Reporter’s diary

Press, 3 September 1982, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Iranian vow The Iranian President (Mr Ali Khamenei) has vowed to send his forces farther into eastern Iraq to destroy artillery positions that have been shelling Iranian cities and towns. "We shall advance as far as. it takes to silence enemy guns and ensure a quite life for our citizens

along the border,” he told a rallv in the north-eastern city of Mashhad. He apparently was reacting to a statement by the Iraqi President (Mr Saddam Hussein), who said his troops were preparing for a showdown battle to end the 23-year-old war. Mr Hussein made the remark at a medal-awarding ceremony in Bagdad on Monday. Knickers in a twist UNTIDINESS has been the mark of many of genius but sometimes tidiness can save embarrassment. Tell that to a university student not noted for her tidiness. She arrived home the night before, jacket- went in one direction on the floor of her bedroom, top. in another.

jeans in another, shoes and socks in another. Off to work in the library the next day on the 10-speed. But the cycle seized up in mid-journey. The previous evening’s knickers, left in the jeans, had slid down a leg and had jammed the works. Watching the abrupt halt were an elderly man and a young man. So the least public way for the disentanglement job was to hide behind a bus shelter. Night of fancy NOT many people can have celebrated" a ninetieth birthday with a flight in a Concorde aircraft. This was the birthday wish of Captain George Shadbolt. He is described by the London "Daily

Telegraph” as "a courageous old soldier with an adventurous spirit, who has won the hearts of the staff of St Paul’s Cathedral by his energy and determination. He has'been associated with the cathedral since he was an apprentice in 1910. He lost a leg in World War 1. but in 1934 he founded the Old Comrades’ Association, a charitable organisation concerned with former servicemen and their .widows. He became a wandsman at St Paul’s just after World War II arid, he still works for the British Limbless Ex-Service-men's Association as well as at the cathedral. Earlier this month, his airborne birthday partv brought him a twohour flight, a meal, and charnpagne: - .......

On a clear day . . . THE DUTCH have a tourist office in London. It issues free maps of the Netherlands, “Observer" of the “Financial Times," has seen them, and suggests English drivers have a care. “Fast traffic coming from the right has right of way over all traffic from the left; fast traffic coming from the left has right of way over slow traffic coming from the right; slow traffic coming from the right has right of way over slow traffic coming from the left. Just a moment . . . Whoops .;. . Sorry." Snarlers THE SOUTH Coast Gundog Group in England sends out a newsletter to its members

A recent excerpt: “We will hold some progress tests for members’ dogs, and afterwards there will be a get together with food and drink in the form of hot dogs and coffee." Direction “NEW Yorkers seem to have a limitless capacity for the eccentric grand gesture" says “Observer” the “Financial Times," columnist. "A visitor the other day was suprised when her host arrived for her in a taxi. She thought that they were eating in the restaurant opposite her hotel. They were. As they got into the cab, the NewYorker shouted to the driver: 'Across the. street and step bn it.' " .