Sunday, September 19 is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Yo Ho! Get your pirate on! Everyone across the globe MUST talk like a pirate today all day. You also get to drink plenty of rum too, and greet everyone you know with a hearty “Ahoy, matey!”
The holiday was created by when John Baur and Mark Summers looked at the calendar in 1996, they saw a lot of goofy holidays, like World Health Day and Constitution Day, but they didn’t see any holidays that were cool and, most importantly, they didn’t see any international holidays in late September. So, to remedy that situation, the two men started International Talk Like A Pirate Day as a way to get interjections like “Arrr!” and “Avast!” back into common parlance.
An errant river otter eating its way through prized koi carp in a famous garden in the Canadian city of Vancouver has so far evaded capture.
Officials at Dr Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden say they do not know how the otter gained entry. They are working with the city's park board and aquarium to safely capture and relocate the animal.
The otter believed to have eaten seven of the 14 fish since it appeared in the garden last weekend.
Communications director Debbie Cheung said the pond and its koi were an important part of the garden and had a cultural significance.
One fish, dubbed "Madonna", is an estimated 50 years old and has been at the garden for some two decades.
"Some of [the koi] have been with us for a long, long time. We see them as part of the team," she said.
The tourist attraction, as well as the adjacent public park, were closed on Friday "to facilitate containment of the river otter".
The Vancouver Park Board has hired a wildlife relocation expert to catch the creature and transport it to the Fraser Valley in south-western British Columbia.
Parks director Howard Normann said the first trap set earlier this week failed when the hinge that would have captured the otter ended up blocked by a branch and the animal simply feasted on the bait.
"The otter did take our tuna, did take our trout, did take our chicken," he told the BBC.
Now, a series of traps will be placed around the garden and park so they can catch the otter and allow it to be relocated to "a really nice new home".
Garden staff say they are looking forward to life returning to normal for both the otter and their fish.
Hailstones as big as grapefruits hammered several countries across Europe, causing chaos and damaging thousands of homes and buildings.
The fierce hailstorm has battered parts of Slovenia, Croatia and Germany since Monday as strong gale-force winds brought cold temperatures along with intense rainfall.
Enormous hailstones were found in Stari trg ob Kolpi, Deskova vas and Predgrad, Slovenia by Marko Korosec, who is a weather adviser for traffic and highways.
The 37-year-old said: "There was significant damage to cars and houses, complete destruction in some areas. Most of the roofs of houses were completely destroyed, cars as well - all windows and windshields shattered."
Videos posted onto social media show hailstones the size of tennis balls shredding foliage in gardens as they fall to the ground.
The German Weather Service has issued a level 4 storm warning and warned the public to look out for heavy thunderstorms, gale-force gusts of winds and extremely heavy rain and hail.