Reporter’s diary

Press, 19 May 1989, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

All hands on deck EVERY fortnight for the last eight years, members of the Christchurch West Rotary Club have taken turns to sit for about five hours round a bridge table. Most of them do not have a clue how to play the game, but they still go. They are Olive Brown’s hands, and their dedicated help makes Olive probably the only quadraplegic member of a regular bridge club in the world. “This is really what service is,” said Olive, who respects the tireless commitment of the members who drive her van to Crockford’s Bridge Club every second Tuesday, then hold her cards while she plays. In the eight years that Olive has played bridge, most of the Rotary Club members, and some of their wives,

have taken turns to be her “hands.” “This is charity in the true sense,” said Olive. “By working quietly behind the scenes, they are allowing another person the chance to act the way they want to act.” Age is ... YOU know you are getting old when (as a Christchurch reader did recently) you ring a firm and the number is engaged. You try again, and again, and the next day, and still the line is busy. You call faults, complain bitterly, then learn that you have been trying to talk to a postal box number. Normal School A FORMER Christchurch Normal School pupil, Mrs Margaret Binnie (nee Copp), wants to know if

there is an old-pupils-of-the-school association, and if so, how could she get in touch. Our inquiries at the Education Department and Canterbury Education Board turned up nothing, except in one case a staff member was surprised to hear that Christchurch Normal had closed. (We and New Zealand Post are not the only ones rumoured to use carrier pigeons for urgent news items.) If anyone can help Mrs Binnie, please get in touch with her, phone 557-673. Imposters TWO cases of masquerading goodies spotted recently. In Charteris Bay our junior sleuth noted copies of “The Press” — nestled smugly in a newspaper stand boldly labelled “The Star.” Then in an inner-city store she

noticed some wallets at a bargain price of $lO. Seeing there was another price label underneath, she lifted the top one to find that the original price was $B.

My, my MORE on mia mias, or, as they are pronounced, “maimais.” Anyhow, the shelters that shooters scuttle off to every May in an effort to dupe a duck. After fielding a few incredulous inquiries from readers, we can assure others who are equally puzzled that mia mia is the correct term. It is not a Maori word, but an Aboriginal word mia-mia, meaning a hut. Curiously, the word mia in Maori means passive termination. Tell that to the ducks.

—Jenny Setchell