Sideswipe: Hiding the controllers from the kids

Professional breaker-uppers

In Japan wakaresaseya are professional agents that specialise in destroying relationships, be they marriages or affairs, for a fee. If seduction doesn't work, targets can be lured into fake business deals, burdened with financial debt and even visited by fake mob guys about the said debt. Threatening to start a career-ending scandal is also a tactic. Wakaresaseya services are advertised online and cater to both married people seeking a reason to leave their spouse, and married individuals who know about their partner's infidelity and want to end it without getting involved.

Most cringe moments

1. I was paying for drinks in a bar when the barman asked 'do you use contact lenses'
I said 'no I don't' laughing in a flirtatious way, so he said 'Ok, just pop your card in the machine for me'
I realised he'd said contactless. My sister still laughs about to this day.

2. Shop assistant: May I see your ID please? Me: Awww, that's so sweet but I'm 48! Clerk: (withering glance) We need it because you're using a credit card, not for an age check for purchasing the wine.

3. In a bar on holiday with my teen daughter, scrolling through my phone when the barman came to the table and slid a piece of paper with a number on it towards me. Me, acting all flattered but coy, "sorry, I'm in a relationship"...it was the WiFi code.

At the laundromat

Library care call here too

The Melbourne library which called all their elderly readers during lockdown happened here too, writes Patricia.  "NEMA ( the National Emergency Management Agency) organised the CAB - Citizens Advice Bureau - and others - to make calls to those who were living alone, to check if they needed help, were feeling OK, had enough food and medication etc.  I was lucky enough to make some of those calls, and really enjoyed some lovely chats with people throughout the country.  One of our team in the North Shore CAB spoke to a gentleman who had fallen and was in some pain - being a stoic man he was going to wait for his carer to come in 2 days time - our volunteer called an ambulance as he had a broken hip. Most of our calls were not that dramatic!"