Strange But True Stories of Eccentric English

Will and Guy's Strange But True Stories of Eccentric English

Are the British really more eccentric than other nations?  Will and Guy think so.  We believe the British are indeed different, principally because they combine these two factors, they care less than most what other people think about them, and unlike many nations, the British can laugh at themselves.

• Protest Cartwheel from Brighton to London
• Eccentrics:  We Have Them In England
• Beginner's Mistake?
• Four Casualties Instead of One
• Special Funny Thatchback Car Revealed

Protest Cartwheel from Brighton to London

Fact is always stranger than fiction.  We British produce a top class eccentric.

An artist is attempting to cartwheel from Brighton to London to protest about people taking stones from beaches. Mark McGowan, 37, from Peckham, says bylaws stopping people from taking stones to decorate their gardens should be enforced more firmly.

Two years ago Mr McGowan pushed a monkey nut for seven miles to Downing Street with his nose.  What next?

Eccentrics:  We Have Them In England

Busker*  Charlie Cavey singer plays his guitar whilst squeezed inside a tiny metal litter bin. The 30-year-old singer plays his guitar whilst squeezed inside the tiny metal litter bin in Cambridge, city centre, England - An archetypal Eccentric Englishman.

Cambridge is a city used to street performers; buskers often play songs but have to add funny and entertaining elements to grab people's attention and earn more money from passersby.

At 5ft 9 inches tall he finds his job cramped and smelly but his singing style is proving a huge hit with passers-by. Every 5 songs or so Charlie has to get out of the bin to stretch himself. 

It strikes Will and Guy that another problem could be that people passing by, may well deposit their litter in his bin. Not at all pleasant.

*A busker is a person who entertains by dancing, singing, or reciting on the street or in a public place. [It is a word of British origin]  Buskers may also do: acrobatics, animal tricks, balloon twisting, card tricks, clowning, comedy, contortions and escapes, dance, fire eating, fortune-telling, juggling, magic, mime and a mime variation where the artist performs as a living statue, musical performance, puppeteering, snake charming, storytelling or recite poetry; street art [sketching and painting], street theatre, sword swallowing, or even present a flea circus.

Will particularly remembers fondly the street performers when he visited New Orleans some years ago.

Beginner's Mistake?

One of the nursing students from the local community college was supposed to collect a sterile urine specimen from her patient. Imagine the surprise on the staff nurse's face when they found the student sterilising the urine in the unit kitchen - by boiling it on the stove.

Another Funny, Mildly Eccentric Person

Special Funny Thatchback Car Revealed

Will and Guy can reveal that a Wiltshire publican has treated his Morris 1000 Traveller car to a rustic makeover - by making a thatched roof for it.

Mr Jim Goodland now can be seen as he drives through the streets near his pub, The King's Head, in the village of Whiteparish, near Salisbury, Wiltshire, England.

The car is roadworthy; although Mr Goodland admits the new roof may not have improved its fuel consumption. The Morris Minor, said to typify Englishness, was first launched in London in 1948. The wood-framed Traveller was introduced to the Morris Minor range later on, along with the panel van and pick-up truck version.

Will owned a rose taupe coloured Morris 1000 Traveller in the early 1970's. Pictured here:

"Mad" but Funny Scottish Nurse Breaks World Record

Nurse sets himself on fire and runs 100 yards engulfed in a ball of flames.

Keith Malcolm, from Aberdeen, Scotland, was doused in petrol before sprinting 259 feet ablaze to beat the previous fire-run record of 227ft. To claim the record the amateur stuntman wore eight layers of protective clothing, including four layers of fireproof undergarments, a Formula One fireproof jacket and three overalls. He also wore three fire hoods and a helmet and coated himself in special protective "stunt gel" so he would not be harmed by the flames, which are believed to have reached 1,000C.

Here we can show you a photograph of Mr Malcolm, who now lives in Widley, near Portsmouth, Hants, England, who set the new record at the Alton and North East Hampshire Agricultural Show. He had a team of experts from Hampshire Fire and Rescue on hand for the event which was aimed at raising money for Cancer Research. Afterwards Mr Malcolm told Will and Guy, ‘It was absolutely awesome. I managed it in 17 seconds and was running flat-out. I really did not want to hang around. There wasn't much left of the jacket at the end. To be honest, the heat I felt was what you would expect if you were wearing all those clothes and a helmet in hot weather and trying to run.

Once again, we are astounded at the eccentricity and quirkiness of our fellow man and strongly advise readers not to try this at home.

Four Casualties Instead of One

Once again fact is stranger than fiction

An old lady dialled 999 after falling over in her house at Iffley, Oxfordshire. She didn't wake the other members of the family. As the ambulance men were carrying her out of the front door on a stretcher, her son roused from his slumbers by the noise staggered onto the landing, panicked at the sight of strange men in his home, and tripped all the way downstairs, knocking himself out.

His wife came rushing out of the bedroom to see what was wrong. Observing her husband lying on the hall floor, she promptly fainted and fell downstairs herself. The paramedics now had three casualties to take to A&E instead of one.

The tally rapidly became four when the family dog rampaged furiously into the hall, and inflicted an indignant bite on the bottom of one of the ambulance men. A spokesman for the Oxford Ambulance Service said, 'It was quite a night, actually.'

Footnote:
Please send us your example of the eccentric English

See more strange but true people stories:

● Strange but true stories about people   ● Flash  entrepreneur   ● Car Thieves   ● Gnomes   ● Tallest

● Round like a shot   ● Eccentric English   ● 10 accidents   ● 12 true stories   ● Amazing coincidences

● Short Stories   ● Yorkshire folk   ● Sailor stories   ● Unusual collections   ● Funny people jokes   ● Cigars