Christmas tree created from books at the Library Bar in Auckland's Viaduct.
Words of 2011
Russell Brown's blog Public Address lists contenders for Word of the Year. They include: 1. munted 2. ghost chips 3. teapot-gate 4. Piri Weepu's "I got this" 5. nekminute 6. Alasdair Thompson's "monthly sick problems" 7. liquefaction 8. Wellywood 9. Happy Feet 10. "elecshun", in John Key-speak.
Crash dummy's daft response
Former traffic cop Eric is getting nostalgic and writes: "I was parked one night in a shopping centre carpark in Kelvin Rd, Papakura. I heard a loud car start up down near Clevedon Rd. After a loud 'wheelie', this dark coloured Holden Monaro flashed past me towards Settlement Rd. I started to chase him and he turned into Settlement Rd and then into Hunua Rd. About 200 metres up the Holden collided with a Leyland 15 van turning into a driveway. The Leyland literally fell to bits; I have never seen anything like it, the driver finished up, still in his seat, sitting on the road. I braked to a halt, in a shower of Leyland spare parts, while the Holden got airborne and "waltzed" (I can't think of a better word) down the road, before it collided with a power pole. The impact tore the Monaro in half, the pole passing just behind the driver's seat. The Leyland driver was okay, although no doubt wondering where his van had gone, and I raced across to the Holden, expecting to find bodies, only to find the driver, still fully conscious, uninjured and smashed out of his brain. He looked at me, as through a fog, held up his hands and said, 'Look mate, I don't need any hassles'!"
Now showing - psychic signs
Brenda Walker of Titirangi writes: "Looking out of a window at Bricklane restaurant to the view of the Village 8 Cinema sign atop a nearby advertising pylon, I commented to my husband that it must be 10 years since the New Lynn cinema closed and wasn't it time someone took the sign down? Ten minutes after this observation, three guys ascended the pylon on a "scissor" platform and boarded it over. Psychic powers or just an amazing coincidence?"
Mountaineer rescues toy
A mountain rescuer in the Austrian Alps spent eight hours trying to recover a toy frog which had fallen from a 2000m peak. Markus Fleischmann was hired by a German couple who dropped a green frog while taking a photo and desperately wanted it back. The couple had spent two days looking for the toy before hiring the mountain rescuer at a cost of $715. Fleischmann said it was not a dangerous mission searching the 2192m Hinteren Goinger Halt peak because it was off-season. He found the toy and returned it to the middle-aged couple.
