Sideswipe: April 05: No park? No problem in Warkworth

Cost of love for landlord

This landlord reached out for advice on a popular New Zealand property investors' Facebook page last week: "I've a reliable paying tenant renting my self-contained flat. Water and the heating of the water is included, power additional. My tenant has found a partner and the partner stays over on average twice a week. I've been wary as this week it has been 3 or 4 days. When is enough enough? I am looking at the cost of additional hot water, wear and tear, the rent for 7 days has now become 9+ if you add on the time the partner stays…or do I relax and hope the honeymoon period will peter out." Plenty of members of the Facebook page told this landlord to pull her head in, but this is the experience of some tenants and it's pretty dehumanising.

The housing ladder lottery

This incredible millennial bought a house just by making a packed lunch every day for a year and winning the lottery. Poppy Williams (28), who is being hailed as a shining example to anyone in her generation who is looking to own their own home, paid cash for her first flat, just under a year after setting herself the target of getting on the property ladder. "Bought coffees went out of the window first, and I started making my own lunch. "Four months in, I reckoned I'd saved around £600 in total, so I was well on the way to owning my own house. "By month 11, I'd saved a grand total of £1300, and then I won just over £400,000 on the lottery so I was able to buy my flat outright.  And I did it all in less than 12 months, which is incredible…Sure, winning the lottery helped, but I know I would have got here just the same if I hadn't won all that money, it just would have taken me a little bit longer.  Probably another six months or so at the most, I've not done the maths," she said. (Via Newsthump)

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Women of the web — describe yourself as a male author might

1. "She was 40 but could have passed for a year younger with soft lipstick and some gentle mascara. Her dress clung to the curves of her bosom which was cupped by her bra that was under it, but over the breasts that were naked inside her clothes. She had a personality and eyes."
2. "She smiled, but I could see the sadness in her exotic almond-shaped eyes. Her scarf was made of light cotton, but the weight of oppression that came with it kept her head bowed in submission. I dreamed about ripping it off, letting her dark hair tumble free."
3. "She was petite. Exotic. Some kind of Asian. 'Konichiwa?' I say, bestowing my most charming smile. She rolls her eyes. I try again. 'Ni hao?' She sticks her middle finger up at me. I laugh, thinking to myself: what a cow."