Reporter’s diary

Press, 9 May 1981, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

ing the nation, or at least the suburb. Battle of the ads AN ADVERTISING skirmish appears to have broken out between two women’s clothing shops in Christchurch. Earlier this year one shop ran a series of advertisements in “The Press,” which introduced a bevy of lovely ladies and wardrobes suited to their life-styles. One ad introduced “Sandra Keith,” a married woman, aged 36, with two children and two mortgages. “Sandra’s husband, John, works very hard at the office,” it read. “They have a nice home, nice cars, the children go to nice schools. Sandra appreciates this, but is secretly bored. Will she have an affair this year? Probably not. Sandra Keith collects antique jewellery, goes to gourmet cooking lessons, drinks bourbon, spends hours doing her hair, hates jogging, loves expensive shoes.” Now another shop, aiming to rake in those Mother’s Day dollars, has come up with a variation on the theme. It introduces “Cecily.” “Once upon a time there was a vision of loveliness called Cecily. In the fullness of time Cecily married (Albert). . . Alas, poor Cecily is no longer a vision of loveliness. Her hands are rough and red, her neck is bowed. Her shoulders are hunched, her eyes ringed with exhaustion. Her brow is wrinkled and her legs knotted with varicose veins. But Cecily is happy,” it says, “because Cecily is a mother.” Bridging the years THE OLD South Brighton bridge is soon to be demolished, but one elderly man will be allowed to keep part of it as .a souvenir. He carved his name on the

bridge as a boy, and the Christchurch City Council agreed that he could keep the piece of wood on which it was carved. Unenthusiastic SCHOOL TEACHERS in Massachusetts have found a new form of direct action, according to a snippet in this month’s Post-Primary Teachers’ Association newsletter. After years of conflict with their board, they have decided to retaliate by formally “withdrawing their enthusiasm.” Some people think that teachers in New Zealand did that long ago. First aid RED CROSS workers in Wellington have been horrified by the results of a survey on first aid. The early results showed that only 82 per cent of the 684 people questioned knew the emergency telephone number 111. Only 27 per cent knew how to treat children for kerosene poisoning. They are worried that the situation could be the same all over the country, but hope that the statistics might frighten more people into learning about first aid. Brave journey A ZIMBABWEAN couple, Peter and Liz Fordred, both paraplegics, are at present making history. They set off last month in their specially adapted sloop Usikusiku to become the first paraplegics to sail the Atlantic unaided. Both the Fordreds are paralysed from the waist down. Liz fell from a horse when she was aged 18 and was crippled and Peter lost the use of his legs at 19 in a car accident. It has taken four years of planning and saving to get their ferro-concrete sloop underway.