KEY POINTS:
Mary Gilmour of Takapuna was impressed with the beautiful facilities at the Southern Cross Hospital in Christchurch, where her son was having shoulder surgery, including a delicious-sounding menu, complete with wine list and a reminder about mixing alcohol and anaesthetic.
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Are you ready to be a parent? Here are a few tests for expectant parents to trial.
Women: To prepare for maternity, put on a dressing gown and stick a pillowcase filled with beans down the front. Leave it there for nine months. After nine months, take out 10 per cent of the beans.
Men: To prepare for paternity, go to the local drug store, tip the contents of your wallet on the counter, and tell the pharmacist to help himself. Then go to the supermarket. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office. Go home. Pick up the paper. Read it for the last time.
Can you stand the mess children make? To find out, first smear peanut butter on to the sofa and jam on to the curtains. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer. Stick your fingers in the flower beds, then rub them on the clean walls. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look? (More at www.stanford.edu "Preparation for parenthood")
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Rich Henry is a frequent txt parker and says the council-operated machine offered two options: "$2 for an hour, $4 for 2 (at 2.55pm on Queen St). Txting through the second option, I received a txt notification that they had charged $4.50 to my phone (50c for the service). On returning to my car 20 minutes later to get something out of it, I found that my car had been towed (clearway after 3pm)."
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Astley Ave resident Penny Laybourn says there have been more than a dozen accidents in her street this year, including one fatal. "Maybe the speedsters who continually exceed the speed limit in our residential street will now think twice and spare a thought for the people who live there. Trying to get in and out of our driveways is often a life- endangering exercise, because of the on-street parking and the speed people travel at along the street. I have been chased through the streets of New Lynn by a high-speed driver who wasn't happy he had to slightly adjust his speed as I backed out of my driveway. So bring on the speeding tickets."
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Glenn Hooper writes: "It always makes me laugh when I see someone complaining about getting a ticket for speeding, blaming the police and the policy as revenue-gathering. Here's a thought for those against this speed-gathering policy and it's a fairly simple one. Don't speed. I am sorry to advise these people that the road laws apply to them as well as all the hoons out there. And don't start me on the ones complaining about getting ticketed by pole- mounted cameras. You deserve your tickets even more. You know the cameras are there, yet you still speed. That is really smart."
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Today's Video Webpick:As our appetite for tales of celebrity drunk driving, cocaine hoovering and flashing of undercarriages wanes, it's refreshing to find this - a morphing montage of female film star portraits from the last 80 years. It's all class. And very beautiful. Watch it here. These are the very best online videos from Ana's online magazine Spare Room.
