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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK

Getting a lift from my black swan event

A John Lewis Partnership Card and cash
Reader Justin Ward got an unexpected cash boost after getting stuck in a Waitrose lift Photograph: Michael Melia/Alamy

I too had a black swan event in Waitrose (I thought I could beat capitalism with some out-of-date onion bhajis. I was wrong, 3 January). I was stuck in the car park lift at trendy Byres Road for half an hour, for which they saw fit to award me £30. In cash, not vouchers. At an hourly rate of £60, then, this was the best payday I’d had in decades. For standing in a box listening to somebody shout he’d “brought the wrong spanner, but not to worry”.
Justin Ward
Glasgow

• An article listing “young sensations” mentions 12 great sporting stars, but not Lester Piggott (How does Luke Littler rank among other teen sporting sensations?, 3 January). Piggott rode his first winner aged 12 and took Never Say Die to a Derby win in 1954 when he was 18. Surely a sporting “dazzler”.
Ron Gould
Brighton

• If the popularity of darts persuades you to buy a dartboard, don’t, as my husband did when buying one for our son, position it over a radiator. Christmas morning disaster.
Joyce Blackledge
Formby, Merseyside

• In my youth in Scotland, I went into a newsagents and asked for “The Daily Record and a box of matches, please.” The newsagent said: “Aye, it’s the best thing you could do with it, son” (Letters, 5 January).
Jim Milne
Long Buckby, Northamptonshire

• “Rishi Sunak should visit areas impacted by flooding, the Liberal Democrats have said” (Report, 5 January). Have residents not suffered enough?
Martin Stallion
Braintree, Essex

• Do you have a photograph you’d like to share with Guardian readers? If so, please click here to upload it. A selection will be published in our Readers’ best photographs galleries and in the print edition on Saturdays.

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