Chinese cafe charges for clean air

China is renowned for its pollution and it’s got so bad that one restaurant has started charging for an ‘air cleaning fee’!

The restaurant, in Zhangjiagang city, in the Jiangsu Province, is adding a surcharge on top of customers’ bills to pay for newly-installed air filtration machines.

Customers who dined in the restaurant reportedly discovered the clean air charge only after they were handed their bill at the end of their meals. They were charged one yuan (10p) per customer which was automatically added to their food bill.

Diners have since complained to their local government, who put a stop to the illegal charge. Yet people on social media have welcomed the charge and have said they would happily pay the one yuan if it meant they could breathe easily. One user wrote on Weibo, “There is nothing wrong with charging this extra fee. The kind of dining environment decides the kind of pricing.”

Granny locked in public restroom spends four days knitting scarf

A British grandmother locked in a public restroom for four days said she kept warm using a hand dryer and passed the time by knitting a scarf.

Gladys Phillips, 82, said she was out shopping in Felixstowe, England, when she made a pit stop in a public restroom that she didn’t realise was not yet open to the public. Phillips said she soon discovered the door had locked behind her, trapping her inside the restroom. “I was not really concerned at first when I couldn’t get out,” Phillips told. “In fact I was just relieved I’d managed to go to the loo!”

“I kept banging on the door and walls, and shouting for help, but obviously no one could hear me. I realised I had to rough it out, and so I sat on the loo and began knitting.

“Luckily, I had just been to the shops and picked up a new ball of pink wool, so I began making a scarf, which one of my lucky grandchildren will now get. I had also popped into the sweet shop after collecting my pension, so I had a full bag of mint imperials to eat which kept my spirits up no end. As the restroom was big and clean, I was able to sleep on my big overcoat and it was lovely and warm, and if I got cold I just sat under the hand dryer for a while.”

Published in Dawn, Young World, January 23rd, 2015