Sideswipe: May 16: Dog discrimination

Sounds like fun, but not all dogs are welcome. While walking her big dog a reader stopped to read the sign, which described the event as "a social gathering for small dogs and their owners who live in the Hobsonville area" and explaining that a small dog is under 10kg . . . Wonder if there'll be a weigh-in?

24 hour inflation hike

Mike writes that he went to an Auckland hardware and building supplies store last week and bought a downlight for its regular price of $12. "The next day I went back to buy the same item and the price was now $13.98 - 17 per cent inflation in a day. It was not new stock nor was it on special. Is it any wonder inflation is taking off with this kind of pricing behaviour. I queried it at checkout and was told with a shrug that's the new price."

Google Maps, always informative

The last hurrah!

A reader writes: "My goodbye gift after 26 years, a bunch of funereal lilies and a black card with a mediocre thank-you message, seemed to express some anticipation that I was also about to depart this mortal coil. My partner asked the friendly local florist whether there was some mistake, but the bouquet had been expressly selected for the occasion. Granted, I left during lockdown, and management claimed they'd forgotten I was going, so it's likely that the flowers were a Freudian afterthought."

It is a small world

"My partner (now wife) and I were doing the OE thing through Europe in the mid-1990s. We were in Greece when our Kombi van broke down. There wasn't a lot of traffic, but one of the first vehicles to come past was another Kombi. We flagged them down and they offered us a ride. They were three Kiwis; we got talking and did the old 'where are you from' bit. One of the girls, Helen, said that her dad grew up in my home town. We then figured out that her Dad went to school with my Dad."