Reporter’s diary

Press, 21 April 1984, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Big-noters A CHRISTCHURCH Transport Board bus driver on the Rangiora-to-Christ-church run on Thursday morning was handed a succession of $5, $lO, and even $2O notes for fares of SI.2C or less. While the driver kept smiling, his patience and change must have been running low as he counted

back money to the “offenders.” The “big reds” once carried signs near the entrance doors, asking passengers to try to have the correct change for their fare, or as near as possible to it, but the Transport Board made a conscious decision not to put the signs on its new buses. “We did not want these to be plastered with signs telling people to do this or that,” said the board’s assistant general manager, Mr Tony Francis. All the same, it would make bus travel easier and quicker all round if all passengers remembered that paying a bus fare is not like going to the check-out at the supermarket. A little loose change is all that is needed. Bad movies CANTERBURY Film Festival organisers are sure they have plumbed the depths for their bad taste special on tomorrow at the Avenue Cinema, Riccarton. “Robot Monster” and “Plan 9 from Outer Space” were chosen as the worst films ever made — more so because they were not meant as deliberate spoofs. The first celluloid atrocity stars a man dressed in a gorilla suit with television aerials glued to a driver’s helmet. But the highlight is “Plan -9/f the star of which, Bela Lugosi, died in mid-produc-tion. The director hir&Lhis wife’s chiropractor to Wish

the role, holding a Dracula cape in front of his face for close-ups. Even worse was the technical production, with pie plates and 1956 Chevrolet hub caps thrown past the camera to depict alien spaceships. Bellringers wanted CHRISTCHURCH Cathedral will have fewer bellringers than usual tomorrow, with several of the regular team, in Wellington for the first ringing of the Wellington Cathedral bells. Bellringers from throughout New Zealand and some from Australia will also be there. A “skeleton crew” of eight, which is barely enough, will stay behind to ring the 12 bells in the Christchurch Cathedral. Experienced bellringers are always welcome to join the Christchurch group, but they would be particularly welcome tomorrow. Fun climb FIT PEOPLE with a penchant for the outdoors may like to try their hands (and feet) at the- annual fun climb of Mount Bealey, near Arthur’s Pass, tomorrow. The out-and-back trek usually takes about three hours, but the fastest are expected to halve that time. The fun climb starts at Rough Creek at 9.30 a.m. and is open to those over 12 years for an entry fee of $l. It has been

organised by the Arthur’s Pass Association. Near-record litter... PANA, a pedigree German shepherd bitch owned by Carol McCarthy, of Fletchers Road, Loburn, had 18 pups this week. The father was a red setter, which Pana met only a few days before being put to a pedigree German shepherd dog. She began to have the pups in a big toi-toi bush last Saturday evening. On Sunday morning 10 pups were shifted into a loose-box. By 9.30 a.m. on Sunday Pana was running about with a rock in her mouth — her favourite pastime. By 11.30 a.m. she had had two more pups, and by 3.30 p.m. on Sunday she had 16. A count taken on Monday morning revealed 18 pups, one of which had been rolled on and killed. It took Pana more than 24 hours to have the litter in between carting rocks around. She is three years old. ... And world record THE BIGGEST litter of pups on record was 23, born in 1975 to Careless Ann, a St Bernard owned by Robert and Alice Rodden, of Lebanon, Missouri, according to the “Guinness Book of Records.” —geter Comer