KEY POINTS:
An email has just arrived in my inbox," writes Stuart. "It encourages me - with the prospect of winning a lovely prize of one night's accommodation and breakfast for two at CityLife Auckland - to sign up to join the Auckland Festival email list, which, of course, I'm
already on."
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Doug wonders if this is a delayed email reply record. "I have just received a reply to an email I sent 14 months ago asking about tai chi beginners classes. Emails travel the world in seconds, don't they? Governments have fallen, the economy has collapsed, and planets have been discovered in the space of time this company took to reply."
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A reader writes: "No doubt John Banks will be all over this story. Last week we received duplicate copies of our latest rates notice in separate envelopes. I wondered how much of my rates payment was going to contribute to this doubling up of cost ... This week we received a further letter from Auckland City explaining the error and asking us to destroy one copy. Nice to know our local taxes are being well managed."
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A frustrated TV viewer writes: "Sky should rename MySky to MaySky as you'll pretty much have to wait until May to get it installed. When I rang last week to get it set up I was told there was an eight-week wait due to high demand. Perhaps people are hoping to insulate themselves from the recession by staying at home and watching even more TV?"
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Britain is installing 102 bottom scanners in jails, to detect contraband goods. Incoming inmates sit in an electric-chair-type contraption, which will sound an alarm if they're trying to smuggle in a cellphone, drugs or a weapon in their back passage. So far two of the chairs have helped detect 21 mobile phones in just months at Woodhill Prison, in Milton Keynes. (Source: The Telegraph.co.uk)
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Allison, Steve and Lachlan Mackenzie of West Harbour had a rental vehicle mishap (a tad worse than the one pictured) in the Kgalagadi Transfrontier Park, southern Africa. "We did see the car rental people's faces when we returned it and let's just say they weren't smiling! Thankfully our family were all unscathed but we had to endure a two-hour wait in 47C with no water!"
Today's Webpicks: The priceless ramblings of a seven year old, post-sedation from the dentist. Go here.
These are the very best online videos from Ana's online magazine Spare Room.