Reporter’s diary

Press, 8 September 1989, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Flowery language... TO avert the danger of St Margaret’s College chapel bursting at the seams with gardening enthusiasts, we must point out that numbers are strictly limited for a talk by two English experts, on September 24 (See Reporter’s Diary, September 6). Tickets ($l5, includes supper) should be bought in advance, from any branch of Odering’s Nurseries, or by telephoning Miss Lyn Atkinson, 266-246, or Mrs Dolina Barker, 323-186.

... and plain fare STILL in the garden — well, it is spring — the Cashmere Garden Club will open its fiftieth anniversary celebrations with a flower show in the Masonic Hall, on the corner of Dyers Pass and Hackthorne Roads and it will be open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on September 19. The min-ute-books are ■ being picked through for a written history of the. dub. Among the gems is the discomfiture of two members, invited as guests to a -meeting of a new country garden club. Running late; they skipped lunch in the belief that country clubs always put on a feast,- and were repaid. foi;l : .the>t

presumption with tea and the plainest of biscuits. Rule Britannia A reader, wondering what a little badge (?) found among her mother’s belongings can be, writes that it must be old, “as Britain has hot controlled the world in this century, I think.” The knick-knack .is small, less than 2cm across, and features the

globe, framed by a laurel wreath, with a hand holding a heart at the top, and the word “Britain” emblazoned, across it. The rough lower edge suggests it may a have broken off something else. Sensible suggestions, or, better still, informed opinions, to this column, please. “ Perks of the job? MY, doesn’t time fly? It

was 15 years ago today that the United States President, Gerald Ford, granted his recently resigned former boss, Richard M. Nixon, a pardon for any crimes he may have committed in relation to the Watergate scandal. For appropriate comment on the event, we turn to the great man himself. Questioned about Watergate by the British television interviewer, David Frost, Mr Nixon said, “Well, when the President does it, that means it is not illegal.” Different folk WHO else has noticed, while flicking through the telephone directory, that reserved mainlanders, even the country folk, generally stick with staid initials in their listings, while the Chatham Islands section simply bursts with Christian names? It is a different place. Really! Galloping inflation SLOGAN on a tee-shirt, seen about town on a young teenage girl: “Poverty is owning a horse.” And we thought most people reached that state just with the power, rates, clothing bills, rent, mortgage, hire-purchase on the groceries, and so 0n... —Nigel Malthus