“I’m a female bricklayer that’s treated like one of the lads – but I’m still girly”
Meet the 20-year-old female bricklayer who says she is “still girly” – but is just as respected as the lads on site.
Sophie Curtis, from South Tyneside started out as an apprentice bricklayer in 2021 and has since been promoted to trainee assistant site manager.
When she first left school, Sophie started an apprenticeship in welding, before discovering her true calling in construction.
She says that she had always wanted a career in something hands on that would beat the stereotypes of what she should do.
Sophie, who works at Bellway’s Clarence Gate development in Bowburn, said: “The reason why I came into the construction industry is that I didn’t want to do a stereotypical woman’s job.
“When I was in school all my friends were thinking about becoming nail techs, hairdressers, beauticians. It all felt like the same stuff, and I wanted to do something different, something that nobody was doing.
“I love my hair and makeup and always get my nails done. I am still very girly. But I have always loved DIY, building my own little things.
“When I did welding, I was the only girl there, so it felt normal to me by the time I got into bricklaying.
“I am used to being around men all the time, so it is very much second nature to me. It was a bit daunting at first but once I got stuck in it was great.
“They treat me the same as the lads. If anything, there is a bit more respect, because they are older they tend to look after me rather than bully me.
“I am the only girl on my site at the moment. But regardless of that I am respected just the same as the other managers.”
In July Sophie was promoted to trainee assistant site manager and she has been working towards her level 4 qualification ever since.
She has won several awards for her construction skills such as the Bellway Apprentice of the Year award and she was a finalist in the Housebuilder Star category of the Housebuilder Awards 2024.
She was also awarded Bricklayer Apprentice of the Year at New College in Durham where she qualified as a Level 2 bricklayer- beating 17 men for the title as the only girl in her class.
Last week she visited the house of commons for the young builder of the year awards where she was the first runner up.
She says that her family and friends were shocked by her career choice, but have been nothing but supportive and cheered her on at her award ceremonies.
During her time with Bellway, she has got involved in its Schools Outreach Programme- visiting schools and colleges to talk about careers in housebuilding.
Sophie says she hopes that her success will inspire young girls to join the construction industry.
She added: “I love it. Never ever do I think ‘oh no I have got to go to work’ because I really enjoy it.
“Being nominated for those awards was very nice. It was lovely.
“I think it is very important that we are getting young people into construction.
“I have got a younger sister and sometimes I get a question off her from one of her friends about how they can get into bricklaying. That’s just nice to know that other young girls know that I am doing what they might want to in later life.
“It is becoming a bit more normalised. I am not saying that it is ever going to be 50/50 but we are getting somewhere now. I am hopeful that more younger girls will join.”
Growing up Sophie, who has an older brother and younger sister, played rugby and had aspirations of joining the Royal Navy.
Sophie’s dad, Ritchie Curtis, says he hadn’t expected his daughter to enter construction – but that he couldn’t be more proud of her.
The 54-year-old HGV driver said: “I was absolutely gob smacked when she said she wanted to be a bricklayer.
“I always thought she would do something practical, but I never thought in a million years she would be in construction.
“I could never see Sophie on a building site, but when she went into it she just dove in head first.
“She has achieved so much in such a short time. She just continues to excel.
“She doesn’t let anything phase her she just grabs the bull by the horns and goes for it.”
Urban explorers found abandoned Fantastic Four Marvel film set in underground mine
Urban explorers snooped around an abandoned film set they found in a mine – said to have been used in the latest Fantastic Four Marvel movie.
The two friends – who don’t want to be named – entered Middleton mine in the Derbyshire Dales after they spotted the “entrance was open”.
300m underground – and 8km into the tunnels – they say they found a film set, including an American school bus, a stage, and a lift car, on October 18.
The pair claims “two people who helped support the staff and actors” said it was left behind after the filming of a soon-to-be-released Marvel movie, rumoured to be called The Fantastic Four: Blue Moon.
The network of tunnels was also used by Tom Cruise in March for the latest Mission Impossible movie, reports says.
One of the explorers said: “The mine once had huge concrete blocks over the entrance but I was hiking and noticed they’d been removed.
“It was unbelievable – incredible.
“I usually like to find interesting artefacts, but I’ve not found a film set before.
“We were walking along with our torches and we suddenly found this area all built up and an old American bus just sitting there.
“The lighting rigs were there on scaffolding and a map of where they wanted all the lights to be.
“It’s very bizarre to see an elevator car just sitting in the middle of a roadway, and a stage in front of the bus.
“There was all sorts of machinery they had used to set up, and a cabin with a microwave and kettle.
“There were all sorts of pipes they’d used to keep the air clean – there’s a risk of radon gas down there.
“It was quite something to see the film set – it wasn’t what we had expected at all.
“I believe they filmed for Lord of The Rings in there and also Mission Impossible.”
The pair spent four hours checking out both mines.
He said: “Some of the lead mine tunnels are quite scary.”
Nurse who started healthcare career before the NHS formed finally retires aged 95
A nurse who started her healthcare career before the NHS was even born is finally retiring – aged 95.
Joyce Standring has dedicated her life to helping the sick – working in various nursing roles for the NHS and hospitals in Britain and abroad.
She wanted to be a nurse aged five and when she was eleven and WW2 began she joined the Red Cross as the “first cadet-type young person ever.”
She would go to the hospital every Saturday helping out in the children’s ward.
Joyce began her healthcare career in January 1948 – six months before the NHS was formed.
Since then she has worked as various nursing and medical roles including a midwife, theatre nurse, infection control nurse and senior administration.
Later she began a long stint in volunteering at the NHS Musgrove Park Hospital (MPH) in Taunton in Somerset – clocking up over 30 years there altogether.
She is now standing down from her voluntary role at the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust – at the grand age of 95.
She said she has been “busy” writing my memoirs for her grandchildren – which turned out to be a rather “thick booklet”.
Joyce said: “During the war I went to the local hospital every Saturday to spend time in the children’s ward, where I was a bit of a general dog’s body.
“When I turned 17, I told my parents that I wanted to be a nurse, to which my father laughed as he thought I’d simply faint at the sight of blood.
“Eventually I applied to the former Watford Peace Memorial Hospital and my aunt, who was a matron at Hill End Hospital, had been talking to the matron in Watford and I was accepted for training – a naughty thing to have happened, but I’m very pleased anyway.
“Having gained my S.R.N. qualification I worked on night duty until my parents decided that they were going to emigrate to New Zealand in 1952, where I became a theatre sister, specialising in cardiothoracic surgery, which was very new in those days.”
When she moved back to England she worked for a short time on a medical ward in the Redhill and Hastings hospitals.
Later on she would take on a similar role with the Iraq Petroleum Company – which posted her to a company hospital in Qatar for ex-pats and local employees.
She said: “In Qatar I specialised in low-risk midwifery, although the more complex expatriate employees’ wives were sent back to the UK or USA.
“When the company moved to Bahrain I became a midwife in the government hospital as married women were not employed by the oil company.
“The company then re-located to Abu Dhabi to their newly built residential camp for their developing oilfield, where I was asked by the British Embassy ambassador if I would consider working with the newly appointed director of health to set up a new hospital.
“This ended up with me developing my own clinic – where I treated all the women and children separately from the male patients and doctor – whereas previously the men would go to the doctor and tell them about their wife or daughter’s health needs.
“After returning to the UK in 1972 with the family, I came to MPH, where I joined the education department gaining my RCNT certificate.
“In 1976 we moved to Hemel Hempstead as my husband joined a firm as an oil consultant and I then became an infection control nurse working in a London hospital.
“A nurse working alongside microbiologists, haematologists and other path lab colleagues was a relatively new introduction.
“In 1980 I applied to Somerset Health Authority for a director of nursing services post for the area covering Bridgwater, and the community hospitals from Burnham-on-Sea down to Minehead, and the community nursing services covered those areas as well.
“After that I returned to MPH in the education department again and created several courses for end-of-life care, and a return to nursing, so I was teaching as well.
“Then I went into the senior management side of things, based out of County Hall, where I stayed until I retired.”
It was 30 years ago when Joyce’s “second career” as a volunteer began.
Managers at MPH put a call out for someone to go around and check that all the patient information and leaflets were in date, and from that she reviewed leaflets as they were written by various teams across the hospital.
“It became clear to me that some of the leaflets weren’t written in plain English, which made it difficult for some patients to understand,” Joyce continues.
“My role involved checking this from a member of the public’s perspective, which I did for many years.
“I was very involved with the hospital’s care of older people and infection prevention and control teams.
“I began with the care of older people department even before I became an MPH volunteer, as I also belonged to the Community Health Council, having been proposed by my Soroptimist International club, and was their representative for health and welfare.
“Because I was showing a particular interest in the elderly, the hospital management team invited me to join the care of older people team. Soon after that volunteering became a thing at MPH – so I became one.
“A short while after becoming a volunteer, I joined the infection prevention and control team, so my experience across the hospital was so varied.
“I’ve always found that as volunteers, our opinions, suggestions and offers of help were always listened to, and our values taken into account when discussions were taking place about our patients’/carers’ experience in the hospital.”
Joyce explained how becoming a volunteer in the NHS is the “most rewarding experience”.
“I’ve been a Musgrove Partner for over 30 years and have not regretted one moment,” she concluded.
Karen Holden, Somerset NHS Foundation Trust associate director for clinical transformation, adds: “On behalf of the many colleagues at MPH that Joyce has supported, challenged, inspired, shared ideas and thoughtful insights with, we give enormous thanks.
“Joyce has had such a positive impact in improving patient care over her 30 plus years in the Musgrove Partner role.
“She has been influential in the improvements to the service for our older, frail patients, and across the trust she supported audits, surveys, hand hygiene training (many of us recall the glow box with Joyce), infection control, support in oncology, radiology, care of the dying, chaplaincy, and research to name but a few.
“Her skills with plain English shone through, with reading and editing many patient leaflets and letters, including through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Joyce was able to help shape strategies and policies, ensuring we kept the patient and family experience at the centre of all we did.
“Colleagues have shared how they enjoyed interviewing with Joyce, in awe at her ‘killer questions’ for the candidates.
“We are grateful that right up until the summer Joyce was still involved with supporting our peri-operative service developments.
“With a cheerful, determined, intelligent and practical approach, colleagues have enjoyed and appreciated working with Joyce. We have all learnt so much from our time with her and she will be missed.”
Woman flew to Japan to create a funny Christmas card with a fake family
A woman flew to Japan to create a funny Christmas card with a fake family—and dressed up and played all the characters herself.
Brynn Shuller, 34, has been embodying her made-up family—’the Brynns’—for the last 10 years.
The idea started when Brynn found a costume chest hair and put together her first card—a 90s style photoshoot.
Brynn has since created over 40 photos of her made-up family, including 10 Christmas cards—such as the Brynns skiing, fishing, and in matching pajamas.
This year she even took her family international—picturing them on holiday in Japan.
She sends the cards to family and friends and sells them on Etsy, saying they find it hilarious and “love it.”
Brynn, a graphic designer, from Cincinnati, Ohio, US, said: “It’s funny when I put on the clothes I instantly get into the character.
“It’s so much fun creating the cards and playing the characters.
“I love it.”
Brynn created her first quirky card in October 2015.
She said: “I found a chest hair at the dollar store—the idea sprung on from there.
“After seeing the funny chest hair, I started planning my family.
“Byron, the dad, is awkward and always excited and happy.
“Brynnda, the mom, is always trying to make everyone happy but she is probably aggravated on the inside.
“Brynnie, the daughter, is so young and happy-go-lucky.
“Frank, the teenage son, is an outcast and is always grumpy and never enjoys the family photos.”
Last year, Brynn pictured the family in a park wearing 90s tracksuits, but this year she decided to take them international.
She said: “My friends were asking if I wanted to go to Japan with them.
“I thought ‘OMG, I’ve never taken my family internationally.’
“I decided to take my wigs and costumes.”
Brynn planned out where she wanted to take the photos—choosing the Fushimi-Inari-Taisha Shrine in Kyoto and the Nara deer park.
Brynn said: “I thought it would be really funny to have one of the deer biting Frank.
“One of them headbutted me on the bum, and in the card, it is my actual reaction.”
It took Brynn two hours to take the photos at the different locations and around two to three hours to edit it all together.
She is delighted with the results.
Brynn said: “I don’t know how to top myself.”
Brynn says her family finds it hilarious and fans online are always excited for the annual Christmas card.
Brynn doesn’t see herself stopping anytime soon and has already thought of ways she might incorporate a partner or child.
She said: “If I get married, what do I do? I’d have him in it and the fake dad lurking in the background.”
“I’m raising my first three kids as triplets – they were born exactly a year apart”
A mom found out she was pregnant with twins just five months after giving birth—and now she’s raising the children as triplets.
Chancè Hindir-Lane, 30, thought she was suffering from postpartum nausea and irregular periods weeks after giving birth to her oldest son, now five.
But during a postnatal check-up with her obstetrician in June 2020, she was given a routine pregnancy test.
The test came back positive—and an ultrasound revealed she was six weeks pregnant with twins.
Now, four years later, Chancè is raising the siblings as triplets, along with her youngest child, who is two.
She throws them joint birthday parties every year and says they have a “very close bond.”
Chancè, a content creator from Charlotte, North Carolina, said: “I thought I needed to go on birth control—but my doctor said I was pregnant with twins.
“I couldn’t believe I was seeing double—first, you’re telling me I’m pregnant with one baby—now, two.
“We kind of feel like we’re raising them as triplets—my eldest was still breastfeeding when I gave birth to the girls.”
On January 8, 2020, at 2:30 p.m., Chancè gave birth to her oldest child after a long and challenging pregnancy.
He weighed 8 pounds, 12 ounces, and the pair stayed in the hospital for five days afterward due to Chancè hemorrhaging after labor.
Six weeks after coming home, the new mom realized she hadn’t started her period—but put this down to her recovery after birth.
“I’ve always struggled with irregular periods, so I didn’t think anything of it,” Chancè said.
“I spoke to my nurse about it, and she told me not to worry.
“She explained how hard it would be to get pregnant just a few weeks after giving birth.”
Chancè says she wasn’t allowed to start birth control at that time—guidelines recommend moms wait at least six weeks before resuming the combined pill or contraceptive patch.
At almost five months postpartum, and with no sign of her period, she discovered she felt sick at the smell of coffee—which she now realizes was a “telltale” sign of pregnancy.
She added: “I’m a heavy coffee drinker, but when I’m pregnant, I can’t stand the smell of it.
“I was on a trip to Quebec in June, and I was standing in Tim Hortons, and I had to leave because I couldn’t stand it.”
Thinking her hormones just needed to settle down, Chancè booked an appointment with her obstetrician shortly after arriving back in the U.S., believing birth control might help.
On June 18, 2020, she was told by her doctor to take a routine urine pregnancy test—something she always had to do during appointments.
But after returning the dipstick test to her obstetrician, she was “shocked” to find out she was pregnant again.
“I was shocked and so scared at how quickly it happened,” Chancè said.
“I thought: ‘How am I going to manage two kids under the age of two?’
“Having my son, I already knew it was quite a lot.”
But Chancè got a further shock when a sonographer gave her a transvaginal ultrasound and found two embryos in her womb.
The mom was sitting “in disbelief” after being told she was pregnant with twins.
Her immediate reaction was to begin planning for the new arrivals—as well as telling her family members.
She said: “As soon as I told my mom, she told me she’d been having dreams about me having twins and prayed on it.
“My sister said the same thing—they felt like I was always going to have twins eventually.”
The twins, now four, were born on January 10, 2021, at 7:40 and 7:42 p.m.—just two days after their brother’s birthday.
They weighed 3 pounds, 13 ounces, and 4 pounds—and needed to stay in the intensive care unit (ICU) for “weeks” afterward.
For the first seven months, Chancè breastfed all three of her children—which helped them to create a “triplet-like” bond.
Their first birthday party was a joint one, with all the family invited.
Chancè says they were a “team of three,” which has since expanded to four with the arrival of their younger brother.
“The twins adjusted really funnily to being older sisters,” she added.
“They kept looking at their baby brother and going: ‘No.’
“But they’re such a little team of four—the bond is so special.”
Couple turn £1K cottage into playground for grandkids with life-size playhouses
A couple who bought a cottage for £1K have turned it into the ultimate playground for their grandkids – including three life-size playhouses.
Alban, 86, and Angela Bunting, 82, moved from Hertfordshire to Binegar in Somerset in 1964 – after buying the 17th century derelict property for £1,250.
The pair moved their lives from Hertfordshire to the small village and Alban skillfully renovated the falling down home – now called Spindle Cottage.
But when Alban was told him and his wife were going to be grandparents he decided to design and build three playhouses for their much-loved grandchildren.
The first creation was a cottage in Gothic style built for Ruth in 2002 – with a spiral black staircase inside.
The second one was an Elizabethan shed for Tom in 2003 – made with oak railway sleepers.
And the third one for Charlotte – a post office and shop – built in 2005 with Indian bricks and sandstone blocks.
It is now of the most unique gardens and holiday cottages in Britain.
The cottage, shepherd’s hut, gardens and playhouses have featured on BBC’s Gardeners’ World, Open Gardens and Channel 4’s Amazing Spaces.
Angela said: “As soon as we knew there was a baby coming and Alban waited for the birth and he made it for Ruth – she absolutely loved it when she came on holiday.
“Tom loved his playhouse – he told Ruth and Charlotte ‘you can’t go in here unless you have my permission’ – he was quite a character.
“Once he got a mobile phone he could take pictures of them and said ‘if you break in here I am going to take pictures of you and I am going to call the police'”.
Alban said: “The final one was Charlotte’s and that is a Victorian post office and a copy of one I had done in my village when I apprentice carpenter and joiner.”
Angela added: “She looked very cute this tiny little girl wobbling into the shop with her shop in front of her and sometimes she came out with a basket of plastic strawberries to play.”
Asking why they moved from Hertfordshire to Somerset Angela explained they spotted a cottage in a village in Somerset that was in need of repairs.
She said: “When we found this one we thought this is in the worst stage but it has the most potential.
“We knew the motorway was going to be built so getting a house in Somerset was going to be expensive.
“After we had bought it we were still living in Hertfordshire and we were coming down here weekends and holidays to do work on it and we’d spend the whole weekend doing the next important job.
“It had sitting tenants in one half and this half was in a bad state – all the beams were covered up.
“The neighbors said they were going to move out to a bungalow and that the rest of the house was going to be ours – we were delighted.”
When they moved in three years later after buying the house they came back with two boys – and their third son would later born in the cottage’s upstairs room.
When their boys left they decided to turn the cottage into a holiday let to make extra money – with people from all over the country and abroad visiting.
With their middle son having three kids, Alban let his creative side take over once more and build the three playhouses for their grandchildren.
Alban would spend his evenings and weekends working on the houses in his spare time.
Angela said: “Our grandchildren would come for a whole week to play in the houses. And they wanted us to come shopping in the post office.
“People on holiday once they got to know what we were doing they’d gather tins and things for the post office and people kept bringing things for us and that’s how we filled it all up – including a metal till.”
But now as their grandchildren have grown up to play in their designed houses they are used by kids in the village or tourists who stay in the cottage.
The year each element was built or created within the cottage by Alban has been carved in stone, wood and beams.
“In all his spare time Alban would do the creative sides of the house,” said Angela.
Alban added: “People often ask me what would you do if you have great-grandchildren?
”And I say it will either be a church or the very old-fashioned pub with a public saloon bar.”
Angela concluded: “I think any great-grandchildren would just love to play in these houses. If I am around I have to make sure it is all clean and tidy.”
One review said: “This cottage is what childhood dreams are made of. I was surprised that there wasn’t a cupboard that actually led to Narnia!”
Carol Klein, BBC Open Garden, said: ”This is a garden not just for plants people, but for the whole family. I think this is the most inspiring garden I’ve ever been in.”
For more information visit Spindle Cottage here: https://www.spindlecottage.co.uk/
“I’m a trophy wife – I bagged my rich husband by demanding a $1k weekly allowance”
A self-proclaimed “trophy wife” in a 29-year age gap relationship says she bagged her husband by demanding a $1,000 weekly allowance.
Alyssa Armoogam, 30, met her husband, Mark, 59, on a dating app after setting her sights on an ‘older rich man’.
The pair hit it off and Mark, an entrepreneur and investor, impressed mum-of-two Alyssa by giving her $300 to pay for her babysitter.
She agreed to keep dating him if he met her terms – paying for her beauty treatments and giving her a $1,000 weekly allowance to feel “secure”.
Now married for two years, Alyssa still loves being bought romantic gifts – such as getaways and designer handbags.
She hopes to encourage other women to “know their worth”.
Alyssa, an influencer, from Miami, Florida, US, said: “I don’t care if someone is rich if they are an arsehole.
“There is the idea I’m only with him because of his money.
“It was one of my requirements but I wouldn’t have married him because of that.
“We really encourage the best out of each other.
“We see the potential in each other.”
Alyssa has always preferred to date older men – and her first crush was Robert Downey Jr.
She said: “When I started dating people older my mum wasn’t surprised.”
Alyssa was “miserable” and “over” her last relationship when she moved to Florida in 2018.
She decided to hit the dating apps but was set on what she wanted – someone rich, attentive and who had faith as an important aspect of their life.
Alyssa’s first question to potential dates was ‘how do you feel about Jesus?’ and Mark’s answer caught her by surprise.
She said: “His answer was so funny. He said ‘how do I feel about Jesus? I toured the country talking about him’.
“I thought ‘wow, I wasn’t expecting that’.
“We hit it off from there.”
Her second demand was ‘I’m willing to meet you but you have to cover the babysitter’.
Alyssa said: “If a dude is going to argue with me about $45 for a baby sitter – he’s not worth my time.”
When they met for their first date Alyssa was immediately attracted to Mark.
She said: “His eyes literally sparkled.
“He has a very kind soul and his eyes twinkle.
“I really felt like I knew him.
“At the end he handed me $300 to cover the babysitter.”
Mark immediately texted Alyssa asking to see her again.
She said: “He was very persistent.
“I said ‘OK, here are my terms – I want someone paying for my nails, hair and waxing’.
“I want a $1,000 weekly allowance to feel secure and I want to be exclusive.
“He immediately sent me $2,000 and said I wasn’t going on another date with anyone else.
“I loved it because I felt he had made it 100 per cent clear how he felt about me.”
The $2,000 Mark sent Alyssa meant she was able to put a deposit down on a flat for herself and her daughter, Ziya, 11 – who Mark has now adopted.
Their relationship blossomed and after two years together Mark popped the question in 2020.
The couple tied the knot in a small legal ceremony in April 2022 and a month later they welcomed their son, Keanu, two, together.
Alyssa calls herself a trophy wife but she feels her marriage is very much a “partnership”.
She said: “Anything I want to pursue I can do it.
“Any dream I have is shared and any desire is met.
“I’m his biggest cheerleader.”
But Alyssa does love being spoilt by Mark. She no longer receives an allowance as they equally share their money.
She said: “He’s such a Pisces. He’s very romantic.
“I told him I like getting little small gifts.
“He takes that and understands it.
“He takes me shopping and buys me a Louis Vuitton.
“That’s his normal behaviour. That’s him romancing me.”
Alyssa says the age gap doesn’t bother her or Mark but some people jump to conclusions.
She said: “When people look at me they make assumptions on who I am and my intentions – because of my age and appearance.
“When people talk to me they see how much love I pour into my family.
“There’s no question of why we’re together.
“It’s not like he’s an ugly fat fart.
“He’s a handsome guy.
“Age – what does it matter if our souls align?”
Alyssa is working on a clothing line for breast feeding women and is considering creating a course called ‘dating like a trophy wife’.
She said: “When I went into the dating scene I had this idea of what I wanted in a man.
“I knew what I’d be bringing into that persons life.
“That’s what made me feel firm on my requirements.
“Women are not realising their worth.”
Time capsule from 1983 concealed in wall of stable reunited with family
A couple who discovered a time capsule from forty-years-ago while renovating their holiday let have managed to track down the family of the man who buried it.
Charlotte and Phil Betts, from Oulton Broad, Suffolk, were ‘excited’ when builders doing work on the old stables next to their home found the glass jar hidden in a wall.
The Nescafe glass jar had duct tape wrapped around the lid and inside was a copy of the local paper, coins, business cards and faded photos – all from 1983.
Charlotte, 47, posted the find on her local Facebook group and soon made contact with Jackie Aarons whose father had hidden the jar in the wall of the stables.
Jackie, 53, said she remembered helping her dad Les with the time capsule 40 years earlier and it was a ‘happy’ moment for her mum Celia Anne – as Les had passed in 2021.
One the old photographs which is now faded but the handwriting on the back is still clear.
It reads: “August 1982, renovation of old stables. Owner Leslie David Aarons shown here. Purchased ‘Woodlands’ April 1979. Wife Celia Anne, children David, Jane and Jacqueline.”
Charlotte, a corporate social responsibility lead, and Phil, a technician support analyst, said they were very excited to find the capsule on November 6.
The couple, who moved into their home last year, said: “We’re currently renovating our holiday let that’s on our plot and the builders found the time capsule.
“They nearly chucked it in a skip at first – it is an old fashioned Nescafé jar.
“We decided to open it and found newspapers from 1983, a few coins, business cards and old photographs wrapped in a polythene bag.
“They had become so degraded you couldn’t see the photograph at all but we could read the writing on the back.”
Charlotte posted on Facebook and soon people who knew the Aarons family messaged both her and Jackie – who helped her dad put it together when she was 11.
Charlotte added: “We exchanged numbers and we’ve spoken on the phone. It was her dad who converted the stables to the holiday let.
“It’s exciting that we found it. We’re going to keep the newspaper and some of the coins to put in a frame for a display in the holiday let – so everyone knows the story.”
Jackie, now living near Loddon in Norfolk, said she remembers helping her mum and dad, brother David and sister Jane, with selecting the items for the jar.
She said: “I have a lot of memories from that lovely house.
“Dad instigated it and put it together but we were all around him, involved in what we put in it.
“I personally haven’t thought about it since the day we put it in. We moved away in 1987 and I didn’t think it would be taken out in my life time.
“Dad didn’t have a particular time frame for how long he wanted it to be in there.
“He did up that building for the holiday let and I think he wanted to put a piece of his moment in there.
“He died in 2021 so he’ll never see it but that’s how it goes.
“It was really exciting when I did find out it had been uncovered. It was really lovely for my mum as she now has a connection to my dad in the past.
“It was a happy moment for all of us.”
Jackie added that she’d seen pictures of the holiday let which form part of the old stables and said it had not changed much from her dad’s own renovations.
She plans to meet Charlotte and Phil in Suffolk to see the time capsule and holiday let in person in the new year.
Hollywood stars Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon spotted laughing and joking in NYC
Hollywood stars Jessica Lange and Susan Sarandon were spotted laughing and joking while walking down Fifth Avenue in New York City.
The American Horror Story star was spotted walking down Fifth Avenue, New York City on November 17, 2024, at 1pm, with her best friend, actress Susan Sarandon.
The photo was captured by a street photographer who said Jessica was smiling at her while Susan was looked directly towards the camera.
The photographer, who does not want to be named, said: “I spent most of my day wandering around New York City and taking photos of people.
“They happened to be walking towards me and I was ready for it.
“As they were walking, Jessica was smiling and Susan was looking towards the camera but I don’t think she noticed me.”
Explorer who took Clarkson to North Pole cancels return visit due to climate change
The British explorer who guided Jeremy Clarkson and James May to the North Pole was forced to cancel a return visit – as parts of it have gone.
Mark Wood, who accompanied the BBC for a Top Gear special, was planning a 2,000km solo trek to the same region of the Arctic to collect samples of ice for climate change research.
The journey was set to take place in the frozen wilds of northern Canada and follow a route taken by Clarkson, May, and co-presenter, Richard Hammond in 2007.
But after reaching the expedition’s remote starting point, Wood discovered an area of sea ice twice the size of London had “simply melted away” due to global warming.
With no boat or safe way of avoiding the water Wood, who was towing two 92kg sledges, had no option but to cancel the expedition and return to the UK.
The trip, which had taken more than five years to plan, hoped to provide scientists with reliable, first-hand data about the long-term effects of greenhouse gases on the polar ice cap.
Researchers from the Centre for Earth Observation Science at the University of Manitoba, Canada, were planning to study the samples he brought home to determine the extent of sea ice deterioration in the Canadian High Arctic and how to protect it.
Writing in The European magazine Wood, who has competed 14 expeditions in the Arctic in a professional career of more than 20 years, including solo crossings to both the Geographic North and South Poles, said: “There is a bitter irony to what took place.
“I set off to measure the effects of global warming on the speed of sea ice deterioration only to find that a huge area of that ice was no longer there.
“I’ve been a professional explorer for two decades, and I’ve never seen anything like it in all that time.”
Wood’s ‘Expedition SOLO 100’ mission was set to cover a 2,000km route from Polar Bear Pass on Bathurst Island to a resupply drop in Isachsen on the Sverdrup Islands.
The region, which is on the fringe of the Northwest Passage, is home to just 500 people and 25,000 roaming polar bears.
He would then head 450 miles further north to a second resupply at Eureka on Ellesmere Island, before heading south along the northwest passage to Resolute Bay on Cornwallis Island.
Towing two sledges packed with science equipment and survival kit, he hoped to collect ice samples for polar research, and test advanced battery technology and a new wind turbine for the University of Warwick.
The circular route had never been attempted before, meaning that the ice samples he hoped to collect on the way would be pure and free of any human confirmation.
Wood was also carrying video and audio equipment for a daily radio show and podcast – the first of its kind from the arctic – to educate pupils at schools in schools worldwide.
His programs, which focus on climate change and are run in conjunction with the University of Warwick, have reached 1.2 million students worldwide.
But five years of planning “went to sh*t” at Polar Bear Pass.
Satellite imagery taken a few weeks earlier showed a solid expanse of black sea ice over which Wood would ski on the first leg of the journey.
In the space of less than a month, around 1,200 square miles of sea ice – which he had planned to take samples of – had melted away.
Wood, who had travelled 150 miles to the start point by snowmobile, said: “What I saw with my naked eye when I arrived there changed everything.
“The black expanse of solid sea ice over which I planned to ski was now open water. An area of broken ice size stretching up to sixty miles North and an estimated 10 to 20 miles East to West, which in places is usually a few feet thick, had melted to open water in just a few weeks.”
Wood’s only chance of reaching his first resupply without a boat was to cross a vast area of ice rubble to the west.
He had previously been part of the guiding team that led Jeremy Clarkson, James May, and a BBC film crew through that rubble for a Top Gear episode to the Magnetic North Pole in 2007, and said the chances of making it through solo and unsupported were slim.
“Navigating through the rubble was a non-starter. Ice rubble requires extremely dangerous, torturous trekking where a man towing sledges could be passed by a wandering tortoise, if it could survive in the -40C cold,” Wood, who has led more than 30 major expeditions in the Arctic Circle, Antarctica, and the Himalayas, while also supporting film crews for documentaries, said.
“Proceeding through the ice rubble was possible but would likely take twice as long and. I would run out of supplies or require emergency evacuation before I even came close to making it.
“As a professional, I have a responsibility to the rescue teams that would potentially come to collect me if I fall through the ice or get stuck in a field of rubble. In this modern era of exploration, we have a duty to care towards our rescue teams when planning major expeditions of this ilk. There is little room for bravado and scant space for ego.”
Wood, who is also a seasoned mountain guide in the Himalayas, had no option but to cancel the expedition, which took place in March this year, and return home.
He added: If I had continued and tried to find a way through the open water, the chances of reaching my first resupply were very slim.
“So I had a choice: progress into a potentially life-threatening scenario that would require a rescue or turn back.
He has since split the research mission into three new parts, with the first – a six-week crossing of Greenland – set to take place next year.
The second, in November 2025, will involve a four-man team skiing across Antarctica to the South Geographic Pole.
And the third, in early 2026, will see him return to a different area near Resolute Bay.
He will collect ice samples, deliver the podcast and radio show, and undertake other scientific experiments on all three.
Wood, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and The Explorers Club who has previously cycled across New Zealand, Oman and the US, and trekked across Iceland, said: “The reason for coming out here was to determine the rate of ice deterioration.
“I had to turn back because the ice deteriorated.
“I was out there to measure the speed of deterioration of Arctic ice, and it was this very deterioration that prevented me from completing that task.”
Wood, who is from Coventry, added: “There was a message here, a single reason that in global terms is significant to the whole human race. It really is that dramatic. The ice is disappearing, and we all have a stake.”
