nzherald.co.nz

Sideswipe: Feb 5: Wood you return these boots?

By Ana Samways
5:29 AM Tuesday Feb 5, 2013
Wood you wear these boots, or return them? Photo / Supplied

Wood you wear these boots, or return them? Photo / Supplied

"Our friend Vaughn bought these $40 boots described as having 'upper leather-lining textile-Outsole synthetic' from The Warehouse at Matamata, where everyone gets a bargain. He sure didn't. After 12 days of wear and suffering from sore feet and back, the thin rubber sole peeled back to reveal wood. He said he wouldn't be able to return them because he didn't have the receipt. I would be down there demanding they stop selling this product and a refund."

Model plane causes power chaos

A press release from Vector: "Our electrical response crews attended one car v pillar and seven car v poles incidents during the week ... In perhaps the most unusual incident of the week, a remote-controlled aircraft flew into powerlines in Clevedon, causing an area outage. The model aircraft did not survive the crash." (Via Scoop.co.nz)

$200 fine for incorrectly displayed rego riles driver

"Er, they do actually ticket you for crooked regos," says a reader. "Here's proof what the council hands out $200 fines for. It's clear to see it's not out of date, and hardly a $200 offence! Simply had fallen out of its plastic holder without us noticing. Shocking, how dare we let such a terrible thing happen!" So let's review this case based on the Land Transport Motor Vehicle Registration and Licensing Regulations of 2011 which says the rego must be "displayed on the inside of the windscreen, as close as practicable to the bottom right-hand corner of the windscreen - when viewed from the outside and front of the motor vehicle". Check. And must be "displayed in an upright, easily visible position". Failed on its lack of perpendicular-ness.

No sympathy for bald spare tyre

Yesterday Tristan was incredulous that his brand new WOF-ed and registered car was ticketed for a substandard spare ... "I am simply amazed that someone would think that it could be in any way legal to drive on a bald spare tyre," writes a reader. "It would make sense for a tyre with enough tread to be legal to be used as a spare. It would also make sense when changing a tyre to use the spare to enable you to travel directly to a repair shop. How any police officer or parking warden could possibly know that you haven't been driving on that bald spare for weeks and weeks is beyond me."

Picture this: This kid's poster of the planets has a really cute detail...

Egg fancier: What could be better than starting the day with a Sunnyside Egg Shaper (happiness in a no-carb breakfast)

Local Viral: Karen Wants Her Twenty Dollars Back - animated version. (NSFW language and fairly unnervingly nasty, be warned sensitive readers who haven't seen the audio-only original, near the end its not for those with language sensitivities)

Video: How to be art...

* Got a Sideswipe? Clink on the email link below to send your pictures, links and anecdotes to Ana.

By Ana Samways
D (Blockhouse Bay) | 10:16AM Tuesday, 05 Feb 2013
The shoes are pathetic,The Warehouse should recall them immediatley and rrefund moiney to anyone with a pair and give them a vfree replacement pair of shoes. this has just reassured me I'm right in not buying anything like this from The Warehouse, how much damage would thozse do to some one's foot walking around wearing those shoes?
CityLimits (New Zealand) | 10:17AM Tuesday, 05 Feb 2013
Given how thorough one imagines WOFs to be, one would think that checking the spare tyre would be part of the WOF check. After all they check the seatbelts, brakes, headlights and look for visible structural rust and the tyres on the car- you know, other safety stuff.
John of Waitakere (New Zealand) | 10:17AM Tuesday, 05 Feb 2013
As a Bespoke Boot Maker trained in Northampton seventy years ago, it was the practice to have a wooden "shank" in the Arch of the shoe just from under the heel to the beginning of the Sole, foot ware has been made in the traditional way for hundreds of years, modern foot ware is not traditional.
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