Sideswipe: Ticked-off traveller

Rules are made to be broken.

Craig booked a ticket on Emirates for his father-in-law and was stung ... "He goes by the name Russ, which I used when making the booking, even though his official name is Ross. So I rang Emirates to inform them of the mistake and change the ticket. They have to issue a new ticket at a cost of $150. The original ticket was $146. Not quite sure how they get to that price for what would take someone five minutes."

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A reader realises a valuable life lesson: "I recently signed up with the IRD online to check my student loan balance. Imagine my excitement to see I had an $800 refund due from the year 2000! Then imagine my disappointment to be told I cannot get the money as too much time has passed. Sigh. Life is so unfair."

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A reader recalls when her daughter was at Waitakere College in Henderson 20 years ago. "On wet days, the pupils were not allowed to wear raincoats because they weren't part of the school uniform, so it was quite common to see these poor bedraggled kids shuffling along in the rain on their way to school, looking terrible and obviously soaked to the skin."

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A former pupil of Macleans College in Bucklands Beach concurs on the grass fascism: "I was once given an essay to write on 'The inside of a ping pong ball'. It had to be one page long with no fewer than seven words per line - all for walking on the grass. Apparently there was grass 'for looking at' and grass for 'playing on'."

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Alister says: "A detention for standing near rubbish (whether you saw it or not) is an excellent idea for which Mt Albert Grammar should be applauded. The rule is not seeking to punish an innocent party for the littering just to be mean! Not only does it help keep the school tidy and teach good behaviour, but it uses peer pressure to excellent effect ... Just to state the obvious for the mentally challenged reader(s) - the rule becomes policed by the students themselves and in fact the end result is a cleaner school, and minimum enforcement required for maximum effect with quite possibly fewer detentions given. Genius."

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View today's Herald cartoon

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Today's Webpick: How to give a full-body cat massage. Go here.

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