Sideswipe: June 29: Curtain with 17 pockets

The iPhone shower curtain has 17 pockets. Photo / Supplied

Village bands together to get job done

The population of Michaelston-y-Fedw — between Cardiff and Newport in the UK — is just 300 people. They were all putting up with crap internet, with speeds as slow as 4Mbps. They could pay for high-speed broadband service in their village, but the infrastructure to pipe the bandwidth didn't exist.

Fed up with their internet connectivity being so bad, they decided to sort the mess out themselves. The Guardian reports that people who live in the village have done much of the work, including excavating trenches from the boundaries of their properties to the external wall where the fibre enters their homes.

Thanks to the residents' efforts, 90 per cent of their community will be able to enjoy broadband connection speeds of up to 1000 Mbps in a few months. One of the organisers, Carina Dunk, 61, said it was fantastic what the village had achieved.

"It used to take a few days to download a film, now it will be less than a minute. Sometimes we have to take a step back and pinch ourselves at what we have done. Anyone can do it, it is not rocket science."

Multi-tasker better not drive faster

"On my way to work his morning I witnessed the worst stupidity of a driver, writes Adrienne. "She was waiting to join the traffic going into Queen St Northcote, cleaning her teeth, opened the door, spat and then proceeded to put on her make-up. In between the mascara strokes she was also texting. My request to this lady driver is get up a little earlier and carry out your ablutions in your bathroom and turn your phone off in your car. You are the type of person who would cause an accident and walk away scot free."

Andy frequently travels to China on business and he gets a kick out of the signage he sees ... Anyone got a more accurate translation? Photo / Supplied

Don't cross woodwork teachers

"In the mid 1950s during my first year of high school at Otahuhu College, we were given regular woodwork lessons in an old corrugated iron out-building," writes Allan Gyde from Tauranga. "We were forbidden by our teacher to talk in class, so one morning while some chatter was taking place he completely lost his cool, picked up a chisel from the front bench and violently threw it in our general direction over the top of our heads. It crashed into the back wall and bounced off coming to rest between myself and another student. Needless to say we stayed very quiet after that."

Lovely name for a girl

A reader writes: "Child number three due any day, we knew it was a girl but hubby and I couldn't agree on names, Master 5 couldn't see what the problem was, he was adamant her name was Rebecca Lovely which was not either of our choices. Rebecca is now nearly 12 — we did drop the Lovely even though she is."