Sideswipe: Light relief

Photo / Supplied

Bathroom lights can be painfully bright in the middle of the night and can disturb you or your partner's sleep. Now there's LavNav, a green or red night-light for your loo, illuminating just the throne, so you can see where you are "going".

Chocolate with bite

A Marmite-flavoured chocolate bar is set to go on sale in the UK. Makers say the £3 ($6.30) treat will be sold at department stores and contains a hint of the sticky yeast-based spread. Each 100g bar contains 2 per cent Marmite flavouring including yeast extract, onion and garlic powder.

Stranger encounters

Patricia Donovan decided next time someone she couldn't identify greeted her in the street, she would take a different approach rather than spend the next 30 minutes wondering who it was. "This morning a charming man outside the fruit shop smiled at me and said: 'Nice to see you again, how are you?' I told him I was fine but added that I was sorry I had no idea who he was. After a brief pause, he grinned and said, 'Actually I realise I don't know who you are either!' We both drove away laughing."

Post a letter, get a tan

The problem of the curved hotel in Las Vegas causing a hot spot is nothing new, claims Tony. "Auckland has had its own solar reflector for 20 years. Pick any sunny summer day and post a letter in the post box on Victoria St outside the TVNZ building, and you are almost guaranteed an instant tan ... don't stand too long with the letter in your hand or it might suffer spontaneous combustion."

Kiwis' bum steer

The Sky promotion for Stephen Fry's new show highlights the Kiwi habit of converting anything with the word ass to arse. "As in the movie Jackass (a male donkey or fool) is commonly referred to as Jack Arse!" says a reader.

Low-life theft

Scott Burridge writes: "To the low-life scum who stole my friend's iPod from Room 13, Ward 64, Auckland Hospital on 20 September, just minutes after he had been told he had only three weeks to live. You may like to know he died five days later without the enjoyment of his music and photos of his two daughters who live in Australia. If you return it anonymously to Reception at Ward 64 in Auckland Hospital I promise he'll stop haunting you, otherwise watch out!"