Table talk

Some fins going on

The Gleneagles hotel in Perthshire was faced with losing a school of fish when an ornamental pond had to be dug up to make way for a new extension. The two dozen goldfish had been guests at the luxury hotel for more than 20 years. Staff were keen to save the fish, which are now happily swimming in a small lake elsewhere in the hotel grounds. The £9m development, called Braid House, will open in September, adding 59 bedrooms and four meeting rooms to the resort.

And they didn't call it Ale Mary

A church has launched a beer called Nuns Ale in a bid to raise funds for its restoration. Officials at the Abbey Church of St Mary the Virgin in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, recruited the nearby Church End Brewery to produce the bottle-conditioned bitter after unveiling plans for a £452,000 programme of repairs and improvements. Church warden Keith Lyons said that selling beer was an unusual way to boost church coffers, but parishioners appeared keen on the triple-hopped tipple. A percentage of takings from the sales of the beer at local pubs and off-licences is being donated to the church's appeal fund.

Killed by the force of three Gs

From a saintly brew to a sexy one: a new drink, as red-hot as a steamy night in Rio, has thrust itself into the market claiming to contain such a powerful aphrodisiac that more than three drinks can kill you. The press release for G, a blend of fruit juice and herbs, suggests that men who have died from heart attacks while making love did so because they drank too much G (conveniently forgetting that the drink hasn't existed until now). An extreme marketing ploy, perhaps, but the manufacturers are at pains to stress G's power to "turn the most demure princess of prude into a raging goddess of lust".

Mmm, chicken - lovely jubilee!

Cool idea from a hot heir

And, staying on a royal theme, Prince Charles is set to launch his own range of organic ice-cream this summer. The prince's Duchy Originals food company is expected to produce lemon curd, chocolate, vanilla and strawberries and cream flavours, which Charles must taste test and approve before they hit the shelves in July. "The Prince is very enthusiastic to support the establishment of more organic food production across the country," a spokeswoman said. As with the oatmeal biscuits, sausages, milk and other goods in the small Duchy Original range, all profits will go to charity.