Sideswipe: Original firewood art

A reader writes: "Regarding the use of 'zero' instead of 'O', poor old James Bond! Somehow Double Zero 7 doesn't sound right!"

Ron Sickling of Northcote snapped this firewood stack last month in Westport. "Original firewood art? Designer woodpile? Winter consumable front fence? I was told it was stacked by a former forestry worker," he says.

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Most Ridiculous Complaints Received By Tourist Operators:

1. "The beach was too sandy."

2. A guest at a Novotel in Australia complained his soup was too thick and strong. He was inadvertently slurping the gravy at the time.

3. "My fiance and I booked a twin-bedded room but we were placed in a double-bedded room. We now hold you responsible for the fact that I find myself pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked."

4. "The brochure stated: 'No hairdressers at the accommodation.' We're trainee hairdressers - will we be OK staying here?"

5. "On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don't like spicy food at all."

6. "We booked an excursion to a water park but no one told us we had to bring our swimming costumes and towels."

7. A tourist at a top African game lodge who spotted a visibly aroused elephant complained that the sight of this rampant beast ruined his honeymoon by making him feel "inadequate".

8. A woman threatened to call police after claiming that she'd been locked in by staff. She thought the "do not disturb sign" on the door was a warning to stay in the room. (Source: The Telegraph.co.uk)

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Further to Lou Girardin's comment about buses ploughing down Exmouth Rd and Sylvan Ave in Northcote, K. Holland writes: "I live on Exmouth Rd and bus to and from work in the city each day. In a space of three days, our bus hit two different cars! One of which was parked on Sylvan Ave. The driver kept on going and denied hitting anything when questioned by passengers ..."

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On the covered but uncovered seating at North Harbour Stadium: "The seats marked as covered on the website will be the ones directly under the roof. But when the roof is close to 50m above the seats, even a light breeze can blow the rain on to those seats, effectively making them uncovered," writes a reader. "If the wind is coming from behind the stand, some seats marked as uncovered will be covered by the roof."

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See today's Herald cartoon