KEY POINTS:
ADT Security staff close this public facility at Melville Park, Epsom, about 7pm all year, says a reader from Epsom. "Seems they have difficulty reading signage, which says 9pm during summer. Pity about the many summertime families who may need urgent relief."
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A policeman, returning to work after being suspended on full pay for more than six years, has reportedly cost the British taxpayer more than $514,400. PC Gerry Dawson was told to stay at home in September 2001 while he was investigated for alleged corruption, reports the Sun. It was two years and three months before he was charged. A year and four months later he was cleared by a court. Seven months on he was tried again on fresh charges and again cleared. But he stayed suspended while bosses launched a misconduct investigation. After two years they decided he had no case to answer and ordered the $82,300-a-year officer back on the beat.
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A service station in Essex, England, has fitted traffic lights and a stinger device to deter people driving away without paying after filling up with fuel. The Drivestop device can be activated by staff at the exit and entrance to puncture the tyres of any suspect car. Warning signs and traffic lights alert motorists to the device. The garage claims most drivers welcome the arrangement but a few have pointed out that it would be embarrassing if staff were to "sting" an innocent motorist, so they are taking great care.
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Brian Porter of Tauranga writes about a right rigmarole: "For my birthday one of my kids brought me a flash digital camera with lots of bells and whistles at duty free in Australia. Sadly the operating manual was in many Asian languages, but not English." He emailed the NZ agents for Pentax in Christchurch asking for an English version of the operating manual. They said they could supply a CD containing the manual for $20 plus postage, from which he could print a hard copy. "I could have printed this from the Pentax website (208 pages)," he says.
"I ended up writing to the Pentax Corporation in Japan and within a couple of weeks received my English version free of charge, with a lovely thank-you letter for purchasing one of their products."
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Barflies, forget having to talk your troubles over with a bartender. A pastor plans to put teams of chaplains in bars in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, so they can lend a sympathetic ear to patrons who may need one. The chaplains won't preach against drinking or evangelise when the programme starts at Market Cross Pub, says Chuck Kish, a 44-year-old senior pastor at the Bethel Assembly of God. "We're simply going to be there to help anybody who wants it. Sometimes people really just want somebody they can talk to who is not going to be judgmental, but be sympathetic."
Bartender Liz Horn says she would have no problem referring a customer to a chaplain. "Sometimes a bar is a place where people go when they're down."
