Spotted in Morrinsville.
That scary hitchhiker at Cornwall Park
Sharon writes: "Dear Mr Tradesman in the silver stationwagon with the ladders on top: I was not trying to hijack you, abduct you or hitchhike with you, and I had not just escaped from anywhere, when I jumped out in front of you at
the pedestrian crossing in Cornwall Park, and put my thumb out to hitch a ride before making a dash towards your passenger door, causing you to drive off in a hurry. I truly thought you were my husband coming to rescue me from having to hike up the steep hill. Please accept my apology for any distress I may have caused you. I hope you didn't dial 111! (The above happened while I was going for a walk with my friend. I was expecting my husband to join us for a cuppa near the information centre, so when my friend exclaimed: 'There's Chris', the above happened, only it wasn't my husband!)"
And the Bad Sex in Fiction award goes to ...
This year the Literary Review Bad Sex in Fiction award nominees include Australian Richard Flanagan's Booker-winning novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North, for a passage where love-making is interrupted by a dog killing a fairy penguin.
"He kissed the slight, rose-coloured trench that remained from her knicker elastic, running around her belly like the equator line circling the world. As they lost themselves in the circumnavigation of each other, there came from nearby shrill shrieks that ended in a deeper howl," writes Flanagan "Dorrigo looked up. A large dog stood at the top of the dune. Above blood-jagged drool, its slobbery mouth clutched a twitching fairy penguin."
