Rants & Raves
Any spelling and grammar nerds out there like me? Ever since personalised plates started selling for vehicles, I have noticed immediately the major “crime” of numerals being used instead of letters because the original plate has been taken by someone else. Examples are: 0 for O, 1 for I, 3 for E, 5 for S, and sometimes the combinations are indecipherable. Call me tragic (my friends and family usually do) but it’s visual pollution for me! Fiona Allen My very grateful thanks to the kind and concerned young men and ladies from the wonderful Melba Cafe in Ellerslie, who rescued me from where I had fallen, flat on my back, entangled among the cafe’s tables and chairs, all blown away by the sudden ferocious storm on Saturday morning. Christine Great if you leave home for a walk from Long Bay to Browns Bay at dusk only to find that the street lights are not working on the way home and you have to walk on the road as the footpath surfaces are so uneven that you risk breaking your neck in the pitch black dark. Ratepayers Chris and Claudia I get great satisfaction from joining the line at the bottom of Queen St that forms every 15 minutes for the Northern Express Bus. It is now so easy to get into town I can’t remember the last time I brought the car. Ruthia R The 40km/h limit on Ponsonby Rd is a joke. This busy high-pedestrian road has turned into a race track, with speeding the norm rather than the exception, and warrants a far greater police presence than it gets. Some speed cameras would be a good start. Cambel F We were unlucky to have flooding through our home last Wednesday night. Two phone calls as soon as it happened (one to the Fire Service, the other to State Insurance) saw an unbelievable response: two visits by the Fire Service, Urban Search & Rescue came, the Auckland Council civil emergency team called, and State accepted our claim within 10 minutes. We are still drying out but have stayed put. Thank you to these organisations. Finally, heartfelt thanks to our amazing neighbours, who pitched in on the night, and the next day came over with dinner for us. Glenys Ogg A select audience with a head for heights got a close-up view of the Melbourne Cup as it was taken around Auckland’s Sky Tower Skywalk yesterday. The trophy is being shown off around the country before the 155th running of the event this year.
Former jockey Larry Olsen, 67, (pictured) who won the race atop Kensei in 1987, is taking the $175,000 cup to Cambridge today before heading to Wellington tomorrow and Taupo later in the week.
By the time he retired in 1998 at the age of 50, Olsen had amassed more than 1000 wins including 24 at Group One level.
He is an inductee of the Queensland Racing Hall of Fame, and has ridden in Hong Kong, Singapore and England.
The 18-carat gold Emirates Melbourne Cup trophy will travel to 33 towns and cities across Australia, New Zealand and, for the first time, Malaysia where it will join a special World War II memorial service.
It will then return to base for the 2015 Melbourne Cup Carnival, the big race taking place on November 3.