Premiership Football Star Goes Window Cleaning

Marc Albrighton was a town centre window cleaner for the day. He is pictured getting his blade from Daren Fulford.

Winger Marc swaps Villa Park for window cleaning: Tamworth football star Marc Albrighton is used to taking corners at some of the Premiership's biggest grounds. But this week the England under-21s ace was making sure he didn't miss corners of a different kind — when he joined non-league football boss Daren Fulford on his window cleaning round. Youngsters heading for school on Monday were forced to do a double-take as they walked passed soccer star Albrighton cleaning town centre shop windows.

The Aston Villa winger was taking up a challenge laid down by Bolehall Swifts manager Daren Fulford and son Conor. "I'd had a bit of banter with them about window cleaning," Albrighton explained. "They were saying I had never done a hard day's work in my life! "I'd put it to the back of my mind but when the season finished they brought it up again. "So I decided it would be fun to give it a go and it was a great laugh. "I really enjoyed it and didn't think it was too tough. The one killer part was the 5.30am start but I thought I did well with the rest of it!"

While Albrighton said he had found his window cleaning experience relatively easy, his boss for the day, Fulford, wasn't so sure. He joked: "He did four hours and he was totally knackered, which doesn't surprise me because he doesn't normally last 90 minutes on the pitch! "We made it into a proper working day for him. "He didn't exactly come dressed for work, wearing a smart tracksuit, and I think the early start was a culture shock for him. But it was a really good day and he did a good job, to be fair. "There was some banter flying around but we all enjoyed it.

Don't forget the corners: Villa star Marc Albrighton pictured cleaning Christopher's Jewellers' shop with owner Chris Duffy and Daren Fulford.

 "School kids in particular were walking past and then glancing back and saying, 'that's Marc Albrighton!' "I just thought it was great that he was doing it. "Most Premiership footballers are probably sunning themselves on a beach in Barbados while Marc is down in the town centre, window cleaning. "I just think it says a lot about what a genuine lad he is." Albrighton has remained strongly connected to Tamworth despite his rise to stardom with Aston Villa. He recently provided the Bolehall Swifts FC squad with plush new tracksuits and training tops and is a regular supporter of local events.

The Premiership star added: "It's always been drilled into me to stay as grounded as possible and my mom and dad have always helped me to keep my feet on the ground. "I know a lot of people have bad views on footballers. "There's a stereotypical view of players in the Premiership but there are a lot of good lads. "For me, I enjoy being a part of Tamworth. It's my hometown and so doing things like this are important to me."

Soccer star: Marc celebrates scoring for Aston Villa.

London, England - Just Another Day Window Cleaning

LONDON, ENGLAND - A photo illustration of window cleaning tools ready for use on the 50th floor of the One Canada Square skyscraper on February 8, 2011 in London, England. Currently the tallest building in Britain, it lies at the heart of Canary Wharf, the business and shopping district on the River Thames. To clean all the windows of the building takes a month, with the cleaners suspended up to 190m from the ground. As always, click the pictures to enlarge. Previous blogs here & here.

LONDON, ENGLAND - A window cleaners harness catches a ray of sun on the 50th floor of the One Canada Square skyscraper in London, England.

LONDON, ENGLAND - Window cleaner Jamie Graham steadies the cleaning gondala against the side of the balcony above the 50th floor of the One Canada Square skyscraper.

LONDON, ENGLAND - Window cleaner Jamie Graham at work on the 50th floor of the One Canada Square skyscraper.

LONDON, ENGLAND - Window cleaners Lee Mason (left) and Paul Wright (right) pause for a break in their cleaning gondola outside the 50th floor of the One Canada Square skyscraper.

LONDON, ENGLAND - Window cleaners at work on the One Canada Square skyscraper.

LONDON, ENGLAND -  Window cleaner Jamie Graham at work on the currently vacant 50th floor of the One Canada Square skyscraper.

LONDON, ENGLAND - A crane and gondola ready for use on the 50th floor of the One Canada Square skyscraper.

Psychic Window Cleaning Cat Predicts England Win Over Germany

Meet Felix the cat. Felix, born in Ludwigshafen, Germany but now living in Bognor Regis, England, has quite an incredible ability for a cat. Not only does he clean windows, he leaves predictions in writing on major sporting events & even world affairs. To name a few, Felix has predicted Obama's Presidency, the world recession & even the BP oil spill. He has predicted every major premier league game result this year & all the NFL major football games since he was born. Naturally being a window cleaner, Felix shows his predictions through his work and if it wasn't for Mrs Ivy Robinson of Upper Bognor Road snapping this picture of Felix we would have been none the wiser. When interviewing Ivy & why she thinks that Felix has the correct result, she quoted "of course it's an England win, Felix is never wrong - Felix eats frauds like Paul the Octopus for breakfast." When asked what she'll think of spending the fifty quid on for this story, Ivy said, "Felix definitely needs a break, I was gonna take him to Mallorca, but I think I'll buy him some professional window cleaning equipment instead."

You may have heard of Paul the Octopus (story below), but some people in the know have said he is a fraud & cheat. Why, only the other day "Bad Psychics," a website dedicated to exposing the truth - admitted that Paul was ousted from the UK at quite a young age due to his total lack of credibility or any noticeable career & his real name is Günther!



Oracle Octopus picks Germany to beat England at Cup: An octopus born in England and living in a German aquarium that has correctly picked the winner of Germany's three World Cup results so far Friday tipped Joachim Loew's side to beat England in Sunday's match. Oddly Enough - The eight-legged octopus named Paul, a denizen of Sea Life in Oberhausen, has become a celebrity oracle in Germany after accurately predicting Germany would beat Australia in the opening Group D match, would lose to Serbia and then beat Ghana.

Friday, Paul once again was given the choice of picking food from two different plastic containers lowered into his tank -- one with an England flag on it and one with a German flag. The container Paul opens first is seen as his pick. Paul moved quickly and opened the box with the Germany flag, a selection that soon made it into national news broadcasts across Germany. Paul was born in Weymouth, England.