It’s that absurd time of the week again round here, so let’s see what I’ve got…

1. So how many Olympic athletes do you think were dining with Mr Putin at the opening ceremony in Sochi?  And how many do you reckon are worth over £30 million, with more gold from other accomplishments than you could imagine?  What, no-one spring to mind?  How about violin virtuoso Vanessa Mae, who competed for Thailand as Vanessa Vanakorn in the women’s grand slalom.

She was last, but hey, how many of us could have got up 6 months ago and just decided to be an Olympic athlete?  Her coach, incidentally, quit a month ago as soon as she qualified (countries with no snow get lower entry requirements), apparently stressed out of his box and on the verge of marital breakdown!  Her French partner saw her through it though.  Also, she wasn’t shacked up with the other athletes in the village, as they wouldn’t let her dog, Max, in, so she settled herself into a nice (dog-loving) hotel instead.  How the other half live…

2. Just a little north of me, the Nevis ranges had their busiest day in 10 years on Sunday.  It’s snowed every day since 20th December, and some of their lifts were buried under snow, but they were able to capitalise on the day the sun came out to host 1,700 visitors.

3. At a lower altitude, figures from December showed that we got 429.6mm of rain round my way, while the south of England, which was flooded out, got 186.1mm at their peak.  Apparently we’re built better for rain with our local geology.  Explains the webbed feet of my neighbours too…

4. Speaking of flooding, the river Holme in Brockholes is running a pretty shade of orange as all the rainwater has been washing iron deposits out of a disused mine:

5. And finally, have you got an unreturned library book kicking around anywhere?  Maybe a video you got out of your local (and possibly now defunct if you’re in the UK) Blockbusters?  Well if so, whatever you do, don’t try and report a crime in South Carolina, because the police will lock you up for the night, even if the incident happened 9 years ago, and you were entirely unaware of it…  It wasn’t even for a good film, as it turned out!

Linking up with my fellow Randomeers: