The good oil: Car park confusion No. 2

More than one Takapuna local reckons the car park at the end of The Promenade is a dog's breakfast. Photo / Supplied

Deirdre writes in response to last week's piece about the confused parking for boaties and cars at The Promenade, Takapuna. She says, in part: "I had my two granddaughters in the car and the older one - 3 - wanted to go to the toilet. I knew there were public toilets by the beach. I didn't question parking there as there was another car parked with people in it eating lunch and I could not see any signs. By the time we got back the tow truck driver was hitching up my car. I begged him to put the car down as we had no way of getting home. I got an infringement notice that included parking ticket plus towing fee, even though the car was not towed. The parking warden suggested I write to council. I did, but council upheld the fine, about $100. So I, too, donated to the towies' Christmas fund. The tow truck driver said that boaties sit there and phone the towing company as soon as cars park in their places. Shame on the boatie who saw me struggling to get two young children to and from the toilet. There needs to be a fairer system."

E-Type's birthday stamps
The Jaguar E-Type is celebrating its 50th anniversary with a limited-edition set of stamps. Britain's Royal Mail is releasing the stamps in sheets of 10, with each stamp containing a different close-up photo of the car. The stamps are on sale in Britain for £4.10 ($8.60) a sheet. The E-Type was launched at the Geneva motor show in 1961.

BMW in car-sharing scheme
BMW has launched a car-sharing scheme in two German cities that will be extended across Europe. The carmaker has set up a 50-50 joint venture with Sixt, Germany's biggest car rental company, to run the scheme. The venture is called DriveNow and it aims to win 1 million customers by 2020. BMW joins Mercedes-Benz parent Daimler and PSA/Peugeot-Citroen in launching short-term rental offers that give people access to a car without the cost of ownership. Daimler's scheme is called Car2Go; PSA's is Mu. BMW sales and marketing chief Ian Robertson said the venture is an answer to the trend away from car ownership in big cities.

We are the world

• Jessica Davey walked out of her house in Salisbury, England, to find her car clamped. She was furious - it was legally parked and she didn't want to be late for work. A tow truck turned up, so 22-year-old Jessica locked herself in her car and told the towie to back off. A crowd gathered, urging Jessica to hang tough. She did - for three hours, until a parking inspector removed the clamp.

• Pennsylvania truckie Richard Paylor, 55, choked on an apple he was eating at the wheel of his big rig and blacked out, slumping over the steering wheel. The driverless truck and trailer bounced off a guard rail and slammed into a wall. The impact dislodged the apple. Paylor came to with a cut on his head, and motorists helping him from his cab. He told police he was sorry he caused a traffic jam.

• The family get-together was joyous but weird, said the Czech television report. Sharing hugs all round were Ilona Tomeckova, a woman who had become a man, changed her name to Dominik Sejda and fallen in love with Andrea Kajzarova, who was, before her own sex change, a bodybuilder named Tomas Kajzar. Still with us? Dominik learned that the son he had given birth to when he was Ilona was undergoing a sex change too. The boy Radim would from now on be known as Vicki. So how was your week?