Sideswipe: May 24: Mt Ruapehu moves south

A newspaper ad promoting a tour by rail in the South Island, includes lovely vistas of Mt Ruapehu, according to Vic Keppel.

Royal couple will appear on soap

Charles and Camilla will appear as themselves in an episode of EastEnders about the Queen's Platinum Jubilee. Kellie Bright, who plays pub landlady Linda Carter on the show, said: "I just thought, 'Wow, they've never done anything like this before.' They didn't really know what to expect, I mean it must have been nerve-wracking for them and completely out of their norm. So, I just hope they enjoyed it as much as we did."

Ever wondered ...

In his 2008 book 100 Essential Things You Didn't Know You Didn't Know, cosmologist John D Barrow considers how long a straight line a typical HB pencil could draw before the lead ran out. He did the maths and concluded 1178km. "But I haven't tested this prediction!"

Freudian slippers

Underwhelming farewell

A reader writes: When I retired from my job in the Middle East after many years of dedicated service, I received quite a few appreciative presents from the rest of the crowd remaining there. Also, they have a nice tradition of giving huge, super-sized cards, where there is enough space for everyone to write a brief, goodbye/well-wishing message. Half of the assembly were expats from more than a dozen countries and the other half were locals. Some of them possessed limited English-speaking ability, which showed up in a few comments such as: "Wishing you a Happy Afterlife Mister Allen" and my favourite one of all time: "Good Luck with your wife"! Was I missing something?

British responses to 'what have you been up to recently?'

This and that ... Nothing much really ... Keeping busy ... Oh, you know, the usual ... Same old ... Staying out of trouble ... Can't remember ... Don't ask ... Keeping my head down ... Just work / work's been manic ... Just boring stuff. You? (Via VeryBritishProblems )