Reporter’s diary

Press, 4 December 1985, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

On bis mind A MAN who did not want to leave his name studied the new Soviet leader very carefully during his Geneva summit television appearances recently. He saw something the rest of us may have missed. He said that the mark on Mikhail Gorbachev’s head bore a remarkable resemblance to an inverted map of the North Island. We turned this photograph of Mr Gorbachev upside down and saw, after some stretching of the imagination, what he was talking about. If you tilt the upside-down photograph slightly to the left, you can make out Northland, East Cape and the central North Island. The southern part of the island fades away with the curvature of the head. The man believed the mark meant that the Russian leader had us constantly on his mind. Stamped

SOME COPIES of an inaugural flight cover, marking the October 29 flight of

Air New Zealand from Christchurch International Airport to Los Angeles International Airport, are still available from the South Island Promotion Association. The cover shows a 747 climbing steeply over the Christchurch terminal. The cover is unusual for having the same date stamped on both sides. Passengers left Christchurch on the night of October 29 and arrived in California on the morning of October 29. Photo time

THE FIFTIETH year of the Kaikoura Fire Brigade was celebrated at the week-end. On Sunday morning, after a church service, about 50 firemen were assembled in front of the station while photographs were taken. An elderly woman had taken a couple of photos when a voice told her to take the lens cover off her camera. She quickly corrected the mistake and took another photo, but it was too late to go back and recover all the

shots she had taken with the cap on the day before, when the firemen had their public display. The woman son’s and son-in-law were in the group photo. After the Saturday night festivities, one observer said there seemed to be quite a few heads that would have preferred to be left out of the picture. Lemon recipe A CHRISTCHURCH woman has responded to the plea for a lemon beer recipe. She uses the following recipe to make the drink in a fourgallon (18-litre) kerosene tin. You take four lemons and slice them, skin and all. Add 686 grams of sugar and a packet of juicy type raisins, mixing them with water to fill the tin. Stir daily until the raisins are on top for about three days. Strain the beverage and put it in bottles. If you are using corks, tie them down. The brew is very potent after a few days. No yeast is needed. Forgetful AN INNER City couple were walking to a nearby bank on Monday night to use its cash machine when they noticed the Raging Stallions male strip show display in the Town Hall. On their way back home, they counted four late model cars parked near the Town Hall with their lights left on. The drivers must have been forgetful in their haste to reach the show, the observers thought. They would be getting their personal batteries recharged while their car batteries ran flat. The woman who noticed this said she had no interest in the nude male body. She had teenage sons, and when you had seen one bare bottom, you had seen them all. Jim Ford

THERE ARE quite a few J. Fords in the Christchurch telephone book. Could one of them be a Jim Ford who was part of an air crew that flew Wellington and Stirling bombers during World War H, dropping supplies to the

underground in Europe? If so, one of his old mates is looking for him. Ray Wright, who is a Canadian and lives in Alberta, will be visiting New Zealand from mid-December. We have his telephone number and address in Auckland. Long leap GOOD heavens, thought the Christchurch woman, what are they doing about this gigantic pest? The woman had been sent a leaflet from a German calendar. Each page in the calendar had some information about some place or thing. The page for September 18 had this information about New Zealand: An American scientist had discovered a giant flea on Mount Cook. The flea was 52cm long. It had four feelers and six legs. Its teeth were like saws, and of different sizes. The flea’s bite could cause considerable pain to human beings. The giant flea jumped a maximum of nearly three metres. A Canterbury Museum expert on insects laughed at the socalled information. New Zealand has no insect that long, let alone a flea. Such a flea would weigh down any animal it was trying to use as a mobile meal. —Stan Darling