KEY POINTS:
A reader from Tauranga writes: "As regular visitors to Auckland we are used to paying dearly for a cup of coffee but we think our visit to Sylvia Park this past weekend takes the prize. Both my husband and I drink decaf, soy lattes in a mug or bowl. The usual price for this is an extra 50c each. We were stunned and one might say spooked to be charged $12 at the Coffee Club cafe for our two coffees. Not only were they $1 dearer than normal but they had the cheek to charge us an extra 90c each for hiring the mug."
* * *
Bulgarian women have been banned from hanging out their washing during a visit by President George W. Bush. Authorities in the capital Sofia passed a special ruling banning washing along the route of the President's motorcade next Monday. They have also started rounding up "unsightly" beggars and clearing up rubbish. Children who stop cars at traffic lights offering to wash windows have been warned that they will be arrested if they try it when Bush arrives.
* * *
So many US executives want to visit India to make deals to outsource their companies' jobs that in March, India's Washington, DC, Embassy said it was forced to outsource the job of processing the executives' visa applications.
* * *
Derek Spender of Cockle Bay responds to yesterday's story about the fantail repeatedly thrashing against the window. He had a similar experience with a blackbird, which thrashed itself on a window for 10 days before transferring its attentions to an old stainless steel sink bench stacked at the back of the house. "Every morning at daybreak we would be woken up by the drumming as it furiously pecked at the metal. My theory, for what it is worth, is hormones. The bird saw its reflection as a pugnacious rival. To the bird, as it came towards the surface, the reflection would appear to be advancing to meet it."
* * *
Concerned Grandmother should take her 14-year-old redhead granddaughter to Myanmar (Burma) for a holiday, advises one reader. "She will be treated like a celebrity. I went there last summer with my redhead granddaughter and she was a smash hit with the locals. Hundreds of people wanted to talk to her and have their photo taken with her. I guarantee she will come back with so much self esteem no amount of teasing in NZ will worry her."
