Sideswipe: Tardis trader

Photo / Supplied

A life-size, MDF replica of Dr Who's infamous time-travelling machine the Tardis is for sale on Trade Me. "Sorry it's not bigger on the inside!" quips the seller.

'Leave home' orders judge

A 25-year-old Spanish man has been told by a judge to leave home and get a job after he took his parents to court when they cut his pocket money. The not-so-young man had demanded a monthly allowance of €400 ($730) after they refused to give him any more money unless he tried to find a job. The judge ruled against the man, who has a degree in law, and told him he must leave his parents' house within 30 days and learn to stand on his own two feet. The ruling will send shock waves across Spain, where it is not unusual for offspring to remain living with their parents until well into their 30s. Spain's youth unemployment is the highest in the European Union at 43 per cent, more than double the average. (Source: The Telegraph.co.uk)

School holiday surcharges

A reader writes: "We went ten pin bowling in Newmarket on a Thursday but there was a sign up saying there was a $1 surcharge because of school holidays. We queried this, saying that holiday surcharges only apply to public holidays and since they'd be getting a lot more customers and weren't having to pay their staff any more in wages, why the extra cost? He agreed that it wasn't a public holiday but didn't seem to understand our point and his reasoning seemed to be that they'd be getting extra customers so that's why they needed to charge more. Is this standard practice for these type of businesses over the school holidays?"

Dog owner comes off second best

An Ontario man who was attacked by his own pit bull faces three charges after police say he urged the dog to attack a neighbour. Police say a witness saw the suspect walking his dog and then stopped to urinate in a yard. That led to an argument with a neighbouring homeowner. The suspect began hitting his dog so it would attack the neighbour but the dog instead turned on its owner, biting his face and arm. The dog owner then punched the homeowner in the face and fled.