Stuffed Possum

Regularly the press (and doubtless the TV news which I can’t bear to watch) seems to think it of interest that someone found a foreign body in their food. There was a Bro eating his oven chips and got a mouthful of metal which he is sure must have come out of the packet though he didn’t see it until he was eating. (Eh? So how does he know it was in the packet? It could have fallen off a kitchen light fitting, been an eyebrow piercing etc.

Apparently the gardeners of Wellington's Botanic Gardens are getting fed up with sifting through the ashes and bones of cremated people which get regularly dumped on the Lady Norwood rose beds. As well as being unpleasant, it is also harming the roses.

What is the government planning for our Foreshore & Seabed? I have just found out that there is a public consultation about the new proposal - with a consultation period of three weeks, over the Easter Holiday period! One of those weeks has already ticked away.

There is a good summary of the background here at the NZCPR site which also has a commentary by David Round.

I was going to write all about Wellywood but Damien Christie has already done it here: Cracker Blog

I love the opener: "It's what we do in New Zealand," said my friend, "we take an idea from overseas, and then just make it a bit shit."

Years ago when 'er in doors and me were in England, we went to Ikea - a strange Swedish shop - and bought a potato peeler which was just the biz. Alas, it disappeared, dunno what happened, the children ate it, the dog buried it? After that my spuds weren't getting peeled right. I tried various things - one from the Warehouse went blunt on potato number 2, one from Briscoes always wanted to peel in a direction I didn't want to be peeling in. And then one day I stumbled across the fantastic Zyliss Peeler in Farmers.
 

Bill McLaren, the voice of BBC rugby union commentaries for so many years, has died aged 86. He hung up his mike a few years back and it is nice to find some links to some of his old commentaries and bring back some memories.

This one, Scotland vs Wales in 1971, was not one I saw - interesting to watch this old style of rugby, a very different game from today's that's for sure.

Did Greater Wellington Regional Council have a job-lot of yellow paint they had to get rid of? Why else would they double-yellow line the whole of the Wairarapa side of the Rimutaka Hill?

What are double yellow lines for? To warn you can't safely overtake, such as on blind bends where you can't see. OK, but what about the straight bits? It's completely obvious that in most places there is not time to overtake...  unless you are on a motorbike. So there is no need for the lines - is this just yet another attempt to stuff up motorcyclists?

Amongst all the flotsam and jetsam about 2-bit film and pop stars and titillating sex tales for the dimmer reader, there are certainly some thought provoking news stories out there. This one caught my eye: Tsutomu Yamaguchi was unlucky enough to be visiting Hiroshima on business on August 6 1945, and was badly burned. He returned home to Nagasaki - just in time for the second atomic bomb on 9th August!

I must have been bored to decide to sit through Starship Troopers again the other night. But, as in the previous screening, I was immediately attracted to the great song in the graduation ball.

I can't believe it was nearly 30 years ago when I first saw Viz. Whilst much of the humour was puerile of course, some of it was achingly funny and original at the time. Whenever anyone says "top tip" I think of Viz. And one of my favourite cartoons is with the Doctor (which unfortunately I can't find online). The patient is saying "I think I've eaten something that disagrees with me" and the speech bubble from his stomach says "No you haven't". Ace!

Ooh, another close call turning right into a petrol station this morning. The driver coming the other way was indicating left, and his road positioning was such that I assumed he was actually intending to turn in - only when it was too late did I see he was not slowing, until he screeched to an emergency stop, thankfully before ploughing into my vehicle! Yes, he'd left his indicator on.

The Bikoi on Tuesday 17th November was a nice sunny day which saw a turn out bigger than expected by organisers.

I was touched to read about the modesty of Victoria Cross recipient, the late Cyril Bassett, who was reluctant to talk about his 1915 award, with "All my mates ever got were wooden crosses." His daughter apparently only found out about it during a history lesson at school, as he never used to talk about it. How extraordinary.

You can read the story about Cyril here.

As Hawkes Bay come up with a decent new slogan, Stuff reports some other slogans.

"Friendly Feilding" - why not "Freindly Feilding" for consistency?

"Foxton: The fox town of New Zealand" - other areas will be queueing up to also become a fox town. What?

"Stop and taste Te Puke"  - I thought this one must be a joke the reporter slipped in, but no! More here.

Another 'royal gaffe' by Prince Philip is whizzing its way around the world, to the usual shocked indignation by gloating anti-monarchy groups.

The Consort apparently said, at a dinner attended by many British Indians, "There's a lot of your family in tonight" to a chap named Patel. Patel is of course a very common family name.

Mr Patel said he was not offended by the comment. So surely there is no story whatsoever? Just a chance on a slow news day to rake up all the genuine gaffes over the years - some admittedly embarrassing, some simply too honest.