Dream holidays don't always mean sweet dreams

IN a recent poll, 29% of customers said they preferred their own bed and found it harder to nod off between strange sheets.  However, 32% said they slept better on holiday, either because of the fresh air and sunshine (21%) or because they were escaping their daily worries (11%).  38% said they slept neither better nor worse - but an unhappy 1% were never able to fully relax, and said they slept badly on holiday because they were worrying about things at home.

Men slumbered more soundly than women, with only 24% of them having trouble away from home, compared with 37% of women.

Mike Whiting, managing editor of HolidayExtras.com, said:- "Yes, holidays are meant to be relaxing, but sometimes there's an element of missing home and familiar things too.

It doesn't mean people aren't enjoying their break - a third of people in the UK have bouts of insomnia and sometimes being in a different bed or a different place is all it takes to disturb someone's sleep."

Gang of 4 guilty of assaulting doctor

A gang of 4 men have been convicted of the racially aggravated common assault of one of Southport & Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust's junior doctors and his brother.

Dr Romio Shwahna and his brother Rabea, who was visiting him on holiday, were outside Southport & Formby District General Hospital when they were set upon by the 4 men.

The 4 Southport men, Daniel Rigby, 19, Gary Evans, 18, Jason Lynch, 21 and Craig Morgan, 18, were sentenced at Liverpool Crown Court to 12 months imprisonment suspended for two years with supervision. Rigby was ordered to do 100 hours unpaid work, Lynch was put on an anger management course and Evans and Morgan were told to attend a promoting human dignity course.

Alan Lee, Risk Manager at Southport & Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust said:- "We have a zero tolerance towards both physical and verbal abuse of our staff. They are here to help people in their hour of need, not to be a victim of such an attack. This action by Merseyside Police reinforces the message that such behaviour will not be tolerated in our hospitals. The Trust will continue to work with both Merseyside and Lancashire Police to ensure all offenders ore held to account for offences against our staff."

Doors close on Lewis’s 5th Floor

FOLLOWING the closure of Liverpool’s oldest department store at the end of May, the last remaining ‘outpost’ of Lewis’s closes at the end of this month, with a special event to mark the occasion.

Opened the same week in February as it was announced Lewis’s would close, the Lewis’s 5th Floor: A Department Story photography exhibition at the National Conservation Centre finishes its run on 30 August 2010.

On Saturday, 29 August 2010, a free Farewell to Lewis’s event will be held, to celebrate the success of the exhibition and reminisce about the department store, which became a Liverpool institution. All are welcome to come along between 1 and 3pm to enjoy the music and afternoon tea on offer, and share memories of the store. People are also invited to bring along any of their own Lewis’s photographs to be scanned by the exhibition team.

The first solo exhibition by Liverpool photographer Stephen King, Lewis’s 5th Floor has already attracted over 37,000 people. It reflects Stephens visits to the store’s ‘lost’ 5th floor which was closed to the public in the early 1980s, whilst also revealing the faces of ex-employees in their original place of work.

Aside from the vast range of products, clothes and accessories Lewis’s offered to its customers, many will have special memories of the fifth floor, and the unique element it added to a day out shopping in what wasn’t just any old department store.

Included in the exhibition are images of the cafeteria which once seated 600 people, with its Grade II listed unique hand-painted ceramic tile work. The 65 metre-long mural features condiments, utensils, vegetables and cutlery will be incorporated into the new development, which will reconfigure the existing floor space as part of a new leisure and retail development.

Other features in the exhibition include the 5th floor’s renowned hair salon, which at one point employed over 50 people alone. It was where the more well off went to get their hair coiffed and where singer Shirley Bassey allegedly sent her wigs to be styled! The seats, hairdryers, sinks and 1970s period wallpaper are vividly captured in Stephen’s images.

National Museums Liverpool curator Nicky Lewis said:- “The fantastic visitor figures really reflect the importance of Lewis’s in the city, and how much Merseysiders have taken it into their hearts.  Stephen’s exhibition and the Lewis’s project as a whole has built on this affection and worked to create something that will leave a lasting legacy of this Liverpool institution. With Neutral Spoon art project management, Stephen has worked to produce some beautiful photography, and collected memories which will mark the city’s love of Lewis’s forever.”

National Conservation Centre Whitechapel, Liverpool Admission FREE - Open 10am to 5pm every day. Information can be gained via calling:- 0151 478 4999 or by going online or you can also go to:- lewissfifthfloor.com