“Disaster has struck the great Bunnings sausage sizzle,” reports Manbir Kohli of Pemulwuy. “No buns, only slices of bread are permitted now to wrap those lovely carriers of artery-blocking goodness. Did an ex-PM make this happen?”

Remember Susan Bradley of Eltham (Vic) and the ghost of her “long-suffering” Latin teacher? (C8) Well, she’s baaaack: “I have been directly contacted by the ghost of Miss Frisby, and reprimanded for assuming Coral Button’s surname was plural, and declining her surname incorrectly in my translation. Please note that she is Coralia Bulla in Latin. I’ve also found my final Latin report from Upper Fifth, and in it, Miss Frisby states, ‘Susan is lazy. She is not without ability, but is not disposed to apply herself with the necessary thoroughness’. At least I am consistent over the years.”

Stein Boddington of St Clair found that “Google Translate says Susan’s Latin means ‘She is impetuous and cowardly, regardless of her dirtiness’. Google seems to have an even lower opinion of Coral’s work than Miss Frisby did, but without the alliteration. I’m certain that Coral is none of those things.”

“While still darning socks (C8),” Barry Lamb of Eastwood is “also wearing shirts frayed at the neck in the hope of starting a trend like the knees out of jeans [the term is distressed, Barry – Granny]. But for frugality and waste-mitigation rather than fashion.”

“My Schwinn Beach Cruiser has a front hand brake and a rear back pedal brake (C8),” says Kenneth Smith of Orange. “Very handy for riding one-handed with a takeaway coffee in the other.”

“At the height of Friday’s dark nor-easter rain event, the ABC’s 7pm weatherman Tom Saunders did a detailed segment with News 24‘s Kathryn Robinson, defiantly proclaiming there was no such thing as a ‘rain bomb’,” notes Allan Gibson of Cherrybrook. “Is his view shared by those at the BOM?”

“After such a heavy rain event on Friday, it was quite a relief to see a sun event on the weekend,” adds Rob Baxter of Naremburn.

More good help (C8): “We were woken up one morning by the smell of burning in the house,” recalls Warren Mitchell of Mosman. “I raced to the kitchen to find our ingenious daughter had pulled her play table over to the stove and used it to climb up to turn on the stove and make breakfast using her plastic dinnerware.”

Column8@smh.com.au

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