No. 1 pain-in-the-butt about hiring cars

The very worst thing about hiring cars is that these days you are supposed to magically know how everything works.   No nice friendly manuals in the glove box any more.  Why?  
The man at Hertz said it was because people stole them.
`How am I supposed to know how to open the boot?' I ventured to ask.
He looked surprised, `You just....you know....open it.'
But it wasn't quite that easy and we wrestled with the problem for twenty minutes before stowing our suitcases onto the back seat instead.  However, the teenager at the filling station helpfully told me that it was simple - two taps the right of the chrome button then depress to the left.
I felt very foolish that I didn't think of that myself.
I wondered how long it would have taken me to work through all the various flick and press options before I came up with the answer.
The next car hire company were no better.  Europcar at Heathrow.  
`My car doesn't have a hand brake and there's no manual in the glove box,' I complained. 
`Just ask any of the lads wearing a yellow jacket,'  I was advised.
`Couldn't I just have a list of basic instructions?' I pleaded, `If people are stealing the manuals couldn't they be replaced with brochures?'
He smiled cheerfully, `You will find Madam that the lads wearing yellow jackets are walking, talking brochures - ask any one of them and they will tell you all you need to know.'
Brian in yellow was indeed a mine of information and it was only when we had successfully navigated our way out of the hire complex and onto the M25 that I realised I should have asked where the windscreen wipers were now located because they sure were not where you would expect them to be.   Luckily the shower was brief.

Home again home again.....

After a month in London Auckland seemed a very strange place on Sunday arriving back to a city blacked out like wartime England.  How easily we become accustomed to illuminated buildings, street lighting, etc. and how very odd a city feels without this reassurance of twenty first century living.   There's a quietness that is almost ominous and the footsteps of strangers take on a special menace  as they pace closer in the blackness.   Or maybe I am simply a particularly fearful individual prone to fanciful notions - or on the other hand it could simply have been a massive dose of jetlag.

Truly terrible incident in Ashburton

Horrifying happening yesterday at the WINZ office in Ashburton; such senseless taking of two lives so why is it I feel a small pulse of compassion for the perpetrator?   

Top of Today's Cringe List

David Cunliffe looking more and more as though he's auditioning for the part of Jesus in the 2014 version of Superstar........

The ongoing assertions of Judas Collins as she valiantly determines to assure us that there is absolutely no truth in the rumour that she is about to audition for a part in the production herself.....

ALWAYS at the top of my list is the abysmal performance that passes as `Singing the National Anthem' from the All Blacks - so truly terrible that these days we are invariably only allowed a rear view of them - though even at this angle they still cannot disguise their acute embarrassment.

Great to see Pam Corkery again!

Wasn't it terrific to see Pam Corkery demonstrating in her own inimitable way `How to Deal with the Media'.  Loved every second of it!   

A few thoughts on Q & A

I  like Q&A - that is when I get out of bed early enough on Sunday mornings to see it.  Susan Wood is always the consummate professional. This morning I found David Farrer impressive too - I'd never seen him before.   But the star of the event had to be Winston.   Not only does he look oh so lovely in his suits, he has a knack of saying what so many of us are secretly thinking.....thoughts that hover just above the sub-conscious - those we dare not allow to escape.

Booking accommodation via laptop

Booking suitable accommodation with only a laptop for guidance can be tricky.  And have you noticed just how long it can take?  I sat down with coffee and determined attitude just after nine a.m. and can't believe that just under three hours has passed.   And what have I achieved in that time? Precisely nothing!
Last time I look at Premier Inns in and around the Kent countryside I could swear they were not more than fifty pounds a night.   Unless Google is being capricious (just because it's me) they appear to have more than doubled in less than a year.   DH says it's more like four years but then what would he know?  He maintains a dignified distance when this kind of research is carried out which makes me want to kick him.   I feel more and more like Kirsty in Coronation Street and he begins to look like poor battered Tyrone.
But I digress.   Let's try Trip Advisor.