In countries like Germany, South Korea and China women are being given wider parking spaces painted bright pink so they don’t crash into cars on either side.

A mall in China has marked spaces 40cm wider with signs that say “respectfully reserved for ladies”.

And Perth council has just begun a three-month trial setting aside 28 women-friendly bays in one of its car parks although the council says men can use them but are encouraged not to.

So do women think it’s a good idea?

Do we need these she-spaces in Orange?

Can women drivers here park without any problems?

If you have a look around you’ll see there’s lots of drivers, men and women, who can’t park properly and certainly not in between those lines in Lords Place that you can’t see looking out the back of a modern car.

In Summer Street when there’s a double space between two cars, they park right in the middle because they’re too dumb to back up to the car behind.

You could fit lots more cars in a city block if drivers parked correctly and didn’t take up two spaces.

Angle parking also attracts the hoggers who like at least two spaces.

But you probably can’t blame some of them for keeping well away from rust buckets whose owners love swinging their doors wide open when getting out, putting nasty little dents in the side of your car.

FOR an awesome experience you won’t forget in a hurry, try going to Aldi on a Wednesday or Saturday morning when their special buys are on.

But be warned. It’s definitely not for the faint-hearted.

To be a successful Aldi shopper you need special skills like being able to stand for upwards of an hour at the front door before it opens so you can get first dibs at the bargains by charging through the mob like a rugby league forward when the lights turn green.

Inside there’s lots of pushing and shoving and, if looking for clothes, when you find the size of the item you want hang on to it tightly because another shopper will snatch it from you.

Aldi’s biggest special buys sale last Saturday on snow gear offered up bargains on things like jackets, thermal wear, boots, gloves, beanies, scarves, goggles, snow boards and kids snow sleds.

A hundred or so people camped at the front door of the Orange store nearly an hour before opening and it would have been a marketing delight for one of our coffee vans to serve the excited throng.

Inside the store it was chaos. Crazy. A jungle. Survival of the fittest. And a hostile environment for shoppers who haven’t been initiated into the Aldi experience.

Items were on the floor, others had their packaging ripped open in the frenzy.

Commando training would be a huge advantage next time you shop there.

A Getaway TV travel feature on the scenic Douro Valley in Portugal showed off the spectacular landscape characterised by endless rows of steep terraced grape vines and dozens of wine-producing vineyards called quintas.

The city of Porto and its famous São Bento railway station is the gateway to the valley and to get visitors in the mood the station has a special wine tasting room where they can sample the port before heading off to the different wine regions like

Távora-Varosa that also grows cherries and apples.

And the valley boasts its cold winters and high altitudes gives the grapes an excellent quality.

Does all that sound slightly familiar?

Of course Orange’s grape-growing areas aren’t terraced and there certainly isn’t 40,000 hectares of them like the Douro Valley but we’ve got more than 50 vineyards, we grow cherries and apples and we have a cold winter climate.

But we’re missing out on a wine tasting room at the railway station even though we’ve only got one train a day.   

However, it wasn’t always like that.

Back in the good old days, as they say, the station had a bar, or officially called refreshment rooms, that as well as cups of tea and cake, opened and sold alcohol when a train stopped for 10 minutes or so, particularly at night when a string of mail trains ran.

That was long enough for the odd passenger or two and the blokes sorting mail on the travelling post office vans to hop off, rush into the bar and belt down a couple of rums to warm their innards.

The venue was also a favourite late night/early morning watering hole for CWD journalists and printers to wet their whistles after knocking off and who were privileged to be able to stay on between trains when the bar was closed.

You just had to be quiet so the cops checking things out on the platform and passengers waiting for a train to arrive didn’t hear you.

Ahh, them definitely were the days but Orange wines weren’t even a thought then.

The regular butchering of street trees every two years or so is now going on in Orange.

If you tried, you couldn’t possibly make a street look uglier than hacking the middle out of rows of trees to clear the power lines.

It’s the best argument yet for putting lines underground although that’s not likely to happen in the established areas because of the cost.

But at least development approval in new areas makes it mandatory.

Underground lines are safer, more secure in severe weather and remove the need for radical tree hacking, which results in a far better streetscape.

They also reduce safety hazards caused by fallen lines and the poles don’t become a target for out-of-control car drivers who have a habit of crashing into them.

Power authorities say overhead lines at around six times cheaper are the best value for money and deliver lower electricity prices for customers.

Lower electricity prices? Surely they’re joking?

A WOMAN tells her husband there’s trouble with the car. It has water in the carburettor.

“Water in the carburettor. That’s ridiculous,” says the husband.

“I tell you the car has water in the carburettor.”

“You don’t even know what a carburettor is”, says the husband.” Anyway, where’s the car?”

 Wife: “It’s in the swimming pool.”