianna Spencer.