Staff at Slough Museum got the benefit of some expert advice when a team of graphic designers from the nearby Yellow Pages HQ visited to see how it was run.

A group of 17 designers were amazed to find curator Jane Bird still using paper, scissors and glue to mount displays and decided to demonstrate how, with the aid of computerised high-tech equipment, life could be made easier for the museum staff.

Team leader from Yellow Pages told the Observer: “I didn’t know anything about Slough when I started but I found it a great place with a tremendous amount going on.”

Caring church-goers at King’s Evangelical Church were looking to help raise money for the victims of Hurricane Mitch in Honduras-which was battered by the second deadliest ever recorded-with over 19,000 fatalities.

After initially raising an amazing £10,500 the church’s overseas worker, Steve Dixon, flew to the scene of the devastation and bought food for the starving and urgent medical care for the victims.

On his return to the UK Steve told the Observer: “Flying in,we saw remains of bridges that had been torn down-they lost 95 bridges and 6,000 miles of roads-in the city,some buildings were just rubble but the government refuses to hand out licences for rebuilding.”

A life-long car enthusiast from Slough was celebrating 19 years ago after scooping a gold medal in the prestigious London to Capetown rally.

Driving his 1967 open-topped Mercedes 280SL,55-year-old Alastair Caldwell told the Observer: “The best thing is taking part-I get to travel all over the world but winning isn’t the criteria-I just like to have a good time.”

The letter’s page of the Observer has always been a place for local people to voice their views and opinions and at the close of 1998 the issue of fly-posting was on their mind.

A spate of illegal posting was being blamed on the fly posters coming from London and surrounding towns because of more stringent restrictions there.

One reader J.Harris complained: “Other towns keep this menace under control-why can’t we?”

Local newspapers always take a look back at the previous year-and an arts and music review of 1998 included a delightful photo of local band ‘Vacant Stare’,who apparently had started to party like it’s 1999 already.