Reporter’s diary

Press, 20 February 1987, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Sail sale

YESTERDAY’S mention of a day sail aboard the Sail Training Ship Spirit of New Zealand brought a spirited response — perhaps because we omitted to mention the cost: $BO for those aged 15 to 18; $lOO for those 19 and over. Captain Michael Barnett says that many callers realised there would be a cost, and have booked places on the ship regardless. Sailing, as they say, is the most expensive way to travel third class. There are still places available for the trip on March 7.

Successful formula

OUR PLEA, yesterday, for a foster home for an abandoned kitten met with several offers, and we are pleased to report that Mrs Vivienne Stanton will take it on. She has successfully reared abandoned kittens before, using an electric heating pad to keep them warm, and a special milk formula, available from veterinarians, for food. She suggests starting them off with an eye dropper, then a special feeding bottle. No difficult feeding schedule is needed, she says, “just feed them every time someone walks past the cage.” And, like human babies, kittens will soon learn to sleep through the night Look out, Pierre WHEN THE spray-gunned mural on the new D.B. building in Brougham Street was unveiled on Wednesday, the ties worn by the two artists were nearly as striking as the mural. Tim Croucher and Richard Fahey were set apart from the rest of the crowd by their distinctive sheepskin creations, one of them tastefully knotted with brown twine. “We are thinking of making ties out of corrugated iron, for the man who wants to commit suicide,” Croucher grinned. The pair’s artistic venture will be knoq® as "Alias Mick

and Leo,” in honour of a pair of Renaissance Italians.

Homecoming

THE SPITFIRE fighter plane which for years flew silently on a pole outside the Brevet Club is about to return to Christchurch, to be installed at the Air Force Museum at Wigram. The plane has been faithfully restored at the Woodbourne Air Base and will make a fascinating comparison with the fibreglass replica which now stands at the Brevet Club. The original will be placed beside the replica for a.time on the day (yet to be decided) wheq it returns to the city,

Fossils

LOCKED IN a glass display case in the Riccarton High School library is a display of destructive works which must not be allowed to sully young minds. A notice reads: “These books are banned from our library. Why?” The reason, of course, is obvious; reading the titles is bad enough. They include: "The Boys’ Book of Rocks and Fossils,” “The Young Man’s Guide to Television,” “The Young Man’s guide to Advertising,” and, horror of horrors, "The Giris’ Book of Cooking.” The librarian tells us they were old books, to be culled anyway. They were written in

the 1960 s — simpler times when boys did not study cooking and girls knew to keep out of physics laboratories.

I’ve half a mind to try it...

A TRADING bank, which had better remain nameless, has begun sending out to its credit card holders details of a new service: Death Cover insurance, under which the bank will waive outstanding debts up to a maximum of $lOOO, in the event of the card-holder’s death. Which gives, according to the bank’s publicity pamphlet, “a little extra piece of mind.” fyNigel Malthus.