Reporter’s diary

Press, 31 October 1984, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Addington, or Ascot? IT MIGHT be stretching the imagination a little, but a Merivale fashion store hopes to transform Cup Day at Addington Raceway next Tuesday into an Antipodean version of Ascot, the big fashion event on the English social calendar, at which horse racing is definitely a sideshow. Miss Jane Daniels, a fashion designer from Auckland will be roaming among racegoers in search of the best dressed woman on the course. The winner will be presented with an inscribed silver tray worth more than $3OO, and, if she happens to be wearing garments from Quinn’s Fashions, Ltd, with a $2OOO clothing voucher. About 10 “finalists” will also receive clothing vouchers. Trying to turn the Addington trots into a top hat and tails affair could be an uphill battle, though. Addington is Addington, and Ascot is Ascot, and we strongly suspect that never the twain shall meet New approach AN EASIER WAY of doing

things can almost always be found, given a little thought and ingenuity. An example is that of the painter who was wearing custom-made metal stilts to paint the ceiling of a new garage in Rangiora yesterday. Apparently, once you get used to the stilts, they are a lot more convenient than ladders or trestles that constantly have to be moved. Classing Rotarians ANYONE who belongs to a club committee may be interested in this item from the Ashburton Rotary Club’s magazine. It refers to the several classes of Rotarian: some are like wheelbarrows, no good unless pushed. Some are like trailers: they have to be pulled. Some are like kites: if you don’t keep a string on them, they fly away. Some are like balloons: so full of wind that they are ready to blow up. Some are like footballs: you can’t tell which way they will bounce. A very few are like a good watch: open face, pure gold, quietly busy, and full of good works.

Top dogs VIVIENNE and Bernard Fears, of Woodend, showed a pair of their Schipperkes (Belgian barge dogs), with great success at the Royal Melbourne Show. Tarnhows All Black, also known as Bertie, aged 14 months, was judged best dog of the breed at the show, while Sweet Jessica of Exmopr was named reserve champion bitch. Bertie and Jessica were up against 15 other Schipperkes in their class, more than are shown in this country, where Belgian barge dogs are comparatively rare. Exhibition NOT EVERYONE is impressed with the content of an art exhibition at present on display in the Greymouth Borough Council’s Civic Chambers gallery. The council has received a number of complaints about items in the exhibition entitled “P.T. and Friends.” One woman told the “Greymouth Evening Star” that two of the paintings on show were obscene She described one work, which contains a four-letter word, as graffiti. The second, a draw-

ihg of a nude woman, belonged in the pages of a “girlie magazine,” she said. “I think graffiti should be left in the toilets,” the woman added. We understand that the approval of the Mayor or his deputy will be required for future exhibitions in Greymouth before they are opened to the public. Surprise party THE WIFE of a well-known North Canterbury farm machinery supplier was delighted when he announced that he was taking her to The Hermitage, Mt Cook, last week-end to celebrate her fiftieth birthday. She was even more surprised and delighted when a busload of 30 friends and relatives arrived unannounced at The Hermitage all the way from North Canterbury, for a surprise lunchtime birthday party. The critical timing was jeopardised when the bus broke down on the trip to Mount Cook, but the guests managed to arrive in time. They went home the same day. It was a long trip, but worth it

Peter Comer