Sideswipe: August 26: Driver of the week

A reader writes: "I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a man backing his car up a driveway and along the footpath. He left it there for nearly two hours. Unbelievable! It's bad enough that he totally blocked the footpath, but this street only has a footpath on one side, right where he parked. So women with prams, pedestrians, even the postie had to walk on the road in this very narrow residential cul-de-sac in Botany."

Sometimes you can't beat old-school technology

A man became stuck on a 994m Welsh mountain because his electronic mapping device broke and he had only a paper map of Scotland with him. He was on a night reconnaissance on Glyder Fach in Snowdonia in preparation for a challenge walk. "Basically he was depending on an electronic tracking system which he then dropped and the screen broke," said Ogwen Valley mountain rescue team spokesman Chris Lloyd. "People should have a paper map of the correct area. By all means use the electronic equipment to check your co-ordinates, but don't depend on it because if you are out on the mountain for hours at a time batteries go flat."

Beyond the fringe of belly-aching laughter

Groan-worthy gags of the Edinburgh Fringe (Via UK comedy channel Dave)

* "My father was a seismologist. He could never get a steady job." - Pajama Men (Shenoah Allen and Mark Chavez)

* "I used to work in a shoe-recycling shop. It was sole-destroying." - Alex Horne

* "I'm in a same-sex marriage ... the sex is always the same." - Alfie Moore

* "My friend told me he was going to a fancy dress party as an Italian island. I said to him 'Don't be Sicily."' - Tim Vine

* "I can give you the cause of anaphylactic shock in a nutshell." - Gary Delaney

* "The Pope is a lot like Dr Who. He never dies, just keeps being replaced by white men." - Phil Wang

* "You know you are fat when you hug a child and it gets lost." - Marcus Brigstocke

* "I'm very arrogant about my balls. I'm egotestical." - Nick Helm

Perhaps they're for a llamanated bathroom?

Last Sunday Bjorn Schuffelen popped past The Block houses to see how they are progressing. "I was very surprised to see two llamas being dropped off. They were taken to one of the back houses so not sure what they were being used for, but a rather random sight for a Sunday afternoon on the North Shore." Any theories on what that's all about?

Local: Spotted on the kindy whiteboard...

Media: When ad placement goes wrong...Here's the front page of the TV guide in the Northern Advocate ...

Video: Robbie Ellis (composer) and Andrew Grenon (opera singer) transform the political dreariness of David Shearer's resignation speech into dazzling operatic high drama.

Trade Me:

A three metre long, 107 kg concrete

T-Rex skeleton

sculpture for your garden?

Video:

This young woman in Korea, who crosses the road while talking on her phone, has a really, really close shave ...

Got a Sideswipe? Send your pictures, links and anecdotes to Ana at ana.samways@nzherald.co.nz