Sideswipe: August 21: Possum hunting at Ikamatua in 1951

Photo / Supplied

A Sideswipe thread reminded Paul Huffam of Stanmore Bay of his possum hunting at Ikamatua in 1951 and this ripper photo. "Here is my dog Joe confronting his quarry he had found in the tree stump. In the holidays I'd got 200 possums at 2/6d (£25), which bought a new bike."

Blokes' naming rights and wrongs

Derry Girls actress Nicola Coughlan went viral after she asked: "Why do all straight men always have a group of friends called like, Baggsy, Trousers, Stupid Phil, and Egg?" These were the best responses:

1. One of dad's friends was called laptop. He was a short policeman ie a small PC.

2. I know someone called Two Metre Peter. He's tall.

3. Best one I've heard is manbat because the guy's name was Wayne Bruce.

4. We had a guy who had one hand smaller than the other. It was a proper medical thing ... He was known as Clock.

5. Best nickname I've ever heard was a guy my brother worked with who was called Hugh Rae and his nickname was Hip Hip.

6. There's a guy at work called Gloss because there are too many people there called Matt and he got renamed.

Pool inspection

"We had neighbours with a swimming pool. They lifted the pavers around the pool and stacked them against our boundary fence while they were upgrading the area. We failed our pool inspection because children could leave their pool, climb the paving stones, over the fence and therefore into our pool. Thank goodness for friendly neighbours as after a discussion they moved the stones and we passed our re-inspection."

Investment advice you need to know

Here's a bit of advice for families struggling to make ends meet.

Small world stories

A reader writes: "During a European vacation trip which included a stop in Austria, I was chatting with an expat from England who had been living in Vienna for most of her adult life. On learning I was from New Zealand, she mentioned that she knew one person there, a first cousin, but had completely lost contact with her over the previous 25 years. She said her name was Georgie, short for Georgina. I said at my employment I sit right next to a Georgie, and mentioned her full name Georgie XYZ. Her response? Yes, that's her. It turned out to be the same Georgie, resulting in the cousins re-establishing their relationship after I returned."