Reporters Diary

Press, 23 July 1980, Page 2

Reporters Diary

Olympic souvenirs BADGES, bears, and buttons are among the souvenirs of the Olympic Games now on .sale at Mr Bruce Caygill’s shop, Avon Stamps and Coins, in Worcester Street. Mr Caygill bought the souvenirs, with hand-made Russian goods, including dolls and chess sets, from the daughter of an elderly. Russian couple- who emi- ‘ grated from Minsk recently. Able to bring only a small amount of money out of the Soviet Union, the couple decided ' to boost their resources by bringing the souvenirs and other goods with them and selling them in

New Zealand. Mr Caygill reports a steady demand for the souvenirs. ■ i By any other name IF. YOU think the name Twizel sounds harsh and . unpleasant, spare a thought for the people who have to live there. They are not especially enamoured of it either, it seems. Moves are afoot there to have the name changed. In a few years time, when the nearby Ruataniwha Dam is flooded, Twizel will find itself at the edge of a .newly formed lake. What better name for the town then,, the locals say, than Ruataniwha?

Reaching out OUTREACH, the Robert McDougall Art Gallery’s community programme, has so far been a great success. The gallery has been employing actors and actresses, musicians and literary groups, and sending' them out into old people’s homes, institutions, factories, picnic areas, schools, kindergartens, country taverns and clubs, where they present collections of poems, plays, mimes, songs, and music along with some of the gallery’s paintings. “On many fronts, Outreach has worked not only as enter-. tainment and recreation, but as a beacon for all the

visual art institutions in Christchurch,” says a report from the art gallery. Between January and May this year, Outreach has presented an art-based programme to more than 17,000 people and gallery visits in the same period have increased by 14 per . cent. Practical joke WHEN Rodney Biyant left his job as Christchurch City Council information officer to become frontman for the regional news programme, “The Mainland Touch,” council staff sent on his name plate. “R. S. Bryant” was emblazoned on it in gold lettering, and for a long time, Mr Bryant kept it on his desk at Television New Zealand as a memento of the good old days on the council. Then, on day not long ago, it mysteriously disappeared. It didn’t take long for him to find out where it had gone. The door to the men’s 100, in the corridor outside the newsroom, had a sticker advertising “The Mainland Touch” over the sign that had previously said “Gents,” and the name plate was tacked up underneath. The appropriateness or otherwise of this new’location was the subject of general hilarity among Television New Zealand staff for some time. Then, one day, a staff member was .paying a visit to the newly named men’s 100 when a stranger popped his head round the door and asked if this was where he could find Rodney Bryant? It was a visitor who had thought the signs were genuine.

Spy story GEORGE Smiley, the ageing spy=catcher of John Le Carre’s’ books, who stars in the “Tinker, Tailor Soldier,‘ Spy” series on TV2 this evening has become the subject of a fierce dispute between two of London’s leading publishers, Hamish Hamilton and Hodder and - Stoughton. Hodder’s brought out a new le Carre novel, “Smiley’s People,” earlier this year. They; are now dismayed to see- that Ham-

ilton plans to publish early next year a book called “Smiley’s wife,” which has nothing to do with the le Carre character at all, but.is, in fact, an autobiography by Madeleine Bingham. The title was chosen because the author is convinced that le Carre based Smiley on ' her husband, • who worked for British Intelligence for many years. The battle, it seems, has only just begun. Whether Madeleine Bingham’s title is kept remains to be seen. Buggy trials ABOUT 100 beach buggies will plough their way through mud, water, and slush on Sunday at McLeans Island during the “Radio Avon Hazzard County beach and swamp buggy bonanza.” The aim of the exercise is for the buggies to complete various exacting courses without becoming bogged down. Drivers are also expected to remain in their vehicles, no easy task, it would seem, with several steep banks and big bumps dotted about the courses. There will even be a course through the Waimakariri River for the more water-minded buggies. The events will begin at 1.30 p.m. on Sunday, but if it is wet they will be postponed to August 3. Happy feet LAST * FRIDAY’S item about “flatties,” the funny little flat-footed women’s shoes that have recently become fashionable footwear for women with long, slim legs, as stirred the memories of a Dyers Pas? Road reader. “I bought a pair of these shoes in Canton three years ago,” she writes. “I call them my Chairman Mao shoes- Comfortable they certainly are, and hard wearing. ..Millions of Chinese wear them, and they all have smiling faces and get about much faster and more nimbly than their high-heeled sis» ters in Western countries. Perhaps that is why' they" are called Happy Shoes?”- -