Sideswipe: August 21: Mask bingo

How not to wear a mask. Photo/ supplied

Anyway, we're married now…

1. "My sister met her husband arguing in a bus for a seat. She came home saying how he was the ugliest and rudest man she ever met, and now they've been married for 5 years."

2. "Met a guy on Tinder, texted for 3 weeks, almost cancelled our first date because it was raining and I was tired and someone had hit my car parked on the street. I arrived at the date and he didn't speak a word of English and had been using Google translate to text me that whole time. Anyway, we are married now."

3. "My great grandparents met because my great grandfather was delivering the newspaper to her house and her brother though he was trespassing and tried shooting at him. My great grandmother felt bad and bought him lunch. They were together for over 75 years and lived a very happy life."

4. "On our first date, he tried showing off by drifting down a gravel road and tore through a fence. Anyway, we're married now."

5. "Met a girl online about 20 years ago one summer after college, found out we live in nearby towns, so decided to get together. Go out on a few dates, drive by local pre-school: me: "hey, that's where I went to pre school!" her: "that's where I went to pre school!" That day we find a pre school class photo, there we are 2 feet from each other. A few months later, my dad finds some old footage of a Christmas play our preschool class put on. We're standing right next to each other. Anyway, we are married now."

Doing the right thing

High and dry and happy. Photo/supplied

Last Sunday Peter Michel rowed to his small launch moored in Whakatakataka Bay to check all was okay with the covers, the batteries were solar charging and there were no water leaks, as he knew I wouldn't be able to go out for an indeterminate period of time under level 3. He writes:

"Unfortunately my dinghy, named KitKat by my grandson Louis, slipped its hold and drifted off in the strong wind to Hobson Bay. I was stranded on the boat so stripped off, put my clothes, car keys and phone in a bag and swam ashore towards the Ngapipi Rd boat sheds, where a nice lady called Sue who I'd never met, saw me struggling and beckoned me to come to their shed where she gave me a towel to dry myself. Water was freezing cold. Because the clothes in my bag were soaking, they gave me the towel to wrap around myself to go home in. Her visitors dried out my car keys and offered to take me home if my car remote didn't work. Fortunately the keys worked.

"On Monday I set out at dawn on a kayak, more in hope than expectation, to look for the $600 dinghy in Hobson Bay. Some kind person, probably a stand-up paddle boarder or a kayaker, had rescued my dinghy and had placed it safely on the rocks above the waterline beside the Outdoor Boating Club and tied it to the mangroves to keep it safe. This would have meant them struggling through calf-deep mud and the oyster covered rocks for at least 2 to 3 metres from the water to where they had placed the heavy wooden dinghy higher up to safety. It wouldn't have been easy. In doing so, they would know that they would never be thanked, they just did it because it was the right thing to do. Wasn't that nice. I have no way of knowing who that person was to thank them."