Horse in McDonald's: Rider fined after 'drive-thru' refusal

Copied from Sky News - I can't add anything to this except that it brightened my day up no end, and much more interesting that waiting for news of the Dutchess of Cambridge in labour! NJ

A woman has been fined for taking her horse into a McDonald's restaurant in Greater Manchester.

Police said the woman, who has not been named, was in the saddle when she was initially turned away from the drive-through kiosk on Bury New Road.

The woman then led the animal inside, where it "ended up doing his business on the floor", a Greater Manchester Police (GMP) spokesman said.

McDonald's said it was unable to serve customers on horseback.

'Distress to customers'

A spokeswoman for the company said: "On 20 July a woman allowed her pony to enter our restaurant in Whitefield after being refused service in the drive-thru lane.

"The incident caused distress to customers and disruption for the restaurant, and the police issued the woman with a fixed penalty notice."

She added: "The health and safety of our customers and staff is our top priority, and for this reason we are unable to serve pedestrians, bicycle riders or customers on horseback through the drive-thru."

Greater Manchester Police said: "The sight and smell of this caused obvious distress and upset to customers trying to eat, as well as staff members.

"Officers arrived at the location and the woman was issued [with] a fixed penalty notice for causing alarm and distress to other customers and staff."

Mercury Heads for 32 Degrees C

That was the heading today on the Sky News website - what? The temperature on the surface of Mercury should be around 426 degrees C!! Is the sun dying? Or has Mercury spun off into an orbit much, much further from the sun?

Mercury ... no the planet silly!!!

Don't worry! The heading was very misleading - clicking on this astonishing link on the Sky News main page takes us to a more sensible headline: "Weather : Heatwave Health Alert as Mercury Rises". But why oh why does it have to include a negative slant on what really is brilliant news? The temperature in the UK hovering around 30 degrees is great news - as William Paxman put it, "It's amazing ... I've used my barbecue more times this year than in the past 6 years!"; last year Mr Paxman was calling it "Game over, man" as he was concerned the summer was over.

According to Sky News:

After five consecutive days basking in 30C-plus temperatures, forecasters said Britain was in the midst of its first prolonged heatwave since 2006.

The Met Office responded by issuing a "level three heat health watch" for London and the South East and advised "alertness and readiness" for those in the North West and North East.

Level three warnings are only one notch below the most serious alerts and are put out when high temperatures place the very young, the very old and those with chronic diseases at risk.

Forecasters said Wednesday could break the record for the warmest day of the year, with temperatures expected to creep as high as 32C (89.7F) in parts of England.

I say let's have some more ... and can it be extended up to Aberdeen? It's ok here just now but a few more degrees would be nice.

Why do news websites have to focus on negative aspects of any story and give the bad news rather than the good news. NMNB is a positive and happy website - we see the glass half full rather than half empty ... and long may it continue!!