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Brian Rogers Rogers Rabbits www.sunlive.co.nz |
We've been overwhelmed* with responses to last week's call for examples of Kiwi ingenuity.
Three in particular stood out as exceptional (probably because those were the only three that we received) so we've decided to feature them in this week's column.
You may recall, those with extraordinary memories, that the idea of celebrating Kiwi inventiveness stemmed from our column about creative jandal repairs. We asked you to tell us about your jandal reconstructions, plus any other examples of general ‘Nuzzilon' fancy fix ups.
Tony: Most guys become very attached to their footwear. My jandals are very comfortable and conform to my feet, but have worn through the soles, though the straps are still good. Go to a shoe repairer for quote to re-sole…when the guy stopped laughing, he quoted me $30-$40. So off to Mitre 10 to buy a cheap pair of $4 Chinese jandals and a tube of rubber epoxy. Cut off the straps of the cheapies and glue soles under my old jandals and hey presto! They're good for another 10,000 km.
Just sign me ‘Tony'...I can do without the heckling from my buddies.Keep up those great editorials...luv ‘em.
Tor Cunningham: Saw this recently. If you need to get your lawnmower from A to B and don't own a car, here is the solution. Photo is through a car window with phone camera, unfortunately, as I saw the guy as we drove past.
Barb Johnson: I've just got home to enjoy my weekly reading of your column, and you have failed to address another aspect of the jandal. Many years ago I was working in a local bank, a young man came in to open up a bank account. I asked him for some form of identification, he thought about it for a while, then bent down, took off his jandals and passed them to me across the counter. His jandals had his initials burnt into them.
Hairy moments
Meanwhile, in other news, the Tauranga Silly Council is drawing considerable flak from readers of the Sun and SunLive, for shelling out $5m bailout for Baypark, stalling the marine industry precinct dead in the water, but considering a monument to Hairy Maclary down on The Strand.
I'm sure it will be of great comfort to unemployed boatbuilders that they'll be able to spend their idle days down on the waterfront, marvelling over a statue of a fictitious stray mongrel.
Which started us wondering, how would Lynley Dodds, Hairy's creator, record the deliberations of the Tauranga Silly Council?
Using very scientific journalism processes, such as ‘making it up' we have this interpretation of council thinking:
Into the chamber
To sit for a meeting
Went Spendy McRates
And his councillor mates
The subject of course
Debts big as a horse
Thanks Spendy McRates
And your councillor mates
We've struck rock bottom
Of the previously thought
To be Bottomless Pit
And they cried, Oh shit
That ratepayer patience
Has finally run thin
They even had fools
Put in charge of the pools
Now marine industry plans
Have been put on hold
While Spendy McRates
And his councillor mates
Are too busy pondering
A fancy memorial;
The meeting at odds
On the mutt of Dodds
Slipping their collars
'Give us more dollars”
The mad dogs bark
At the lossful Baypark
'No worries,” says Spendy
With chequebook open
Five million to squander
While ratepayers wonder
Just what will it take
To stop blowing the budget
Spendy McRates
And your councillor mates
On frivolous nice-to-haves
That can't be afforded
While statues of dogs
Don't help create jobs
If Creative Tauranga think
Ratepayers will spend
Eight hundred grand
For statues on Strand
They're sorely mistaken
And someone's barking
For that kind of fee
Up the wrong money tree.
* Translation of 'overwhelmed” and how responses are rated:
Swamped = 5 responses.
Overwhelmed = 3 responses.
Underwhelmed = mum phoned.
Inundated = 2 responses.
Unindated = 0 responses.