Sideswipe: April 27: No flames? No worries.

"Perhaps the ashes that you stuck in the wheelie-bin might have still been juuuust a wee bit too hot," write Terry and Sheena Wilson of Waiatarua. Photo / Supplied

Night at movies left in ruins by parking ticket horror

Jeremy parked in the Civic car park the other night, went to a movie. "Never a cheap night out," he writes. "But a good movie is almost mostly worth it. But we won't be parking there again anytime soon because I lost my parking ticket. In the past I have paid a $25 fee grudgingly in the same situation - I can understand it costing something for a parking assistant to check a camera to verify our time of arrival and issue a ticket to leave the car park.

This time when we approached the pay station that the ticket was nowhere to be found, I pushed the lost ticket button and was told it would be $72. Cross words were exchanged and we went back up to the Event Cinema in the vain hope of finding the ticket. Didn't happen. In my opinion the fee is extortionate. Why $72? Why not twice that? Or half? There is no reason for the cost of a lost ticket fee.

Auckland Transport replied: 'The rate is based on parking for three days at the maximum daily rate and serves as a deterrent to avoid customers deliberately throwing away tickets and claiming they had parked for less time. There was an issue with customers leaving their cars in buildings for several days while they went to the Gulf Islands and claiming their ticket had been lost'."

Boutique bins utter rubbish

A reader writes: "This is a rubbish bin already overflowing at 3pm on Kohimarama Beach walkway, on Anzac Day. All of the ridiculously tiny bins along this popular beach area on Tamaki Drive are similarly overfull halfway through the day on weekends and holidays.

Small, aesthetically designed bins are useless in these locations. Photo / Supplied

Small, aesthetically designed bins are useless in these locations. We need huge bins that can meet the needs. If they're really loud and yellow or pink, who cares? Or why not simply put in multiple temporary ones, like households get, for high demand days?"

Autocorrect names All Blacks

Easy to do...Via ODT reporter @southernscoop on Twitter

Shot in the dark to find lost camera

"Looking for the honest Kiwi who found my Canon SLR camera lost on a track in Shakespear Regional Park yesterday, Anzac day," writes Bernd. "Had a great day with wonderful weather to shoot many photos just to leave the camera on the walkway to the car parks, silly me. I returned later that afternoon but it had gone by then. Really missing the camera but especially all the hundreds of photos taken since the start of the year all around New Zealand." Please contact Sideswipe if you found it.

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Got a Sideswipe? Send your pictures, links and anecdotes to Ana at ana.samways@nzherald.co.nz