Sideswipe

While house prices in the rest of Auckland are flat-lining, Papakura is booming. (Listed with John McDonald Realty Ltd.)

Going over the Newmarket flyover bridge heading north, a reader noticed a new Shell sign ... "Shell, designed to take" which says it all, really, but it's not until you get half way across the bridge and look back that you see the rest of the sign which adds "you further".

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A victim of Auckland City Council's towing service, Louise Mark, writes: "I'd dropped my car off at a city garage on Friday to get a WoF. When it was finished they parked it, with permission, in the carpark of the panelbeater's shop next door. When I went to pick it up after work it was gone. I rang the tow company that had the sign up in the carpark, but they hadn't towed it. I rang the police to check if it had been towed, and again on Saturday, to report it as stolen. It's now Monday and I've just had a call from the police to inform me the Auckland City Council had it towed from my authorised parking space by a different company from that which was displayed, and didn't feel it was necessary to tell anyone (including the police) they had done it. While relieved to have my car, I'm fuming at what I've had to go through and I still have to pay the $150 to get it from the tow company!"

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Harry Potter titles fans would rather not read:

1. Harry Potter and the Uneventful Year When No One Tried to Kill Him.
2. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Kidney Stone.
3. Harry Potter and the shameless Tom Clancy Crossover.
4. Harry Potter and the Uncomfortable Oversexualisation of Minors.
5. Harry Potter and the Hendersons.
6. Harry Potter and the Things You Have to do to Get By in Prison.
7. Harry Potter and the Chamber Pot of Secrets.
8. Harry Potter and the Prisoner Detainees of Azerbaijan.
9. Harry Potter and the Wand of Franchise Extension.
10. Harry Potter and the Order of the Pizza.
(Source: www.capnwacky.com)

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Patrick Whiteman of Papatoetoe would like to relay a message to the person who broke the back window of his car, parked in Papatoetoe, and stole 32 Bibles. Would you please open a Bible and turn to Ephesians, Chapter 4, verse 28. "Perhaps you may then decide to kindly return them," he says optimistically.