Where there's smoke there's apathy
"While the perks of working in our city's smoggy CBD are few, on Wednesday I had a wee chuckle at the placid nature of our population," writes a reader. "Outside the Herald offices, a fire began to billow smoke over the footpath out of a rubbish bin ... People slowed down to gawk, some peeked and others took photos, one guy stopped to stomp out some flames, a tourist helped but in the process soiled his neon Nikes, much to his dismay, so he carried on like all the rest. In a world of continual chaos no one seemed even slightly perturbed by the sight. Even I, cynically standing down the street observing bemusedly, did absolutely nothing except watch the event unfold. Soon enough a fire engine loudly careered down the congested road and the firefighters extinguished the tiny puffs and licks of fire escaping from the bin with their impressively large hose."
Oops ... bad case of mishandling
Mary writes: "I was walking home from a late-night party to my US university dorm room when a cute young cop offered me a ride home. I know there are no handles on the inside of the back doors of cop cars, and I assumed the front passenger door would be the same. So outside my dorm, I expected he would get out and I would exit through the driver's door. I scooted across the bench seat and ended up sort of snuggled up to the cop. 'Whoa! Steady on!' he said. 'Exit through the other door, ma'am.' Apologising for the misunderstanding, I hurriedly got out of the car and closed the door on my dress. As he pulled away, I had to run alongside of the car, banging on the window until he figured out what was going on."
Local: As part of work to electrify Auckland's rail network, there will be no trains for Round the Bays on March 8-9. But there will be buses! Auckland Transport says last year only 2,000-or-so people used trains on the Sunday of Round the Bays. Click here for bus details.
