The first was at Legana petrol station when I realised I had left my handbag containing my purse and phone in the garage at home and I didn't have enough petrol to drive back to get it. Noticing my distress the guy at the next bowser put $10 petrol in my car and refused to give me contact details so I could pay him back.

More recent goodwill was a flat battery when returning to my car over the road from the bottleshop in David Street, Newstead at 6pm. One of the young men working in the bottleshop took it upon himself to go and seek some jump leads from someone inside the hotel, move his vehicle from its park and drive across to mine. Then with a kind nearby resident helping me to hold back the traffic because his vehicle needed to be double parked close to mine, he restarted my car and expected nothing in renumeration.

I was so warmed by and grateful for these acts of generosity and wish to say thank you.

MANY of the futuristic devices used by my boyhood comic heroes have become reality, and now in this electronic age future wars will not be waged by we humans, but those whom have the best computer programs and hackers.

Almost all the hardware now produced for humans to operate, such as jet planes, are mostly reliant upon their computer programs, which without they will drop from the sky. This being a factual reality makes one ponder just where will it end?

SEEMS to me that the major cause for migration is war, civil or otherwise. The major migrations stem from conflicts involving the Western nations, World War II, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Libya which are either to depose the ruling regime by direct military action or encouraging local uprisings.

It is hardly surprising that many would want to flee the conflict and seek refuge elsewhere. So what do those countries do? Close their borders and any who get through are condemned to indefinite detention.

I believe that people are proud of their country of birth and leave only under great duress. So instead of spending billions on munitions and the cost of rebuilding after hostilities cease, why not provide funds to improve the lot of the inhabitants who may wish to remain in their country of birth?

SALLY Scrivens (The Examiner, November 23) expressed delight in experiencing the peace and serenity  of the Walls of Jersulalem National Park recently. No helicopter noise, just nature. 

Luckily Sally is physically able to make the walk but spare a thought for those who are disabled and elderly who are not so lucky. Access should be available to all not just the lucky few.

Bring on the development.

LAUNCESTON residents be warned, make sure you take a picture of the display on your parking meter or you will not have the evidence to fight alleged parking infringements.

I recently parked adjacent to St John’s Church, I seldom park in town and if I do I am always careful to pay for more than the likely parking time.

Without going into great detail, I paid for more than 1.5 hours. I returned an hour later and did not even look at my windscreen as I was not expecting a ticket. Half an hour later when I was parking at home, I noticed what appeared to be a ticket.

To my amazement the ticket claimed that I had parked for less than hour, but my meter was not running. Thinking perhaps I had paid for the wrong parking space or in the wrong meter I immediately returned to the same spot to check this out. No, I was right, I had parked in the correct spot and had put money in the correct meter.

I immediately wrote a letter of complaint to the council. Five days later I was amazed to get a notice that the fine will stand and that their meter was working correctly. 

Although a small fine, I was initially prepared to take the matter to court as a principal was at stake here. However, on enquiring as to the procedure and the rigmarole of registering it at court, then maybe not being able to attend due to work and finally, how do you challenge something when I had no actual proof.

So, if you want to keep the council honest, make sure you take a picture of the window in the meter which will clearly show what you did.

Still smarting and annoyed.

IT’S great to see the Launceston Council mayor Albert van Zetten looking to attract more cars to multi-storey car parks with a review of free first-hour parking (The Examiner, November 22). 

Moving some parking off the street frees up road space that can be used to widen footpaths and install cycleways separated from traffic.

Launceston is a picturesque city abounding with stunning architecture, it deserves to have a more walkable and rideable city centre so people can appreciate their surrounds and gain the health benefits of active transport.

On top of that, moving more people through the city improves retailers’ bottom lines.