KEY POINTS:
Nola McRae noticed a big weta crouched inside the patio door that led out into her garden. "Over the years I had had quite a few adventures with them venturing inside the house," she says. "My friend, who was visiting for a coffee, was sitting on the couch near the door to catch the cool breeze. Now and again she glanced briefly over at the weta and, each time, quickly averted her gaze. She must be scared, I thought. I'd better deal with it. I excused myself for a tick and rummaged in the kitchen cupboard for a weta-sized jar. Then with knees akimbo, a few grunts and some difficulty, I placed the glass delicately over the weta. A big one it was, I noticed. Ugh. My friend watched interestedly without comment. The next step was to find the necessary piece of cardboard to slide under the weta's many little feet. Mustn't harm the thing. Must rehabilitate it and return it to its natural habitat. Fearing it might escape, and drop wriggling and writhing into the palm of my hand, I raised the jar on to its cardboard floor and moved carefully outside. There I bent over, placed the contraption on the sweet-smelling grass, lifted high the jar and liberated the curled-up crust of toast into the great outdoors."
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Much as I dislike visiting that emporium of the self righteous ... " says Mark Webster, "I needed something I could only get from Harvest in Grey Lynn. Ahead of me in the line was a cheerful Petra Bagust complete with toddler, chatting in a friendly way with the till operator. I had to laugh when I spied her a few minutes later loading her freshly-bought natural organics into a huge SUV discreetly parked around the corner, ready to depart for her no-doubt right-on abode."
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Retired hospital porter Steve Smith, suffering from a potentially fatal heart defect, won almost £19 million ($47.7 million) on Britain's National Lottery - but said he would give it all up if he could spend a few more years living with his wife. "I have a one in 10 chance of living. It's like a ticking timebomb," said the 58-year-old Smith, enjoying a bittersweet glass of celebratory champagne with his wife Ida. "There are no shops in the cemetery are there?" he said. (Source: Yahoo News)
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There are three very shonkily mounted parking signs attached to the railings of the Upper Queen St motorway overbridge," says blogger Michelle Lorenz. "The only thing keeping them from freefalling on to the motorway below are a couple of wire twisties. In south Auckland the motorway overbridges have massive barriers to prevent teenagers from throwing objects on to the motorway for fun, yet in central Auckland, the Auckland City Council seems to have thrown caution to the wind. The only thing keeping this parking sign from plummeting over the railing into motorway carnage are three wire twisties, with the top one having already come off. All it would take would be for somebody slightly drunk to swing past and the posts go freefall." (Source: Ramblings From Eden Terrace www.lorenz.co.nz)
