Moata - don't worry about your busking delusion. At least you're aware you're deluded, unlike 99% of American Idol auditionees. (Hey look, I made up a new word! Wooot!)

As for the QotD, I'm a sometimes rescuer, depending very much on the apparent honesty of the person.

As an example, I have given a dollar to a fellow bus traveller when it transpired they didn't quite have enough cash. I was happy to do so. But a few years ago in Cathedral Square I was confronted by a young girl (she would have been 15 or so) who begged me for enough money for lunch. Why didn't I help her? Because her clothing was barely worn, her make-up was fresh, and she didn't look at all undernourished. Also, her begging was laughable.

Back to the busking - just learn Aerosmith's Dream On (how cool was that on Glee, btw?), and learn to teary-eye your way through Ave Maria - you'll be set for life.

I have selective miserism. I eat a boring packed lunch every day, so that I can spend that money on real coffee instead of the nasty filter muck at work.

When I am spending money I want to see the value that I get from that spending. When I bought Leonard Cohen tickets recently for about $140 or so each ticket, I was enraged by the tickitek booking fee of about $15 to allow me the privilege of printing out my own ticket. Seriously? You must be taking the piss.

Love the Princess Bride reference! :-)

A $65 surcharge for paying by credit card? Crikey. And I thought the $10 EFTPOS surcharge a "friend" paid for his lap-dance at Show Girls was harsh ;-)

As for the little old lady in 20/20... I wonder how many people would have helped out the person who was short of cash if they were a young male who needed his medication just as much as that little old lady?

I say, give her the money, but first, make the absent-minded old Doris dance a jig to Metallica for 30 seconds. That'll learn her ;-)

Truth be told, whether or not I would help out the little old lady would largely depend on how rich I was at the time. It's easy to be generous when you're rich. It's hard to be generous when you're budgeting every dollar to put food on the table.

That said, I like to think I WOULD step in to protect that girl who was being escort away (to danger) by Mr Dodgy, (which is what every guy would say, including the useless douche-bags who NEVER step in to do the right thing). The problem is, with the way New Zealand cops are these days, (read: utterly incompetent thugs with some disturbingly warped priorities), I would be more concerned about the reaction of the police than about confronting Mr Dodgy.

And you KNOW something is seriously wrong with your community when the good Samaritan is more worried about the official response to his good deed than he is about the risks of the good deed per se.

"Wodge" is an awesome word. Personally I'd liek to see it appear in every single on of your blogs. I'm going to try and use it at least 4 times today.

Oooo Justin Biebers name in your blog again!

A couple of years ago I was walking across the carpark at a mall and saw this guy in a wheelchair going around all the cars and looking at the ground. I asked him if he was OK and he told me he'd lost his last $20 for the taxi ride home. I felt sorry for him so I gave him about $15 and he took my details promising me that he would pay it back in a week or so.

I never did hear back from him so he was probably conning me! Oh well - maybe karma will pay me back someday.

i think it would depend on how much money I had on me at the time on whether I helped out anyone in need, i rarely carry cash using good old eftpos! Once i did help out someone in the supermarket who was $5 short and didn't think twice about as I have always thought what goes around comes around and would like to think someone else would do the same for me if I was every short. As for travel trips the good old "eat where the locals eat" is always good advice - when I travel I always check out the local places, stay away from "tourist trap" places as the prices always hike up there. Going to the supermarket and stocking up on snacks is always good if you are doing tours, long journeys and saves you buying crap on the way! There are heaps of travel blogs online as well, trip advisor is a good site.

If you want to meet local people and gain from their local knowledge, try couchsurfing.org. It's fantastic, it'll save you a bit of money, you don't end up stuck in a hotel (which does unfortunately mean you can't take the shower gel) and you have a host that tell you all the best parts to vist.

I watched 20/20 aswell, and thought that because she was a little old lady, of course you would be more inclined to help. I think it would have been more interesting if they had trialled it on a range of people.

I also wondered to myself if I would have helped her, and to be completely honest, in my current situation, I dont think I would have. I feel totally selfish for saying this, but I too am saving up for a holiday at the end of the year, working hard and saving hard. I have stopped buying things for myself unless they are 100% necessary, so would find it extremely hard to pass any money that i do have in my pocket to someone else! Eek. Not that I ever have spare change - its eftpos only for me.

I give freely to strangers in need. But I'm naturally cynical so I can usually spot a con. An old lady in distress because her $5 grocery bill declines on her card in the supermarket queue ahead of me is one time when I'd help out - but in my experience even the lowly paid checkout chicks have been seen quickly swiping their own EFTPOS cards in those situations.

@ mr magoo #4

4 wodges each day?

Does that make it a wodge of wodges? ;-)