Steam train fanatics could be excused for having a model railway in their house, but one man from Buckinghamshire has taken his obsession one step further and built his house around a 130-year-old railway carriage outside his front door. It is safe to say, this is not your average living room ornament.

The striking restoration project is owned by a retired transport manager Mr Higgins. The property was inherited by him from his former father-law Charles Allen who had no other choice but to build around the disused carriage because of planning regulations.

Mr. Higgins has embraced the quirk and restored the carriage to its former glory with the help of his predecessor.

Steam locomotives dominated the British landscape for a number of years and were the only form of railway transportation until the middle of the 20th century. From the 1900s onwards they became outmoded, as new technological advances resigned them to the scrap yard and they were gradually superseded by electric and diesel powered locomotives.

Now his bungalow in Ashton near Helston is the talk of the town, and he says despite its eccentric beginnings, it is a fully functioning family home like any other.

Mr Higgins said: "The railway carriage stood empty for a number of years until my ex-father-in-law came down looking for somewhere to retire.”

"He was a master carpenter and was looking for planning permission to build a retirement home. He came down from Middlesex and fell in love with the spot where the railway carriage was.”

"But when he applied for planning permission to build a bungalow he was told the railway carriage had been there so long it had grandfather rights. It couldn't be moved. So he decided to build around it.”

“A few years ago he decided to move away but he asked me if I wanted to move down and take over. I thought about it for a couple of seconds and accepted because it's so beautiful.”

The divorcee has taken over the project and is still painstakingly working on updating the carriage – called Waverley- and says it should be complete within a couple of months.

Criminals are not the brightest of folk. There are so many comical stories of robbers bungling their way behind bars, and making it easy for police to track them down. Wearing silly costumes seems to be a growing trend. But you would have to be remarkably stupid to commit some of cardinal errors that the following would be heisters have committed. Here are some of the worst.

• The Elvis Impersonator. One serial armed robber in Brighton took to dressing up as the King of Rock and Roll, Elvis Presley, to commit his crimes. During his long career of criminality he made away with more than £23,000 in a number of raids in betting shops. The offender, named Martin Reilly, did not stop there however. He also wore other strange get-ups to mask his real identity, including wigs, facial hair, glasses, huge hats and even a fright mask. He was eventually caught and prosecuted, received a 12 year sentence in court.

• The Naked Burglar. One young burglar got a bit draughty when he tried to rob a Tesco Express in Wigan. The shivering man was found wearing nothing by a delivery driver, who heard him whimpering for “help” in the chimney shaft of the store. His attempt to burgle went spectacularly wrong, and he left with nothing at all, not even his dignity. Daniel Davies, 20, was stuck for hours in the supermarket and had to be freed by the rescue services.

Putting a man on the moon stands as one of the greatest scientific triumphs in recording history. But it also has a romantic quality, for thousands of years man has looked at the moon and dreamed, and then Lance Armstrong achieved the unimaginable on Apollo 11 by stepping foot on the satellite. But there is another important story behind all of this, why did the American's invest so much money and expertise in the moon expedition? Was it purely to see how far the imagination could stretch? Was it for the sense of adventure and discovery? Apparently not. The big boys USA just wanted to win a foot race with the commies. Take that Stalin!

The true motive for this expedition was seemingly just to beat the Soviets, who were also investing heavily in a space programme to reach the moon. The U.S was battling for the prestige of being the first, and at the same time they wanted to put the communist state in their place. Space was the final frontier, and both the Russians and Americans were competing for the acclaim of putting a man on the surface of the moon.

In preparation for the shuttle launch, president John F. Kennedy spoke with James Webb, who was the head of NASA at this time. J.F.K is quoted as saying: “Everything we do ought to really be tied into getting on to the Moon ahead of the Russians [...] otherwise we shouldn't be spending that kind of money, because I'm not interested in space [...] The only justification for [the cost] is because we hope to beat [the USSR] to demonstrate that instead of being behind by a couple of years, by God, we passed them.”

Who said cleaning is a profession that requires no qualifications? In a real life success story like that of Matt Damon's film Good Will Hunting, in which a Janitor working at Harvard University proves himself to be a math genius, a 52 year old cleaner at Columbia University has received his degree.

Gac Filipaj who originally came over to the U.S from Montenegro, has graduated with honours from the college having studied Classics. Yet he has taken his time getting there, after 12 years of part-time study balanced with a full time job. The new Graduate had to balance his working life with his studies, and could not afford to give up the job and concentrate solely on his work.

Columbia University is one of the best scholarly institutions in the world and has some of the best learning facilities attached to the campus. Mr Filipaj used all of the tools given to him to achieve what he calls his “finest moment” and receive his scroll from the Ivy League Uni.

In 1992 Mr Filipaj fled Montenegro like many other ethnic Albanians as the country was on the verge of a brutal civil war, being part of the Yugoslav republic. He travelled to New York City to be with his uncle, who gave him refuge and a job at a restaurant.

In the animal kingdom, man's best friend has always been the faithful dog. Our four legged friends have been companions of humankind for thousands of years. Through thick and thin, the dog has always been loath to leave its master's side. It's a sad then, when dogs are left in the house to yammer as their owners nip out for drinks without them, but now there is no excuse.

A pub in Newcastle has ensured that canines never have to leave their owners side, unveiling a brand new beer designed for doggies. Never will a dog have to be left at home while the owner sneaks out for a quick pint or two, as the The Brandling Villa in South Gosforth, Newcastle, has designed a menu for exclusively for pets. So if one dog owner gets hungry and orders a meal, his pet need not be be left out, as there is also the option of a roast dinner for canines smothered in what has been described as cat flavoured gravy. Contains no cat.

The pub has received rave reviews for the quirky take on dog focused cuisine, as it tries to add a modern twist to the traditional pub layout. This includes expanding its list of clientele to dog owners and creating an atmosphere that the animals can enjoy too.

The landlord was tired of serving water to every animal that passed through his door and so decided to try something a bit strange and quirky, by adding pooches to the craft beer revolution. The beverage is non-alcoholic of course, so there will be no funny business on the dog's behalf after a bowl or two, and definitely no leering after the barmaid.

With the demise of so many celebrity relationships and marriages in the last year, we thought it was time to take a look at what can be considered the worst known to man. These marriages were all done in the public eye, and often the more well-known something is, the worse it fails. Here are our all-time favourites.

The most recent of these failed marriages has to top the list: Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries. Many people believe she did it for attention—a marriage lasting less than 5 episodes of her show isn't something that anyone should be proud of, unless they're ‘media whores'. What bothers us is that the wedding cost millions of dollars, probably earned her even more, and we're expected to be ok with that. We don't even know why she's famous in the first place, but then to see all the attention it got, only to end in failure within weeks… it grinds our gears for sure.

This might be considered a cheap shot, as we could take a critical stance about any of Elizabeth Taylor's many marriages, but the one with think of in particular is Larry Fortensky. The guy didn't even know that she was famous until after the wedding, at which point he discovered not only her fame, but also all the irresponsibleness and peculiarities that came with it. Both their lives went downhill from there.

A good advert can stay with a brand forever, and if sense of humour is spot-on, and rises above the tedium and consumerism which sadly inundates our television screens, then it is a joy to behold. Nothing quite captures an audience's imagination like a good belly chuckle and here are just a few of the best adverts, old and new, which linger in the mind.

Old Spice – This highly original advert went viral and with it came a new age of men riding white horses. Model Isaiah Mustafa shot to fame in February 2010 as he spearheaded The Man Your Man Could Smell Like campaign. The ad featured him holding a clam up to the ladies beyond the screen, with “two tickets to that thing you love” inside, and then suddenly the clam transforms into a stream of cascading diamonds. That's just what women need, more diamonds!

John West – Man Vs Bear, who will come on top in a battle of wits and endurance. This advert John West advert shows a worker challenging a wild brown bear for his juicy salmon, freshly caught from the banks of a river. A fight breaks out, which sees the bear do an Ali-shuffle, followed by a strong right hook. But the John West operative is smarter than that, and distracts the bear pointing to the sky momentarily, the bear looks up and gets a strong kick to the groin for his troubles. Priceless.

Just like in the movies, anyone who is to be executed is given a chance to say their last farewells. People always expect them to ask for forgiveness from their victims, or ask God to forgive them, but not all do so. Here are some utterly bizarre weird last words: 

• “I said I was going to tell a joke. Death has set me free. That's the biggest joke. I deserve this”. This was said by Patrick Bryan Knight a convicted murderer in 2007. After saying that he added, “Another joke is that I am not Patrick and y'all can't stop this execution now. Go ahead. I am finished.” He was executed by lethal injection.

• “Hey fellas! How about this for a headline for tomorrow's paper? ‘French Fries'”. These were the last words of convicted murderer James French in Ohio in 1966. He said this with a smiling face. You wonder if he really knew what was happening.

• “More weight” these were the last words of Giles Corey an accused witch. He was executed with stones which were piled on top of him until he died.

• “See you all on the other side, warden, murder me,” said by James Lewis Jackson. He was convicted for murder of his wife and his step daughters. He was executed by lethal injection.

• “I'd just like to say I'm sailing with the rock, and I will be back like Independence Day, with Jesus June 6. Like the movie, bug mother ship and all, I'll be back”. These where Aileen Carool Wuornos' last words. She was executed by lethal injection in 2002. She was found guilty of murdering 6 men in Florida.

No one can predict human behaviour. Sometimes, people can behave in ways that you wouldn't believe - people in the USA are spending more than 200 million USD in civil lawsuits per annum.

A man attempted to rob a bank and then sued it for a bizarre reason. According to him, the employees of the bank became aware of his deafness and they continued talking. This made them able to call the cops and stall him until they arrived. This deaf bank robber sued the bank for discrimination. 

A woman sued a guide-dog school after a blind person supposedly stepped on her foot. The person was being guided by a dog. She sued the guide-school for $150,000.

Amber Carson of Lancaster sued a restaurant in Philadelphia after she slipped over a beverage and broke her coccyx. She was awarded 113, 500 USD as a compensation despite the fact that the beverage was thrown by herself when she was mad at her boyfriend.

Michele Nations, an Arizona woman, sued the city after she stumbled on a gopher hole and sprained her ankle. She won 450,000 USD, as a compensation for her injury.

Kara Walton sued a night club when she lost her two front-teeth due to falling out of the club's window. She managed to win the dental expenses along with 12,000 USD. She was using the window for sneaking into the club in order to avoid 3.50 USD cover charges.

A young resident of Ohio sued his father because he bumped into him with a lawnmower. His case was thrown out of the court.

You must have read countless news articles on the internet over the last 12 months. However, we are going to tell some of the most unusual and funny news from around the world that were published recently.

You may know that lemurs are native to Madagascar. Recently, a ring tailed lemur was found in London. Apparently, it had collapsed in freezing conditions. 

Ten million Euros has been inherited by a black cat in Italy. According to the news, the money was left by its owner (a widower) who adopted the pet.

A New York driver placed his car in a space barely one inch longer than his car, when he didn't find a parking space. It was no doubt one of the most skilful parking displays.

The fort bridge painting that has never been finished before has finally been completed. It has been told that a number of painters have worked together to make it possible.

Rats are considered as one of the most annoying creatures. No one wants them in their house. However, studies have shown that rats have the ability of human-like empathy. They are noticed to unselfishly aid any of the distressed fellow rodents.

Last year, the flock of angry wingless birds dominated the iPhone. This app is considered as the most popular of 2011.

According to the sources, Amelia Hempleman-Adams has become the youngest individual to ski to the South Pole. She is the daughter of adventurer David Hempleman-Adams.

A US TV show, Myth Busters, went awry because of the fact that a cannonball crashed through a house.

A German got thousands of followers on Twitter by telling the nativity stories in a twenty-first century fashion.