The 15th World Buskers Festival kicks off today in Christchurch and continues until January 27th. Forty acts from ten countries, including New Zealand, will perform their various talents around the streets of the city.

When the busking festival started fifteen years ago, there were eight acts and two events which drew 8,000 people. Last year’s festival played host to more than forty national and international acts, staged in excess of 450 shows and drew 250,000 people into the central city.

This year’s festival boasts the largest contingent of circus, street and stage acts Christchurch has ever seen. There are
jugglers, comedians, contortionists, unicyclists, clowns, musicians, dancers, acrobats, living statues and aerialists.

With day time shows around the city, it’s great entertainment for families, with adult shows in the North Quad of the Arts Centre and at the Civic every night.

I always look forward to this time of year, as there are so many different acts appearing all over the central city as part of this busking festival. It’s the cheapest ten days of entertainment you will get!

Heading into the weekend (is it just me, or do they never seem long enough?) this tidbit definitely fits the bill.

What if every second day was a Sunday? Well, it almost was for one lucky person. Scott, an Auckland bookstore assistant, wrote to the NZ Herald saying:

“A customer returned with a 2008 diary he purchased on the weekend. As he was flicking through his diary, he was dumbfounded as every other day seemed to be a Sunday. He told staff he thought he was going mad. But we realised he was quite correct… Sunday, Monday, Sunday, Wednesday, Sunday, Friday, Sunday, Sunday, Sunday… We found that it was a huge printing error and were told to destroy it. Just think how wonderful it would be if every other day was a Sunday.”

I couldn’t agree more.

As a kid, I loved the Guinness Book of Records. Something appealed to me about all those crazy and disturbing records, set by people who wanted to be the best at something, well anything really.

In 2002, when an international Web geek tried to set the world record for the longest domain name, he was told by Guinness:

“This record is currently rested, which means that no one can attempt this record and become a new record holder. It has been rested because there is no merit whatsoever in this. It takes little to no effort and is similar to taking the largest number in the world and then adding 1 to it.”

So there’s no chance of official recognition, but when I came across this whopper, I wondered ‘Was this the longest URL in New Zealand?’

www.barbaradoylesmysteryintrigueandmurderwknd.co.nz

Generally, the .co.nz Web space follows these domain name rules:

• Names are registered on a first come, first served basis
• Anyone can register a domain (except for moderated domains such as .cri.nz, .govt.nz, .iwi.nz and .mil.nz)
• Names must use only letters, numbers and hyphens without any spaces (name segments may not begin or end with a hyphen)
• Maximum length is 63 characters (not including the .co.nz extension)
• Minimum length is 2 characters
• Domain names are not case sensitive

So, at 41 characters our contender has a way to go. If you can beat this with your own URL, or you know of a longer Web address, we’d love to hear about it! Until then, this site holds the (unofficial) title…

Something that caught my eye (and my inbox!) was this little ditty ‘n’ dance, otherwise known as the haka. But this is a haka with a difference - it’s performed by a team of hybrid gingerbread All Blacks.

These funky dancing biscuits are brought to you by the Baking Industry Association of New Zealand, in aid of the annual Bakery of the Year competition. This nationwide bake-off is open to all Kiwi bakeries, from cafes that bake their own breads, to specialist baking outfits and instore supermarket bakeries.

If you’re a bakery, register to earn a coveted place in the top ten of New Zealand’s best bakeries. And if you’re a punter, you can be in to win a $500 travel voucher just by casting your vote! To sample some baked goodies before making your decision, take a look at our New Zealand bakeries category.