KEY POINTS:
Ben Henry of Manukau City hopes his wife can laugh about this one day ... "I wasn't entrusted with many duties leading up to my wedding last weekend," says Ben. "But one of them was to pick up the wedding cake the day before the big day. Thirty minutes before the cutting of the cake, I realised I had forgotten to pick it up. This is something my beautiful new wife may hold over me for the rest of my life! The real kick in the teeth was when the cake company decided to wait until two days after the wedding before making a courtesy call to remind us about our cake! So, guys, just leave it all up to the lady."
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Scientists in Austria say sharing a bed temporarily reduces men's brain power. When men spend the night with someone their sleep is disturbed, whether they make love or not, and this impairs their mental ability the next day. According to the New Scientist study, women who share a bed fare better because they sleep more deeply. The University of Vienna studied eight unmarried, childless couples in their 20s. Dr Neil Stanley, a sleep expert at the University of Surrey, said: "Historically, we have never been meant to sleep in the same bed. It is a bizarre thing to do. Sharing the bed space with someone who is making noises and whom you have to fight with for the duvet is not sensible." (source: Ananova.com)
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A British woman is facing jail after running a racket "kidnapping" garden gnomes. A court heard Karen Stenhouse took gnomes, flower pots and garden ornaments valued at more than £700 from gardens. She disposed of them through car boot sales to boost her dole money. The thefts happened over three weeks in 2005.
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A reader writes: "To the person or persons who broke into my stationary car on a sidestreet in Greenlane this week ... Congratulations, you now have in your possession some sweaty gym gear, a pair of well-worn trainers and a threadbare old towel. You should know I have scabies and treatment-resistant athlete's foot."
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Richard Baron accuses Sideswipe of having a pathological fear/hatred of foreigners for using the term Jafa: He writes, "The term 'Jafa' to describe an Aucklander is insulting to Aucklanders, and shouldn't be used in any publication, as it normalises and encourages the inherent xenophobic view many Kiwis have towards foreigners, and many non-Aucklanders have towards Aucklanders. To use this term in a publication unwittingly exposes your own (unknown?) xenophobia, and is as insulting to Aucklanders as calling Brits 'Poms' and gays 'faggots'. Whilst I acknowledge it may have been used in jest, using the term 'Jafa' in this article was a very poor choice, and I hope as the section editor you think twice before using derisive terms." [The correspondent called himself a Jafa tourist.]
