Sideswipe: Hugh's inspired purchase

Hugh Grant tells the Daily Mail: "I'd been having a drunken dinner with my father the night before, and I said, 'We ought to go see my brother Jamie. You know, the Concorde's amazing.' So I bought him a Concorde ticket and we went. We had lunch, drank a lot of beer. And I was thinking about some stuff in the Sotheby's auction and I saw the Liz Taylor. I slightly regret selling it now, even though it made me rich." He bought the portrait of Elizabeth Taylor by Andy Warhol for $3.25 million, then sold it six years later for $21 million.

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Isabella recently ate at Sitar restaurant in Mt Eden and was stung on the way out. "We ordered too much food and ended up taking the rest away. It wasn't until after I'd paid that I realised I'd been charged an extra $3 per person to take away the leftovers. They were in a polystyrene container, nothing fancy. Is this normal practice?"

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Instead of handing out lollies, as they did with the Wellington Post Shop queue, one reader says that at the Birkenhead Post Shop, when the queue reached the door, one enterprising staffer came out with several sheets of 50c stamps and said, "Anyone with cash who just wants stamps?" Brilliant. Within minutes the queue had been halved.

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A reader from Glendowie writes: "We bought our three kids a motorised go-kart for Christmas on Sunday and it was stolen the next day. The kids are gutted. It went from our driveway near Sacred Heart College in the space of 10 minutes. We hope someone might know something and email Sideswipe.

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A reader writes: "The harbour bridge photo in Sideswipe is an old ad for Coke. It came out maybe 10 years ago with the marketing idea that Coke makes life fun - though it looks more like Coke drives you around the bend."

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Cracked windscreen: "The point Iain Breadmore was making was that aircons don't go to sub-zero temperatures. Fluctuation in temperature is known to exacerbate cracks in a lot of materials mainly because water gets in the cracks and expands when it freezes. But the fluctuation between the average aircon min temperature [18C] and room temperature [25C] isn't going to make a difference. What might make a difference is if you are driving through the Arctic and you have the heater on full blast [say 30C] and then the temperature change could exacerbate the crack. It's like pouring boiling water over the windscreen to get frost off. It could crack the windscreen. Also, the technical information quoted came from a glass repair company's site, which is surely biased towards getting customers, rather than fact."

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The Auckland City Council explains why the worker pictured in Sideswipe was watering on a rainy day. "The photo was taken after the intense rainfall on Monday. Often these falls run off the plants without actually getting through the mulch layer. In fact, the puddle at the rear of the photo is the run-off. To maintain healthy plants over the summer, less intense, direct watering regularly that can percolate through the mulch is needed." Fair enough.

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View today's Herald cartoon

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Today's Webpick: Sexual innuendo and even 'motorboating' make an appearance in this truly awful Australian Toyota ad...What were they thinking? Go here and tell us what you think.

Last Days to enter! To say thanks and Merry Christmas to Sideswipe and Spare Room readers, I have put together The Best Christmas Hamper Ever. It's worth over $2500 and will make Christmas very merry. Go here to enter. The winner will be emailed on Saturday and goodies delivered before Christmas.