Drunk in charge of a picnic table

[vilakins]

The floods after Cyclone Debbie are appalling, a 1-in-500-years event leaving the entire town of Edgecumbe under water and a lot of the work done on the Kaikoura roads munted by landslides. The weather in this country NEEDS TO GO HOME.

But this made me laugh: a guy caught trying to drive his motorised picnic table up a hill in Dunedin (about an hour south of here). His lawyer said that "he has ceased associating with the type of people involved in operating motorised picnic tables while under the influence of alcohol", but the last line is a killer.

Comments

[mab_browne]

''It's quite the work of art,'' Sgt George said, handing pictures of the vehicle to Judge Dominic Flatley.

''Indeed,'' the judge said, after perusing the images.

This bit made me giggle. Nice to see something amusing, given that yes, poor old BOP. What a disaster. I take it that your neck of the woods survived well enough? We were very damp, a bit of surface flooding but nothing more than mild inconvenience.

[vilakins]

That's a relief. We got some heavy-for-here rain today, though nothing compared to Auckland stuff.

[thisbluespirit]

Oh, dear, I'm sorry about the Cyclone, that sounds awful - but that newspaper report is priceless!!

[vilakins]

Isn't it! I just had to spread the joy.

[executrix]

An inadvertent Mapp and Lucia crossover.

[pebblerocker]

:D

Judges probably welcome the occasional oddball to lighten a day's work!

[rafiwinters]

Ha ha, that's a lovely story! I mean the drunk picnic-table driver bit, not the floods, obviously. I do hope you yourselves are all right?

[vilakins]

Yes, we're fine. There's this big hot bright thing in the sky today. :-)

this big hot bright thing in the sky

[rafiwinters]

Oh good! Hmm, though, if you get done with it anytime soon, could you send it over our way? It's been nothing but rain, rain, and rain recently.

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Cyclone Debbie really did cut a swathe of misery in both countries... such an unthreatening name for such a terrifying force f nature.

And that story was brilliant!

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Yes, I saw the footage of the Queensland flooding.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Good to hear from you, I have read the news on BBC . Now I know you are relatively safe.:-)
The story is funny - but for me, the expression "he was breathalysed" was funny even more! Is this a common one?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! It's how they check your breath for alcohol (https://www.vocabulary.com/dictionary/breathalyse) by asking you to talk at a device. It's certainly used in the UK too; I don't know about the US.

It comes from combining 'breath' and 'analyse'.

[vjezkova.livejournal.com]

Thank you. So I guessed the origin of this word right. So not only a verb but also a noun! English is full of excitement!