10 THINGS

10 THINGS WE DIDN'T KNOW THIS TIME LAST WEEK

Snippets harvested from the week's news, chopped, sliced and diced for your weekend convenience.

1. Everyday school expenses - such as uniforms - cost families an average £1,300 a year.

2. Some Royal Mail stamps, which of course carry the Queen's image, are printed in Holland.

3. 88% of couples in long and happy relationships have lips of similar size, according to research by the University of Leicester.

4. London has the best public transport system in the world (well, according to readers of TripAdvisor.com).

5. Helen Mirren was born Ilyena Lydia Moronoff, the daughter of a Russian-born violinist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

6. The Airfix swastika decals are banned from kits for sale in Germany.

7. Toytown, the horse which carried Zara Phillips to equestrian gold, cost just £400.

8. Chinese Girl, a painting by Vladimir Tretchikoff, who died last week, is believed to have sold more in print form than the Mona Lisa or Van Gogh's Sunflowers.

9. Some sharks can't reproduce until the age of 20 or above.

10. Dipping seagull eggs in oil, so they do not hatch, is seen as the best way to limit the seagull population. Shooting the birds is too dangerous, while smashing eggs just leads to gulls laying more.

BBC MAGAZINE.