Reporter's diary

Press, 29 May 1985, Page 2

Reporter's diary

Bunkers A CASUAL glance at the haybales and piled sand in Sumner yesterday, along Scarborough Road beside the paddling pool, might have caused residents to wonder what kind of invasion was expected. The changing sheds took on the look of bunkers, with bales stacked on the roofs and beach sand shouldering against the sheds. It will all be useful today when overhanging rock on the cliff is blasted to make the face safer. The section of road will be closed to traffic and pedestrians from 8.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m. Sand will be spread across the road to form a cushion for the falling rocks. Thanks, dear

HIS SISTER across town was having a birthday, so a young Christchurch man decided to send her a singing greeting over the telephone. He made the call and burst into a heartfelt rendition of “Happy Birthday to you” when she answered. Nothing but silence came from the other end, so he stopped short before getting to the part where he was losing her name and inquired: “That is you, isn't it, Rhonda?" “No,” said the woman, "but thank you, dear. That was such a nice thing to do.” Lifted

CARDBOARD boxes are a valued commodity to a Christchurch man who is to move house. A shopkeeper friend across the street offered him some the other day, so he went over and carried out a pile of empty boxes. When he arrived home, he found two indelible ink security marking pens, tha kind used to help stop in one of the

boxes. He thinks the inadvertent shoplifting must have been done by the box as it brushed past the pen rack, scooping up two of the markers. He took them back but left only one on the rack. That kind of thing can come in handy, he said, so he bought the other and took it for its second trip across the street. Pretty boy A PARROT sits in a tall cage in The Shades shopping mall. A sign curving round the cage bottom has a list of the things the bird can say, or the sounds it can make. During the school holidays, a man walking near the cage saw some children trying to persuade the bird to give forth, but the bird was not about to oblige. The man has children of his own, and could see their disappointment. He crept round to the other side of the cage and crouched low so they could not see him, then gave his best parrot impression of such standard phrases as “Polly wants a cracker" and “Who’s a pretty boy, then?” The children went away satisfied. To the Pointe THE IMAGE of Miami Beach, Florida, has changed dramatically over the years, from flashy tourist playground to a warm climate home for the old and poor from other parts of America and the Caribbean. But the trendiness of doing up art deco buildings and living in condominiums seems to be forcing another change on the shoreline city, a change some conservationists fear might transform the older districts into a place just like anywhere else where development money takes hold. An Associated ’ Press

said it is a case of “the white hair and walker set meets the white wine and Walkman crowd.” Half the population of Miami Beach is over the age of 65, and most of those are Jewish. Part of the plan to attract younger tourists and home buyers is the creation of a new image for South Beach, a part of the city that has been taken over by Cuban refugees and the elderly poor. The beach has been rezoned to allow a posh shopping plaza and a highrise condominium with its own marina. South Beach even has a new official name to help erase the old image — they have called it South Pointe' Beyond the call AN ELDERLY woman was given a hearty greeting by a Fendalton Road bus driver when she boarded the other day. The woman told a companion that the driver had seen her waiting on the other side of the street when he came to her bus stop recently. When the driver saw that she was unable to get across a steady stream of traffic, he got out of the bus and went across the street to escort her through the cars. Empties BUS service was never this good back home. At a recent conference of travel agents in Auckland, private buses were laid on so delegates could be ferried to their hotels, meetings, and shopping places. One driver said that the service was so frequent that some buses were almost empty part of the time. He had been doing his rounds one day when he passed two buses travelling in the opposite direction, one behind the other.

Neither of them had a passenger. Bowing, sitting THOUSANDS of Japanese office workers are taking special courses in the art of answering telephones, bowing, walking, and pouring tea. Tutors for Japan Air Lines, often former stewardesses, run some of the one-day etiquette courses. Businessmen often complain about the bad manners of their young workers, who need a crash course in treating customers and superiors in a civil manner. “Stick out your chests, keep your backs straight” is the airline’s way of teaching the proper way to walk for a female office worker. One woman aged 20, said that the polite language and the sitting lesson were the hardest to learn. Even though the Japanese Government has passed legislation to remove sex discrimination on the job, many companies are still wary of hiring women for jobs leading to management positions. Women have traditionally been seen as office flowers who decorate the workplace and are handy for making copies and pouring tea. Things are changing, says an etiquette industry executive, but slowly. New life CONTINUED speculation about the opening of a McDonald’s hamburger restaurant in Christchurch keeps aficionados hoping, especially those who developed a taste while living in the North Island. A Christchurch woman brings back a few Big Mac hamburgers from Rotorua every time she returns from a family visit. They may get limp and lumpy on the journey, but she sparks them back to life in microwave oven.