THUMBS UP & DOWN
■ Thumbs up to the kind lady who helped me when my dog was attacked on Kurupae Rd while walking home from school dropoff. It was a horrible scare and you were so kind. Thanks for being there!
■ Thumbs up to Stefan at the service desk in The Warehouse, you're always polite, friendly, helpful and have a cool sense of humour.
■ Thumbs up to Eunice at Farmers Discount Meats, Paetiki. Great service, great convo. Your window display, your variety of meat products, quality, price, taste are all superb.
■ Thumbs up to Kate O'Connor, acupuncturist at Skin Matters. A clever and sympathetic lady.
■ Thumbs up and thank you to the kind gentleman who gave money for fuel to help Tidy Taupo¯ . Your donation is greatly appreciated.
■ Thumbs up to the team at Taupo¯ Smash Repairs. I was recently in need of a reasonable sized accident repair and needed it done quickly due to upcoming relocation. They were able to squeeze the job into their busy schedule, get the parts in from Japan and hunt down some specific clips from various locations around New Zealand in order to get the job finished in record time. Thanks heaps team!
■ Thumbs up to the thumbs up for Taupo¯ Market at Nukuhau. Great variety of stalls providing entertainment for visitors and income for vendors. A pity the council cannot come up with a suitable venue in town for them. There are plenty of open spaces designated for recreational use for ratepayers.
■ Thumbs up and a huge thank you to the staff and management at the Tihoi Venture School for making our walking group so welcome. The scones were great too!
■ Thumbs up to Mike at Budget Rentals for his unfailing good humour and forbearance with our group's ever-changing hireage requirements.
■ Thumbs up to Avril and her friendly team at BP Wild Bean. Great coffee, fast efficient service and amazing name recall.
■ Thumbs up to Lake Taupo¯ Rotary for their continued support of the community van. So many local groups and schools would find it difficult to continue their activities without the use of this wonderful asset.
■ Thumbs down to the people who hang out at shops and make the pensioners go to the ATM and take their money. If the pensioners weren't so afraid of you, the police would be involved.
■ Thumbs down to all the drivers who suddenly brake, start to turn left or right and then indicate. The proper action is surely mirror signal, mirror brake, and last of all, mirror turn. On numerous occasions it is obvious where someone is going well before they ever indicate.
■ Thumbs down to those who buy up new sections and flick them on a few months later for a $170,000 gain. Is it any wonder the New Zealand house market is beyond our reach because of their continued greed?
■ Thumbs down to the guy who blocked Tonga St while yelling abuse at a truck driver who was just doing his job. You were a bigger disruption to traffic than the truck.
■ Do you have a bouquet or a brickbat? Email your thumbs up/ thumbs down to us at news@taupoweekender.co.nz, message Taupo Weekender on Facebook or drop them into our office in Waipapa House, Paora Hapi St, Taupo¯ . Thumbs up/thumbs down may be edited or abridged. Personal attacks or thumbs down that refer to easily-identifiable people, businesses or groups won't be published.