It completely annoyed me to see graffiti on the new Kunda Park motorway to the highway.

I mean, for God’s sake, they haven’t even finished the road yet and there it is, in all its glory, covering the first cement work you come to off the highway. Complete with hot pink and silver aerosol tags that must mean something to someone.

I’m completely sick to death of seeing public works and buildings being defaced by morons.

It seems to me that whatever penalties are in place can’t possibly be a severe enough deterrent.

Just because you’re under 16 surely doesn’t mean you can’t face the full force of the law.

Sleepover

I know it was supposed to be a bonding experience between a father and a daughter, but when Kym filled in the form at the school some months ago, without my knowledge, agreeing for me to camp out overnight on the school oval with eight-year-old Poppy in a tent, it was a monumental mistake.

Firstly, you look like the worst father in the world if you say “no”, and secondly, you’d have to be completely mad to actually do it.

It rained, the tent leaked, Poppy rang her mother four times before going to bed in tears and with her back to me.

Unfortunately, given my bodyweight, not even NASA has been able to come up with an air mattress design that keeps my spine above the mud.

I did get to sing Mr Clickety Cane by the campfire though.

Halloween

I know what you’re thinking and I agree with you.

It’s an American celebration, so why the hell are we letting our kids do it?

But I think the bottom line is there’s no way I’m going to spoil my child’s obvious excitement on the day. And tell me, who among us doesn’t like to get dressed up and beg?

Bridge fear

As you already know, my 16-year-old daughter Stella has her learner’s permit.

She now has to complete 100 hours of driver training.

Some at night, some in the day, some with a qualified driving school and a lot of it with a short, fat, bald man with a look on his face like he’s just accidentally shot a sugar glider with a shotgun.

You may have seen that look on the Coolum–Yandina Road between 8 and 9 on Sunday morning when I took Stella for her inaugural test drive.

To be fair, once we’d stopped kangaroo hopping through the canefields and Yandina came in sight, I did get a little unnerved when Stella, whose knuckles had turned a purply-white simply from her grip on the steering wheel, said: “How do I stop this thing?” followed by, “A bridge! There’s a bridge! I can’t go over a bridge!”

Look for me again this week, you won’t miss me, I’ll be the one with both feet through the dash.

Act of kindness

A reader’s comment, which starts with “Always read your Sunshine Coast Daily column and really enjoy it, so thought you might be interested in this incident I witnessed at the weekend”, is proof there is still good in the world. It goes like this:

My wife and I were in Myer (at the Plaza) on Sunday and witnessed this young girl – about 9 or 10 I reckon – hand in a $50 note to the male shop attendant.

She had found it in the store.

I’m not sure what the result was (although I did hear the attendant suggest that he keep it for half an hour to see if anyone came back to claim the bill, otherwise the girl could keep the money).

My point is that with so much crap going down at the moment with young people – drugs at a primary school in NSW; bashings in Caloundra; kids playing chicken on train lines in Brisbane – it is so refreshing to see a young person with what people our age believe to be basic, decent qualities.

How easy would it have been for this little girl to pick up the money, slip it in her purse and think nothing more of it!

And as I walked away I wondered how many kids her age would have done just that.

Thanks, anonymous reader, I agree with you entirely.