Reporter's Diary

Press, 22 August 1978, Page 2

Reporter's Diary

Nice nosh GUESTS of Ballins Industries, Ltd, were treated to a sumptuous repast at the Shirley Lodge Motor Hotel last evening in celebration of Ballins’ centennial year. About 170 representatives of the hotel and wine and food trade from throughout New Zealand, as well as several guests from overseas, devoured six delicious courses prepared under the direction of the chef, Robert Harry. Thinking that nobody should know what was best to eat and drink better than food and wine businessmen, we had a sneak preview of the m o u t h-watering menu yesterday afternoon. After Palomino Sherry, the guests had a choice of two red wines — Pinot Chardonnay 1976, and Cabernet Sauvignon 1975 — and Pol Roger champagne. After dinner they could take their pick of Ballins Centennial Port or Martell Cordon Bleu Cognac. The dinner began with chicken liver pate, followed by consomme a la bourgeoise. The entree was baked fillet sole Florentine, and the main course a choice of roast sirloin beef creme raifort or lobster thermidor. Accompanying either of these were french beans and cashew nuts, fresh garden leeks mornay, glazed baby carrots, potatoes a la Parisienne and baked potatoes. For dessert, diners could choose between fresh fruit salad maraschino and steamed plum pudding with brandysauce, and to follow was a selection of cheeses, petit fours and coffee. Yum. Weighty problem THE occasional problem caused by lions at Orana

Park leaping on to visitors’ car roofs while they eat their daily ration of raw meat should be helped by a new addition at the park. Two weeks ago, a public address system was installed. According to the park’s animal director (Mr Paul Garland), this will be of assistance in informing people in cars what to do if such a situation should occur. About a month ago, a Christchurch man was driving his car through the park with his family when they stopped to watch the lions being fed. One lion leapt on top of the car with his meat and gradually the car roof caved in. Apparently the children were so terrified they started screaming and the man was unable to hear the instructions being shouted at him by park staff a safe distance away. The park has numerous warning signs about its inherent dangers, disclaiming responsibility for any accidents. Cars travelling through are not insured against any damaged caused by the lions, whether they merely scratch the paintwork, or mistakenly use a car roof as a dinner table. According to Mr Garland, a lioness weighs about 160 kg and a lion weighs about 225 kg — which would be the same as having three people lying on the roof of your car. . Therapeutic disco TOES TAP and fingertips snap at a nursing home for the elderly in Cleveland, Ohio, where about 50 residents — whose average age is 78— are caught up in the “Saturday Night Fever” disco craze. As part of a physical therapy and nursing

department exercise programme at St Augustine Manor, a home for the aged, people who have previously been unresponsive to therapy are reacting to the disco beat, according to nursing home staff. Even those confined to wheelchairs are caught up in the atmosphere, the staff say, proof that if the spirit is willing, the body will not hesitate to follow. Man-made man? A CASE was being heard in the Magistrate’s Court in Christchurch yesterday involving a nasty motor accident, in which two men had been hurt — one of them badly. Counsel was gradually recounting his client’s injuries to the court, advocating leniency because the man had been so seriously injured. The man had apparently had a number of operations, which had involved repairing and replacing several bits of his anatomy. When counsel had finished relating his tale of woe, the Magistrate, Mr J. B. Bergin, S.M., said: “From the way you are going on, you’d think this man was bionic.” Family man SINCE the Diary item on Saturday about Mr Bob Stewart, the superannuitant who can claim a tax rebate for having a child under five, we have heard of only one other such man in Christchurch. A Hoon Hay man, who is 65 and recently 7 retired, is also receiving Government superannuation and family benefit. He has four children under 16, the youngest aged only four. Professional trail? ONE OF the reporters from South Pacific Television attending the Dental Association’s biennial conference at the Ngaio Marsh Theatre yesterday could not find her colleague anywhere. The news team was about to leave the conference, but

one of its number was missing. She returned to the theatre to look for him, thinking she would be able to distinguish him by his shining pate. But to her dismay, just about every head bobbing above the rows of seats in front of her was in a similar shining state. Engaging time YOUNG lovers of a romantic as well as an economical disposition who are thinking 'of becoming engaged should not waste too much time about it. De Beers, the huge, European roug h-diamond wholesaling firm, has raised its prices 30 per cent. One of the advantages, however, of living 12,000 miles away from the source of such luxuries is that price rises are not passed on for a few months. According to Mr Bruce Bartlett, chairman of the Canterbury branch of the Jewellers’ Association, it could be as far off as six months before the 30 per cent increase is felt. "And it doesn’t necessarily mean that every diamond ring will go up by 30 per cent,” Mr Bartlett says. “It might not be as much as 30 per cent in all cases, but there will be an increase — and this is on top of the 40 per cent increase in the price of diamonds last March.” Apparently, the cost of a diamond ring has at least quadrupled in the last 10 years, a factor that many people who have had dia monds for 10 years or more do not always take into account in their insurance covers. For richer, for poorer A WEARY bride-to-be, who was choosing her trousseau in a Christchurch store, was heard to say yesterday: “Oh well, it’s only once in a lifetime ... supposedly.” —Felicity Price