They started to sing "Message in a Bottle" and Nigel decided to do just that as a joke. He scrawled on a piece of paper: "Bestow good luck to whoever finds this note from Pommie Shep". Then he pushed the note into a Dogbolter beer bottle, sealed it with a cork from a bottle of wine they had also drunk and threw the bottle into the sea.

Six years later, Nigel, 36, was walking along the beach at Hayling Island in Hampshire (UK), a few miles from his home, when he came upon a Dogbolter lying in the sand. Incredibly, it was his bottle. Had it floated 12,000miles (19,312km) from Cairns, via the South Pacific, the Indian Ocean and round Africa, Spain and France?

"The note was a bit moist and the ink had run," he said, "but it was clearly my message". Times of London, 18 April; Sunday Mirror, 22 March 1998

Lee Hadwin, 23, wrote his phone number and address on a piece of paper on New Year's Day in 1993 and threw it into the sea sealed in a bottle at Rhyl in North Wales.

Three years later, Heather Gummer found the bottle on a beach in Eastbourne, Sussex after it had travelled 1750miles (2816km) clockwise around the coast. Heather, a 47year-old divorcee from Tonbridge, Kent,said: "At first I thought it must have been a wind-up. I couldn't believe the bottle had come from North Wales." But she rang Lee and they had "a good chat and a giggle".

After two months of calls, the couple met in London.

In the spring of 1998, Lee,a bass player in a country and western band, proposed from the stage during a concert and Heather accepted. Shropshire Star,27 July 1998

Another Message in a bottle was dropped by eight year old Lee Bishop into the Swallow Falls at Betys-y-Coed in North Wales. Four months later and 10,000 miles(16,000km) away, the bottle was found on a beach by Paul Altabas, on a holiday in the Maldives.

On his return to Britain Mr Altabas posted the note to Lee, but the Royal Mail later admitted the letter had been lost. Shropshire Star, 27 July 1998

What Your Kids Think of History

Contributed by "LadyB" Athens, GA

Ancient Egypt was inhabited by mummies and they all wrote in hydraulics. They lived in the Sarah Dessert. The climate of the Sarah is such that the inhabitants have to live elsewhere.

Moses led the Hebrew slaves to the Red Sea, where they made unleavened bread, which is bread made without any ingredients. Moses went up on Mount Cyanide to get the ten commandments. He died before he ever reached Canada.

Solomon had three hundred wives and seven hundred porcupines.

The Greeks were a highly sculptured people, and without them we wouldn't have history. The Greeks also had myths. A myth is a female moth.

Socrates was a famous Greek teacher who went around giving people advice. They killed him. Socrates died from an overdose of wedlock. After his death, his career suffered a dramatic decline.

In the Olympic games, Greeks ran races, jumped, hurled biscuits, and threw the java.

Julius Caesar extinguished himself on the battlefields of Gaul. The Ides of March murdered him because they thought he was going to be made king. Dying, he gasped out:"Tee hee, Brutus."

Nero was a cruel tyranny who would torture his subjects by playing the fiddle to them.

Queen Elizabeth was the "Virgin Queen." As a queen she was a success. When she exposed herself before her troops they all shouted "hurrah."

It was an age of great inventions and discoveries. Gutenberg invented removable type and the Bible. Another important invention was the circulation of blood. Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical figure because he invented cigarettes and started smoking. And Sir Francis Drake circumcised the world with a 100-foot clipper.

Writing at the same time as Shakespeare was Miguel Cervantes. He wrote Donkey Hote. The next great author was John Milton. Milton wrote Paradise Lost. Then his wife died and he wrote Paradise Regained.

Soon the Constitution of the United States was adopted to secure domestic hostility. Under the constitution the people enjoyed the right to keep bare arms.

Abraham Lincoln became America's greatest Precedent. Lincoln's mother died in infancy, and he was born in a log cabin which he built with his own hands. Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves by signing the Emasculation Proclamation. On the night of April 14, 1865, Lincoln went to the theater and got shot in his seat by one of the actors in a moving picture show. The believed assinator was John Wilkes Booth, a supposingly insane actor. This ruined Booth's career.

Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so deaf he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the forest even when everyone was calling for him. Beethoven expired in 1827 and later died for this.