Sideswipe: September 3: Are you having a laugh Grain Waves?

This is a single serve of Grain Waves. It's 18g. The tiniest of handfuls…in its very own bag. There are 18 of them in a multi-pack. Talk about packaging overkill, and why so small? So you can make its numbers look healthier? Don't be fooled consumers.

Mistaken identity

Michelle Cullen shares a story from her old office: "I had been working with the same team of people for upwards of 10 years and we knew each other so well that we were like family. I looked down the office one morning to see my old mate, Roger, bent over the photocopier and it seemed like an opportunity not to be missed.

"So I crept up behind him hands held out ready to give him a good goosing accompanied by a loud 'whah heeyyy!' The fella at the copier whizzed around and it was not my longtime colleague but some poor unsuspecting engineer, just there to service the machine. I was mortified! I sheepishly slunk away backwards, bowing low,red-faced and apologetic. Luckily, although a little surprised, the guy did not seem at all bothered. These days, I may have been in big trouble."

Yarns from HR

"Worked in HR for a couple years now, mostly for large firms ," writes a reader. "One of the strangest cases was brought about because a client asked us to review CCTV footage as he'd driven past the office late at night and noticed the motion sensor lights inside going on and off and was concerned there had been a break-in. Turned out our night security officer whose primary role is to monitor cameras from the control room was skipping up and down the corridors because 'he felt too full of energy' and had to get it out of his system somehow. Watching the footage of him skipping featuring the occasional star jump through vacant corridors for 20 minutes at 1am really made my day."

Mistaken identity, pet edition

"Years ago, my family lived on a farm near Warkworth," writes Steve Horne from Raglan. "Our pet black labrador would often wander away from the farm. We would take turns to get in the car and travel up and down local roads to find her. On one particular Saturday, I was in the township. While driving, I glanced out the window and saw our dog walking up the main street. I braked hard, leapt out of the car and berated the dog. It put its head down and looked at me. I grabbed it by the collar, put it on the back seat and headed home. Glancing in the rear vision mirror and to my horror I suddenly realised it had a different collar on. In a panic, I pulled the car over and pulled the mystery 'look-alike' dog out. I kindly pointed the dog towards Warkworth and drove off in shame. Walking up the pathway to our house, our labrador looked up at me and wagged its tail. Little did it know."