KEY POINTS:
Marianne from Takapuna writes: "I understand a young woman was singing beautifully in Mairangi Bay this week and was not "busking" for money. Suddenly her microphone went dead and the interested bystanders were left wondering what had happened. Seems a disgruntled person had rung the council who sent along a busybody to unplug the melody. Shame on them. Pity they were not around to catch the offenders who mauled the lovely trees recently in the same shopping centre. I think their priorities are wrong and they certainly don't have the Christmas spirit. I spend part of the year in Italy and the Italians would applaud such singing. In fact I am about to mention it to people overseas to get their reaction. I hope our new mayor will have a word in the appropriate (tone deaf) ear!!"
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Tony informs us: Spotted in the Air New Zealand lounge at Sydney airport yesterday - a bored young man dressed in catering attire with a prominent badge hanging around his neck marked in large letters "sterile visitor". We decided not to question him further as his affliction appeared to be obvious.
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Murray from Blockhouse Bay: "Re the parking grinches at the Blockhouse Bay Santa Parade who even ticketed entrants waiting to start; I know why they did it. A few years ago after Round The Bays I walked to Madills Farm where our company held its R&R. Later going back to my car I passed 30 cars in a line on one street all with parking tickets, but I could see no sign. Finally 10m past the last car, 2m up a power pole, I saw a small temporary no parking sign. Luckily I was parked around the corner. Annoyed at such sneaky action I wrote to the Parking Department and nicely asked as it was hard to see and to encourage healthy activity for Aucklanders whom they represent, would they waive those 30 parking fines? My written reply was that they could not do that as they had their parking fine budget to meet. So that is why they are opportunists. Do you know the size of their parking fine budget and who sets the must-do target each year? Is it the mayor or some lesser light?"
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From CNN's worst employees of the year:
1.An ambulance driver in West Virginia faces an impaired driving charge after he ran two red lights with a patient in the back of the ambulance. The driver allegedly forgot to turn on the lights and sirens of the ambulance, then failed a field sobriety test after he was pulled over. (Source: AP, MSNBC.com)
2. A former federal immigration employee and his sister pleaded guilty to charging people up to $16,000 to obtain green cards through fake marriages in New York. In return for money, the siblings prepared phony documents for customers to acquire marriage licenses and other legal documents. Americans were paid to participate in phony marriages with the customers. The siblings will spend about three years in prison and pay $1.5 million in fines. (Source: AP)
3.The last employee to leave a daycare centre in Dallas left a 14-month-old girl locked inside alone, not realising the child was still there. The girl was found safe and sound, according to police reports. (Source: AP)
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A Chinese hospital has been ordered to pay 500,000 yuan ($86,580) to two families 21 years after they took home the wrong newborn babies, state media reports. A woman who gave birth to twin boys at a hospital in Beijing in 1986, watched as her "sons" became less alike as they grew older. One grew to 1.84m with strong features, the other grew into a "skinny and delicate" child about 14cm shorter. After neighbours and her sons' classmates mentioned seeing a boy "exactly the same" as the older "twin", the woman took her sons to be tested. The results showed only her younger son was biologically related. She eventually found her biological son in the care of another family who had delivered a baby boy at the same hospital four days before.
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A heraldic lion used as insignia by the Swedish international peace-keeping forces that serve in the Nordic Battle Group has been castrated, to the dismay of the artist. The image of a male lion, brandishing a sword and an olive branch, originally displayed its private parts but they were later edited out after female soldiers objected. A special Army board ordered that the design be changed to avert a possible lawsuit over gender discrimination. (Source: DPA)
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An oil field worker in Canada was shocked to be charged US$85,000 ($108,780) for surfing the internet on his new mobile phone. Piotr Staniaszek, 22, had signed up for Bell Canada's mobile phone service at about US$150 a month, with unlimited mobile web browsing. He believed the plan allowed him to use the phone to connect with his computer, using it as a modem to download a lot of data, high-definition movies and other bandwidth-hungry applications. But when his first bill arrived in the mail, he realised the company was charging him on a per-kilobyte basis for hooking the phone up to the computer. A spokesman for Bell said it would adjust Staniaszek's bill to US$3243 as "a measure of goodwill". But Staniaszek said he still plans to try to fight it.
