Of bulges, ancient Eastbourne, bye-bye Ramsey Street, the high life, good fortune, prehistory and a pop princess

RIP Gil Gerard, aka Buck Rogers, with his impressive space weapon! [click any pic to embiggen]

It's another snippets post, dear reader:

• Oops! news: An ancient skeleton that for decades was mistakenly cited as African, and as "the earliest black Briton", has been scientifically identified as a locally-born girl, probably from what is today the coastal resort of Eastbourne.
• The soap that wouldn't die news: The beloved Aussie soap Neighbours - that launched the careers of such heavyweights as Kylie Minogue, Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, Natalie Imbruglia, Margot Robbie and Liam Hemsworth - has ended for good (again! It was revived after its last grand finale in 2022 as a streaming show on Amazon), after 40 years.

• Luxurious living news: Coco Chanel's Mediterranean villa La Pausa [above], at which she hosted the kind of parties that we would never be invited to, but the likes of Jean Cocteau, Colette, Igor Stravisnksy, Luchino Visconti and Salvador Dalí were, has been completely restored and reopened as a cultural centre.
• Lucky bastards news: A Welsh couple is celebrating winning £1 million on the lottery - for the second time, seven years after their first million-pound win! "All day long I'd biddy biddy bum, if I were a wealthy man." But I'm not. Dammit.

• Mountain-climbing dinosaurs? news: Thousands of dinosaur footprints have been discovered on a rock cliff - about 600 metres (nearly 2,000 feet) above the nearest road - high up in the Italian Alps.
• And finally: The race to be Britain's Xmas #1 single is hotting up - with Wham! and Mariah-fucking-Carey both in the running again - but one of the bookies' favourites this year is... Our Princess Kylie! Fingers crossed for Friday, when the Xmas Chart is announced...

Kylie Minogue - X-M-A-S!

And the weather? Blustery, but not that cold if you're out of the wind.