Reporter’s diary

Press, 6 February 1986, Page 2

Reporter’s diary

Pocket park PETER Scoular Park has been an instant success story that would have pleased the Deputy General Manager and City Engineer of Christchurch, who died in 1983. The pocket park’s foliage has grown quickly across from the Civic Offices in Tuam Street, softening what seemed to be a stark refuge when it was first built and planted. Mr Scoular would have enjoyed the greenery, but he would have been even more impressed by the park’s other life, the many people who talk and eat in the park, or just pause for a rest. Transplant MARGARET May Armstrong, a former Christchurch woman who began nursing in 1964 and did her training at Christchurch Hospital, took part in Sydney’s first liver transplant operation in January, and has since helped with another. She attended seminars in New York City and Chicago as part of the run-up to the 14-hour operation, which was conducted by the National Liver Transplant Unit at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Ms Armstrong, who is the senior charge sister in the pheresis section of the hospital’s haematology department, was called in to run the cell-saver machine during an operation that had seven surgeons, rotating for coffee breaks, working on a 16-year-old boy with terminal liver disease. The transplant unit had been ready for its first operation for six months, but had to wait for a suitable do<;or. Many members of the unit, including Ms Armstrong, had been sent overseas to learn transplant techniques. During her career in Tauranga, Australia and England, she has been back to Christchurch to be relieving supervising sister at Burwood Hospital. Different chimneys A HEADLINE on a Satur-

day article about duties of teachers in 1872 may have led some readers to envisage teachers sweeping chimneys as part of their daily chores. “When teachers cleaned chimneys” referred to the rule that teachers must fill lamps and clean chimneys every day. A reader points out that the chimneys concerned were the glass ones on kerosene lamps, which became dirty inside as the lamps burned. Husky friend THE SCOTT Base husky controversy has revived fond memories for a Christchurch man who worked on a construction site in the Canadian Arctic some years ago. Husky dogs were brought in by air by staff members from other parts of the country. They were not there for work, but just as companions. No seals or caribou, which were plentiful, were ever shot for dog food. The French Canadian cook kept them well fed with spare camp rations. The dogs were

just about the only form of entertainment at the remote site, some 2600 km north of Montreal. The man’s living quarters were a double-skinned canvas tent, with a wooden floor and door, which he shared with two others. The man adopted one of the huskies. When his tent-mates were out, he invited the dog inside, where he could lie down in his favourite spot, alongside a snowdrift under the bed. The drift built up as fine snow blew' in under the door. Although the tent had a drip-feed oil heater, the temperature at floor level for the dog was always comfortably below freezing. The man’s tent-mates would turf the dog out when they returned because of its questionable smell. After a blizzard or windy night, the dogs would burst out from snowdrifts to be fussed over in the morning. Rugby rule THE BRITISH Lions could face a legal move similar

to the one that prevented the All Blacks from touring South Africa if they go ahead with plans for a South African tour after the Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh this year. The liberal Campaign for Fair Play would take legal action against such a tour on the ground that the Rugby Union was transgressing its rules, which say that tours must be “in the interests of rugby union football.” A co-founder of the organisation is Derek Wyatt, a former England player. Paper hanger DOES ANYONE have any spare rolls of Julia Myers 9214 wallpaper? If so, they could be a big help to a Rangiora man who has had a bad run of measuring walls, buying paper and finding a gap at the end of his hanging. It was third time unlucky this week, after he had been told by a local store that he should have enough to go the distance. He bought the rolls three months ago, and the last two rolls of the sale pat-

tern had been sold last week. None of the stores he approached had any left, and hone could be found in South Canterbury. Even Auckland and Wellington warehouses were out of the floral pattern, which has gone out of production. The man is faced with the daunting task of building a gigantic wardrobe to cover the substantial gap. The stud in the room is so high that an extension ladder would be needed to reach the top of the wardrobe. Seeking cover TIME flew, in a harrowing way, in a Wellington department store last week. Part of Kirkaldies is being demolished to set the stage for a remodelling project Suddenly, a beam hit the back of a wall in the clock department dislodging clocks and glass shelves that went flying. Shoppers and store workers went scurrying for cover, but noone was hurt. —Stan Darling