Back
1586 days ago

Jacinda Ardern and Clarke Gayford turned away from Wellington cafe

Brian from New Lynn

Nobody is exempt from coronavirus restrictions – not even the Prime Minister.
========================================================
Jacinda Ardern was turned away from a Wellington cafe, Olive, this morning because it had already reached its limit of customers under social distancing rules. A post about the incident on Twitter drew a sheepish reply from Jacinda Ardern's partner Clarke Gayford. "I have to take responsibility for this, I didn't get organised and book anywhere," he admitted. But wait, the story has a happy ending. Shortly after the first couple was turned away, a space opened up, and staff from the restaurant caught up with them. "Was very nice of them to chase us down the street when a spot freed up. A+ service," Gayford said. Olive's owner was bemused by the media attention, but told the Herald it was nice "after all the drama and stress" of the past two months to be talking about "something light-hearted and fun". He didn't want to give his name but confirmed Ardern was turned away by the restaurant manager, and then chased down the street a few minutes later when a table became free - something the owner said they did for other customers as well.
"She had a lovely brunch and left half an hour later. She was lovely with all the staff ... [and] she was treated like a normal customer." He wouldn't say what the Prime Minister ordered at the restaurant, which describes itself online as "an institution on Wellington's Cuba St". But he confirmed the couple, who are engaged to be married, did not have their 23-month-old daughter, Neve, with them. "[It was a] date brunch." Cafe and restaurants, along with most other retailers, were not able to operate at all during the alert level 4 lockdown. Under level 3 they could only serve takeaways. But after New Zealand stopped the spread of Covid-19, those restrictions were eased when the country moved to level 2 just before midnight on Wednesday. The Prime Minister had, however, stipulated cafes and restaurants must follow strict social distancing rules and ensure contact tracing is in place. Customers must be seated at distance from each other and be served at the table, rather than the counter. But his staff felt no pressure with the Prime Minister in the restaurant this morning, Olive's owner said. "We're following every one of the rules."
=========================================================

More messages from your neighbours
3 days ago

Poll: Should drivers retake the theory test every 10 years?

The Team from Neighbourly.co.nz

Drivers get where they need to go, but sometimes it seems that we are all abiding by different road rules (for example, the varying ways drivers indicate around a roundabout).
Do you think drivers should be required to take a quick driving theory test every 10 years?

Vote in the poll and share any road rules that you've seen bent! 😱

Image
Should drivers retake the theory test every 10 years?
  • 49.5% Yes
    49.5% Complete
  • 48.6% No
    48.6% Complete
  • 1.9% Other - I'll share below
    1.9% Complete
2627 votes
14 hours ago

Here's Thursday's thinker!

Riddler from The Neighbourly Riddler

I am lighter than air, but a hundred people cannot lift me. What am I?

Do you think you know the answer to our daily riddle? Don't spoil it for your neighbours! Simply 'Like' this post and we'll post the answer in the comments below at 2pm.

Want to stop seeing riddles in your newsfeed?
Head here and hover on the Following button on the top right of the page (and it will show Unfollow) and then click it. If it is giving you the option to Follow, then you've successfully unfollowed the Riddles page.

Image
8 hours ago

Why make picking up reserved library books harder? What do you think? Challenge: Write the last stanza for the first poem attached below.

Alan from Titirangi

Once books are reserved in Auckland Libraries books, when they are available no longer go alphabetically by customer but instead go into a Holds pickup shelf number based presumably somehow on when each book needs to be picked up by.

I had two books reserved that arrived on two different days in the Blockhouse Bay Library and hence each book has a different shelf number. Hard to find unless you knew the shelf number in the notification email. Even if you knew the shelf number I found myself three books by the same author on the two shelf numbers.

More recently yesterday a book I reserved was on a different shelf number than was specified in my notification email (see image below).

Sadly it is clear from library staff that a numerical system for reserves is here to stay.

I suggest that so that all books for each person has the same shelf number, the shelf number becomes the last digit of a person's library card (0-9).

Within each shelf number a book is found under the day the reserve arrives in the library (01 to 31, hopefully the same date the email is sent).

Since a customer appears to have 10 days to pick up a book, ten days of the month would appear to be required at any time (for each digit 0-9).

Once there are 10 days used the next day's reserves could go back at the beginning of the shelf number after any remaining books not collected (hopefully none) are removed (along with the old day number and the new day number (01 to 31) inserted) after the last day available and future days' books remaining moved forward to make room.

Each day number (01-31) would appear once for each shelf number (0-9) before the first book on that day- perhaps cover an old withdrawn book with paper with each day number on the spine?

When a reserved book arrives in the library the last digit of the library card could be placed on a piece of paper in the book to be removed when it is put on the shelf, to be recycled the next day.

What do you think?

See the image below and page 3 below for a letter appearing in the Western Leader on 9 September:
www.neighbourly.co.nz...

PoemReservingBooks.pdf Download View