Reporter’s diary

Press, 2 July 1985, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Computer aid BAND-AID, the British African relief organisation that has spurred similar campaigns in other countries, has released a cassette of computer games. Gumshoe, Beam Rider, Star Trader, Gyropod, China Miner, Fred and Gilligan’s Gold are among them. The cassette is called Softaid, and all proceeds go to the Bob Geldof Band-Aid Ethiopian Appeal Fund. Along with the computer games, the cassette features the Band-Aid single, “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” The Crowd A NEW rendition of the 1960 s hit, “You’ll Never Walk Alone,” is in the Bfit-

ish Top 10 charts. The remake was done to help the Bradford Soccer Fire Appeal. It was recorded by a group of rock stars calling themselves The Crowd. Gerry Marsden, of the Gerry and the Pacemakers group that had the original hit 22 years ago, led The Crowd to benefit survivors and relatives of the 55 dead after the May grandstand fire at Bradford. In the hold

THE KAIAPOI Historical Society may have hit upon a way to lure more people to its meetings. Since late 1983,' the renovated motor vessel Tuhoe has been the town’s star attraction, taking locals and visitors from afar on

trips downriver and to the Waimakariri River mouth at Kairaki. More often than not, there are hardly enough people to form a committee at historical society meetings, but about 40 people turned up for the recent annual meeting in the Tuhoe’s hold. For the society, the turn-out was a rarity, especially on a cold, damp night. The meeting had been advertised as “Aboard the M.V. Tuhoe,” and someone speculated that the notice may have created the idea of an evening cruise in some minds. If it did, no-one complained about the cruise that went nowhere. Tidying up POLITENESS does not always count. A young man went to a central Christchurch house on Saturday to talk to one of the residents. She was not there, so he chatted with a flatmate on the front porch and left a message. As he turned to go, he reached out and closed the front door, leaving the young woman stranded outside without a key, and with none of her flatmates at home. She had to garden and think of other things to do until a flatmate arrived. The young man who had so kindly shut the door was “of a tidy nature, you might say,” said a flatmate. Here I am

THE NAME is not the same, and neither is the product. A Masterton butcher, Rick Long, has been having some fun in his attempts to locate his business in the public’s mind. He used to say that he was Long next to Wong, since the business next door was Wong’s Fruit Supplies. Then hee pulled off a big switch in his firm’s name. He is next to the Chief Post Office in the Wairarapa town, and he went to the P.O.’s signwriter with the job of coming up with a nearreplica ojie for himself. Now

hanging outside his butchery is a big sign that says Chief Roast Office. It incorporates a look-alike Post Office logo that is a stylised version of the L and S in Long’s Supermeats. Spoilsport YOU KNOW how it is when you cannot see a sports contest live on television but are comforted by the fact that it will be screened the same day in a delayed broadcast. You turn off the radio, go outdoors, go for a drive, do anything but come close to anyone who might give the score away and ruin the suspense. Many of us were doing that on Sunday, and watching Telethon seemed to be a safe way to while away the hours until the rugby league test between New Zealand and Australia started for the second time, on television. More than one fan would have been furious when Canon Bob Lowe appeared at the Telethon table at 3.55 p.m. and told everyone the result, before the television coverage started just 10 minutes later on the other channel. He even said the Kiwis lost in the last minutes, by the score of 106. You can avoid radios and friends, said one viewer, but you cannot always avoid preachers. Unpredictable THE, RICCARTON Players will open their production of Noel Coward’s “Blithe Spirit” tomorrow evening and are still stuck for a prop central to the play’s ghostly theme. They had not predicted a crystal ball shortage when the play was being planned, and are now paying the price of not going to a fortune teller in the first place. They need a crystal ball, or something that looks like one. They have tried everywhere they can think of, including secondhand shops. Fortune tellers have not been keen to lend their own gazing balls.