Sideswipe: Better work stories with Mum and Dad

When a closed-down bank in Tūākau opens as a laundry...

The sweet nostalgia of Mum and Dad's jobs ... Part 2

Kiwi comedian Amanda Kennedy (@Ahhmandah) asked her Twitter followers, what's one thing a parent's job gave you that other people are unlikely to experience? Following on from yesterday, here are more:

1. "My dad was a freezing worker and he was able to supply my 4th form class with a very large jar of bulls' eyes that we went on to dissect."

2. "My dad worked in alternative fuel systems and I ended up with the first car in NZ converted to LPG - a Mark 3 Cortina. Went for my driving test and the dude was so keen to pop the bonnet (not a euphemism) he basically passed me before I'd driven out of the car park."

3. "Dad was a police dog handler and every Wednesday evening I was - very happily - padded up like the Michelin Man, tracked by two or three police dogs and brought down trying to escape. Rouse! Lol. I loved it."

4. "My father was a movie theatre manager. I went to the NZ premiere of the first Star Wars film three months before it was in movie theatres in NZ - about 1977 - classmates were so jealous."

5. "My mum couldn't get a babysitter for Christmas Eve while she worked night shift at a hospital. She sneaked my brother and me in after midnight and we slept in some empty patient rooms!"

6. "Mum was a social worker on a locked dementia ward. One day I had to go to her office after school and I thought I was being polite by holding the door open for the elderly lady who was standing just inside it. Five minutes later there was a search alarm for a missing resident!"

7. "My nana worked at the Reserve Bank and for a couple of years in the 70s I spent January counting $2000 bundles of $20 notes - and drilling out the queen's eyes on the ones being incinerated!"

Classic cat behaviour

Lost phone

Maureen writes: "I found a phone this morning on a Takapuna bus stop. AT transport is not interested. Neither is NZ Police. What to do? I've charged it so it doesn't go flat and have been waiting all day for some desperate owner to call, to no avail. It has an access swipe on the back. So, I'm thinking they will be wanting it."