Sideswipe: A salty brew

My sister lives in Thailand and this new cafe opened next to her apartment, says a reader. "She said she hasn't had a coffee there yet, but isn't sure what to expect."

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A regular reader writes: "I have an 83-year-old friend with quite bad eyesight ... He recently finished breakfast and took two antibiotic pills with the last of his tea. He then looked about for his two hearing aid batteries he was about to replace ... There were his two pills, but no batteries."

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Has anybody else had the same hassle as I have trying to pay a simple $2 toll to use the Northern Gateway Tunnel?" asks Heiko Jonkers. "Timeline goes something like this: Sunday, August 2: Take a drive through the tunnel. Tuesday, August 4: Unsuccessfully try to pay the toll but can't as the trip doesn't appear to have been processed. Friday, August 7: Try again - can't pay due to a website malfunction. Call customer helpline to no avail as I have to call during business hours. Monday, August 10: Receive infringement notice. Two dollar trip now $4.20 trip. Tuesday, August 11: Finally get through to the call centre only to be told I have to pay the full amount, no excuses accepted, no flexibility."

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Stupid job interview questions:

#1. "Things didn't start well when the interviewer got my name wrong when he called me in to the interview room. The first question he asked was, 'Do you have a partner?' Needless to say with this type of interview questions I turned the job down."

#2. When Damian applied for his first job out of polytech, he was posted a questionnaire. "It asked me to rank myself from 1-10 on things like honesty, integrity, manners and intelligence. I was so insulted, I put 1 for honesty and 10 for all the others."

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In response to Lorraine Ramsay of Westmere being told off for taking pictures of a grandson, this will be a "privacy" issue, declares a reader. "On my nephew's first day of kindergarten, I started taking a photo of him sitting on the mat, only to be told I was not allowed to take photos of him in a group situation unless I had permission from all the other parents ... My poor wee nephew will look back on the photos later in life and think he had no friends!"

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A reader wonders if anyone else thought it ironic that TV3's Big Night In Telethon to help feed those in poverty, featured wasting food (the sponsors' product) on such a big scale? "The boundaries for the tug-o-war and sumo wrestling were made from loaves of bread (promptly trampled and thrown around), and other events included throwing eggs, covering people's heads in whipped cream ... I wonder if it occurred to anyone to just give the food to people who might eat it - or would we prefer to give money, and pay admin costs?"

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View today's Herald cartoon

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