Reporter's Diary

Press, 1 July 1978, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

The mixture . . . THIS IS the morning you really do have to attack that super-adhesive 197778 registration sticker on your car windscreen and replace it with the latest frightful yellow example. The best system, motoring experts say, is to use a metal scraper to remove carefully the old sticker, _nd a thin mixture of methylated spirits and elbowgrease to remove the sticky glue it will inevitably leave behind on the glass. The cautionary note is to be careful with the scraper — windscreens ■scratch easily. Yellow peril?

THE COLOUR of that new registration sticker is upsetting many motorists with colour sense. Unless, of course they have a car of the same penetrating hue. In which case, you might say, they can’t have any colour sense. Ignoring this circular argument, the question arises as to a suitable title for the tint, to supersede the horrifyi n g 1 y descriptive “Cook Strait passenger green” label applied to the former label. Jaundice, perhaps? Farmyard gold? Christchurch smog brown? In a flash

THE VETERAN runner, Don Cameron, nearly, as the old French phrasebook savs, had his postillion struck by lightning during the climatic upheavals of Thursday. After the worst of the snowstorm and the quivers of the earthquake, he was taking his customary brisk exercise on the Port Hills, enjoying the crisp crunch of the snow (so he says), when there was a brilliant flash and a vast detonation. The lightning missed Cameron and put the television transmitter partly off the air instead, but the runner took the celestial warning anyway, and headed home. Capital story

RUMOURS in Wellington’s Lambton Quay insist that the following conversation took place in the capital between two public servants. “How did you get on at the doctor’s?”

asked the first. “I’d rather not tell you,” replied the second public servant. "Why not?” asked his concerned friend. “You wouldn’t believe me.” “Of course I would.” “All right, then. The doctor told me I’d been working too hard.” “I don’t believe you.” Water trick

HILL suburb residents often found themselves stranded at the top of their driveways during Thursday’s snow — and sometimes again yerterday morning, when driveways froze overnight. On Thursday, one determined man put chains on, only to have his car slide off the drive and come to rest against a tree. He was particularly galled when he heard of the system successfully employed by a hill-dwelling friend. The cunning one left a hose running at the top of his driveway for an hour or two, letting the running water clear away the snow while he toasted himself by the fire. He then started up and quietly drove himself to the city. The chain-user, meanwhile, was busy with a fence-strainer and some wire, pulling his errant vehicle back on to the “hard.” Welcome home A NEW problem faces the 700 servicemen and their families who came back to New Zealand a few weeks ago after two years in Singapore, the Army says. They all have to learn to cope with the changes made in the road laws while they were away. So there have been some crash courses (if the expression can be excused) in defensive driving and the latest Road Code. Old Singapore hands say defensive driving comes naturally anyway after a few months survived on Asian roads. After that, it seems, even Christchurch drivers are models of rectitude. Experience tells IN SPORT, AS IN OTHER FIELDS, YOUTH IS NOT EVERYTHING. During a B grade inter-club badminton competition between the

Railway and Knox teams recently, Sharon Wilson, aged 14, one of the top junior players, was pitted

against one of the province’s top players of past years, Mrs Marge Miller. Mrs Miller won; and the presence of her daughter-in-law, Jill, as umpire, and Sharon’s father. Mr Noel Wilson, as a linesman had nothing do with it. Mrs Miller, who won 15-5, is 60. Maoritaunga hui EXPERTS in Maori lore from all over New Zealand are expected to gather at the Omaka Marae Community Centre, Blenheim, from Augu t 25 for a three-day “Maoritaunga hui” organised by the Marlborough Maori Community Club. The club’s chairman (Mr J. H. Mac Donald) says that the hui will be open to the public and is planned to include lectures, discussions, dis plays, and artistic workshops. Important guest? (not yet named) will get a traditional Maori welcome when they arrive at the community centre. W 7 hoops! THE quick dash out to the milk-bottles and the morning’s paper is always a little risky for the nightshirt brigade, but neve; more so than during the recent cold snap. A delighted Tomes Road resident telephoned with the tale of a neighbour who dashed to the gate only to go base over apex, as the saying is, on the icyground. His nightshirt ended up under his ears, but the colour of his face should keep him warm for some time, our spy reports. Tractor traction YET another push-and-grunt addition to the list of week-end Telethon activities: the International Harvester Social Club announced yesterday that 12 of its members will push and pull a 2200 kg tractor tomorrow from North New Brighton to the Civic Theatre. The take for Telethon from the stunt will be about $250. While you wait IT MAY BE old, but we still like the advertisement from an Irish parish magazine. It said: “Murphy, Furrier and Taxidermist. Customers’ own skins dried and dressed.”