"Obviously recycling isn't in, in Tauranga," writes Karen of this Trade Me listing. "I'm sure I could gather these in our street on a Wednesday for nothing."
Seems we're rather second-class
Expat Kiwi Ananda, living in the United States, tried to use a prepaid postage label to send an Easter care
package, picked up by the postie, to her mum. But the US postal service no longer allows it, meaning you have to go in to the post office to send packages to New Zealand and some, er, other interesting countries. The email read: "The United States Postal Inspection Service has temporarily suspended Click-N-Ship service to the following countries: "Armenia, Belarus, Benin, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Republic of Congo (Brazzaville), Democratic Republic of Congo, Czech Republic, Ghana, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Namibia, New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Russia, Serbia-Montenegro."
That doesn't seem smart
A reader writes: "An invite from the Equal Employment Opportunities Trust (0800 DIVERSITY) to a woman in leadership includes ... wait for it ... a "professional styling session". Yes, that's right, to be an empowered woman in business, EEO is suggesting your appearance is most important, and you should be onboard with that."
Parental approach A
"We all know that part of growing up is being a bit rebellious," writes Wendy. "Making a stand! Doing things your own way! So one trick is to allow your kids to have a messy room - while complaining about it. The room gets messy, you complain, occasionally you do a rant - but secretly you have decided that it's just not important. Note: Good acting skills not always required! They get to feel independent and rebellious and 'the winner'. You know you are the winner when they don't rebel by doing other things you'd rather not think about."
Parental approach B
In a book called Dr Riley's Box of Tricks the author outlines a possible solution for a teenager's messy room.
Step 1. Apologise for not remembering their room is the dirty laundry collection space. You could also make it the rubbish and recycling area.
Step 2. For a week everyone in the family dumps all their dirty laundry randomly over the floor of the bedroom. It works best if someone has been doing gardening or a sweaty job or played sports. Let it stay there for a week. Other people's washing seems to cause problems for the occupant when their own doesn't.
Picture this: A lion getting a CATscan...
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