The Daily Surprise

Champei Pheakdei, 24, lives at London's prestigious St John's Wood High Street.

Her 3 bedroom flat rented for 1,500 pounds per week, has been home to Ms Pheakdei and her black cat, Pugsy, for almost 5 years.

A famous celebrity fortune teller in the city, known as "Peeky" to her clients, Ms Pheakdei has last week made claims to being a princess of the ancient Khemer Empire which was based in what is now called Cambodia.


The claim was initiated after receiving some ancient documents from an anonymous source last month, she says.

"I don't know who sent it to me. It was just a package with all these papers, including maps and handwritten letters stating my heritage and my great great grandpa to be King Jayavarman VIII", says Pheakdei.

If her claims are true, historians say, she could inherit properties and treasures worth up to 10 million pounds, and possibly also the title princess and a seat in the govenment. However, when contected, the Cambodian authorities have refused to make any comment on this matter.

The current ruler of Cambodia is King Norodom Sihamoni, who succeeded his father King Norodom Sihanouk. As Sihamoni remains a bachelor and has no children, he thus does not have a direct successor - The question now is, can Pheakdei be next in line ?

Pheakdei whose father is an Chinese Australian and mother a Thai, will find it difficult to prove to be a direct decendent of King Jayavarman VIII, say experts.

Peter Manson, a Professor of East Asian Studies here says, "Cambodians are very conservative people, her chances I would say, is close to zero."

Champei Pheakdei whose clients include celebrities like Paris Hilton and Victoria Beckham (aka Posh Spice) remain unperturbed, "If this is my destiny, then I will get it...mahai !...they can't just say no. Why don't they do proper investigations first, mahai !", she says defiantly.

Pheakdei who prefers to call her trade, "destiny consulting" instead of fortune telling, is a member of the Golden Dawn society where she studied magick and the occult.

"I am more of a certified witch than a mere fortune teller", she says confidently.

When asked if she believes in Harry Porter, Pheakdei looked at her cat Pugsy, and stangely, Pugsy smiled and nodded knowingly.

This is the Skywalk at the Grand Canyon West. It is 4,000 feet above the bottom of the canyon and extends 70 feet out from the rim of the canyon. It will be open from dawn to dusk, and the price of admission is $25 per person. The sky bridge cost approximately $30 million to build.

See more pictures here.

This Mr. Warren of North Memphis. Mr. Warren has been a barber in North Memphis for a very long time and apparently is the only barber to cut hair with fire. He has also been a guest on the Jay Leno and David Letterman show. If you're in the neighbourhood, you can pay him a visit at 887 Thomas St. Tel: (901) 526-1155

Read more about this here.

A Malaysian engineer has designed the world's first recretional
flying saucer. Helang Tech 2020 Sdn. Bhd.'s President and Chief Astro Engineer, Ang Jau Kim, 26, said his flying saucer will be ready for take off in the year 2020.

The space machine called the "Helang 2020 Wawasan" weighing merely 2 tons and having a diameter of 6 meters uses 4 engines from Malaysia's car maker Proton's luxury saloon - the Perdana 2.0.

The 2 seater flying machine is able to fly up to 450 meters above ground and is speculated to be popular with top executives wanting to beat the traffic congession in Kuala Lumpur and other major cities in Malaysia.

Ang, more popularly known as "Jay Kay", when contacted, said that his design was inspired by Han Solo's space ship, the Millenium Falcon from the film Star Wars. The Helang 2020 Wawasan is expected to retail at US$150,000 per unit.

"We will start with a few hundred units for sale domestically first, but we plan to expend our operations throught Asia progressively" said Jay Kay.

Major analysts are however not very enthusiastic about the sales of Jay Kay's flying saucer as they claim not many residences in Malaysia are equipped with sufficient land area to accomodate such a large "vehicle".


AS Lau of MoneyMan Research Sdn. Bhd. said, "the price is okay, but Malaysian houses are not built to permit sufficient parking for this aircraft. If potential owners have to park it somewhere else, away from their homes...then what's the point ? they might as well drive their cars to work".

Meanwhile, business souces say, real estate prices of residences close to playing fields have shot up by 300% starting last month and is expected to increase futher.
Rumour has it that the rich have been rushing to purchase these residences to park their flying toy at the playgrounds nearby.

Ang, whose hobbies include playing computer games like the World Of Warcraft is speculated to receive an award from the prime minister for his invention.

This is the work of sculptor Matter Pierre.

This is the gallery.

1. Tonto, the Lone Ranger movies

2. Hobbes, Calvin & Hobbes

3. R2D2, Star Wars