Sideswipe: Unusual parking

Is comedian Dai Henwood leading a double life?

A case of rather unusual parking spotted in Parnell.

* * *

Irony is a wonderful thing. On Wednesday afternoon while driving home to Albany, a KidsCan Trust van was spotted with the back fully loaded with stuff ... and a small child sitting on a passenger's knee in the front seat.

* * *

Lee Houghton believes he knows why police sometimes take longer than people would like to get to an incident. "When down in Hamilton the other day needing to drop off a parcel to an address in a certain road, I could not find the number on the road front. After travelling from end to end twice with no luck and finding a police station in the same road, I figured that they should know the local area so stopped and went in to ask. The police could not tell me, but a helpful taxi driver said the place I was looking for was down the drive next door. This proved not to be the case. After contacting the person I was trying to get the parcel to, he gave me the physical location and I had already found it at the first stop - turns out the address was for the police station.

* * *

A woman who was considered too fat for a hernia operation has now been told she is not heavy enough to be given weight-loss surgery. Jo Thompson, who is 1.5m tall and weighs nearly 114kg, has found herself in the Catch-22 situation after years of failed dieting. "I have always had a problem with my size," she said. "I have tried every diet going to lose weight. In the last two years I've cut down on my portions, and although I can't afford to go to the gym I do a lot of walking." Miss Thompson, 37, from Parson Cross, Sheffield, recently complained to her doctor about heartburn and indigestion. He referred her to a specialist at the city's Royal Hallamshire Hospital, telling her he thought she needed a hernia operation. However, the consultant there said she was too big to have the procedure and instead recommended the gastric bypass. "But when I saw another doctor I was told I could not have the bypass surgery because I am not heavy enough. It's a crazy situation and I just don't know what to do." (Source: Telegraph Group)

* * *

The disgruntled guest who felt the SkyCity Grand Hotel should offer complimentary toothbrushes and paste reminds another reader of her experience. "We stayed there for our wedding night a year ago. While I admit it was past midnight, when we arrived there was no one at the door to help us with all our wedding presents we had brought from the reception. So there I was, in full wedding dress and heels, loading a luggage trolley and pushing it through the hotel myself, while my husband carried all our bags. Not the most glamorous way to enter a hotel on your wedding night."

* * *

See today's Herald cartoon