With out-of-office responses flying in as usual during August, The Weekly commends those who are in the office and propping up the property market (or more likely just haven’t been on their holidays yet!). As usual, The Weekly has prepared five short questions collated from the goings-on in the news this week. Good luck!
Questions:
1. With what seems like no time at all since the turbulence and excitement of the Euros, Premier League football returned to our screens this weekend and with fans back in the grounds (and Arsenal underperforming) it almost feels like normality has resumed. With Harry Kane (23) pipping Mo Salah (22) to last season’s Golden Boot and the plethora of new signings in the league, The Weekly is looking forward to what should be a season full of goals. Twelve players scored hat-tricks in the Premier League last year, but do you know who currently holds the record for the fastest Premier League hat-trick in history? A bonus point if you know how long it took him?
*Clue – He is a current Premier League player but now turns out for a different club.
2. A nervous wait was ended this week as A Level and GCSE results were announced across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, on Tuesday and Thursday respectively. Although there will have been disappointment for some, A level results reached a record high – with 44.8% getting A* or A grades. Following suit, top grades for GCSEs (A grades and above) rose to 28.9% from 26.7% in 2020 while passes (C and above) rose to 77.1% from 76.3% last year. Twins, Jessica and Jennifer Gadirova hit the headlines on Thursday as they received their GCSE results at Aylesbury Vale Academy, but do you know why they were in the spotlight?
3. This week saw Savills release their Market in Minutes - City Investment Watch, revealing ten City office transactions during the month of July totalling £743.1m, the second largest monthly turnover in 2021 and a 68% increase on July 2020’s total. Despite the encouraging uplift, total investment for the year up to July (£3.74bn) is still 32% down on the 5-year average (£4.92bn). However, with £1.40bn currently under offer and a large pool of investors targeting a small level of best-in-class assets coupled with low borrowing costs, this could well be set to change during the remainder of 2021. What prime yields have Savills now put on City Offices?
4. With the close of the Olympics and nine days to the start of the Paralympics, The Weekly may have thought that many around the country may have sought inspiration to eat healthy and get fit after watching our athletes do the business in Japan. That may be the case for some, but not café owner Ted Phillips who this week launched the UK’s biggest full English breakfast challenge, boasting 150 items! The dish, which is served at Shepherd Place Farm in Doncaster contains 15 jumbo Lincolnshire sausages (the equivalent to 30 regular sausages), 15 rashers of bacon, 15 hash browns, 15 fried eggs, 15 slices of black pudding, 15 slices of toast and fried bread with butter, 15 portions of mushrooms, 15 portions of baked beans and 15 portions of tinned tomatoes. How many calories do you think the mega breakfast equals?
5. The new British ambassador to Iran has already landed himself in hot water after only having arrived in Tehran a matter of days ago. With British and Iranian relations stretched, the new Foreign Office posting for Simon Shercliff will have its challenges without adding more. What did Mr Shercliff and his Russian counterpart do (unwittingly) to cause anger within the Iranian public?
Answers:
Sadio Mane (2 minutes 56 seconds for Southampton vs Aston Villa in 2015).
They have just returned from Tokyo after winning a bronze medal in the women’s team gymnastics event, the first medal for Great Britain in the event since 1928!
3.75%. This is the first time in history that Savills have put Prime City Office yields below 4.00%.
17,000 calories! To put that into context a person loses an estimated 100 calories per mile of regular walking which would mean a 170 mile walk to burn off the meal, the distance, coincidentally between London and Doncaster!
Both ambassadors posed outside the British embassy sitting in the exact same chairs and position as Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin did at the height of Iran’s subjugation during the Second World War. Not a great first week at work!