Sideswipe: October 20: Get into the All Blacks spirit

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Trying to get into the spirit of the Rugby World Cup sometimes misses the mark, ever so slightly.

Dan's still the man

"My 5-year-old grandson was given a builder's pencil," writes Chris Hall. "He was studying it while on the ferry to the Cloud, and slowly worked out that the word on the pencil read 'Carters'. At the top of his voice he excitedly called out, 'Granny, Granny, I've got Dan Carter's building pencil'. Every time we stopped close to someone at Party Central he excitedly showed them Dan Carter's building pencil, including a policeman. The joys of rugby-mad children!"

Trumpeting a great diversion

"The trumpeting at a restart following a scoring play is copied from the Fifa World Cup," a reader writes. "I think it's kind of cool, and tend to sing along with it, and then say Ole!" Another adds: "The trumpet is purely to encourage crowd participation, and it works wonders - takes your mind off throwing cans at the ref, that's for sure."

Unwanted tiki tour

Cheap is not always cheerful: "After thoroughly enjoying a Rugby World Cup semifinal," says a reader, "I dropped my brother off at the Jetstar terminal at 9.30am on Monday to catch his 11.10am flight to Queenstown. Despite high winds in Queenstown - and no possibility of landing - the plane took off, only to be diverted to Christchurch. The passengers were then shunted on to a bus. He arrived home at 3am the next day - an 18-hour trip. All the international tourists forced to endure this trip thought they had arrived in a banana republic."

No-plucking update

The mystery of the Chinese notice with the English translation - Private property no plucking. Peter Kerr translates: "This is a private garden. It is prohibited to reach over the rail and pick/pluck [flowers/fruit]."

Lost cause

Peter Lyons writes: "My friend Matt and I were keen to start an anti-greed anti-globalisation occupation of New Zealand's main financial centre, but we couldn't find it. Do we still have one? We considered camping outside the ASB in Queen St but it was too far from the nearest Starbucks."