Category: My Diary

I awoke at a quarter past seven and arose twenty-five minutes later, on this dull, overcast morning, to have breakfast on my own after having disagreed with Tiki over whether I should attend the final round of the Australian Open at Kensington tomorrow. We mended our differences before nine o’clock and once she had dried my hair we left at a quarter past ten. I sped towards town in the ‘Galant’. That is, until I almost received my just desserts when I ever so nearly ran into the rear of a VW ‘Kombi’, as I stared at a sports car that was passing in the opposite direction.

Once the car occupied a space in the parking station next to her Majesty’s Theatre, I discovered that I had failed to properly close the car’s bonnet when I had checked the oil, in the garage at home. We walked to Cambergs corner store where I didn’t even have to explain about the letter we had received inviting us to chose our free Christmas gift.

A ‘rough diamond’ pointed out that we could choose between a wooden carving of an elephant and its calf and another that depicted small elephants which stood one on top of the other. We selected the latter, which we were informed was valued at four dollars and ninety-nine cents.

We walked to the cinema in the Pitt Centre which, as the name suggests, is on Pitt Street. There, we purchased two tickets, at three dollars and twenty-five cents per ticket, in order that we might view the movie, “Smokey and the Bandit”, from two o’clock. The film stars Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, Jerry Reed and Jackie Gleason.

Just a few doors from the cinema we located a crowded McDonald’s and, at a quarter to twelve, I ordered two Fillet-o-fish burgers and a chocolate thick shake for myself  and a Fillet-o-fish burger, a Junior burger and a chocolate thick shake for Tiki, at a total cost of three dollars and forty-five cents.

Having consumed lunch, we walked on until we reached the Opera House. I had been trifling with the idea of purchasing four tickets so that we, in addition to Tiki’s parents, might attend a concert by the singer, Kamahl, next month. However, I was told that the tickets for it were not on sale there and was, therefore, given the name of Camini Promotions along with a relevant telephone number.

We returned to Circular Quay and when I dialled the number from a public telephone box I was informed that all of the unsold tickets had been sent to the Opera House last night. As we didn’t feel like walking back to the Opera House, we returned to Pitt Street and located a T.A.B., in which the woman behind the counter instructed me on how to fill out a new card that would allow me to place a bet on the trifecta, to be held on this afternoon’s meeting in Sydney.

It was twenty-five past one by the time we reached the cinema. As “Smokey and the Bandit” bore an ‘M’ rating — fifteen years and over — we were amazed to see so many young children in the audience. We sat in the back row of what would be the equivalent of the front stalls of some years ago. Our seats were comfortable and afforded us with plenty of leg room.

Films on dancing and singing by people of different nations, in Wales, and the sport of orienteering in the United States were screened prior to intermission. After the main feature we walked to the Hoyts Cinema Centre on George Street, in order to use its toilets, before we crossed to the Parisienne Pussycat Restaurant where we splurged eighty cents each on a cappuccino.

Upon our return to the parking station we paid the bill of two dollars and sixty cents. I parked the car at the rear of the Wentworth Hotel and, again, we embarked on a walk to the Opera House; only to be informed that the tickets to Kamahl’s concert were not being placed on sale until Monday.

On the way back to the car we passed retarded men as they boarded a bus marked ‘New Haven’, and saw two policemen drag a man, who appeared to be intoxicated, out of a paddy-waggon and up the steps of the police station while he remained on his knees. Knees, which appeared to contact every one of the steps during his ascent.

Two of the three horses we included in this afternoon’s trifecta: “Little Ben” and “Bye Shayne” were unplaced — the latter actually fell — whilst the other, “Leonotis”, finished third.

Tiki drove home by half past six and in spite of all the walking we had already done, in town, we departed at half past seven to jog and walk through Gymea and Miranda. It was difficult for us to comprehend the number of young teenagers who were walking aimlessly about the streets. Others were congregated outside the Miranda Hotel.

 

We awoke at ten minutes to seven and arose to begin to prepare for our day at the golf at Kensington. After some moments of doubt, so did Tiki!

She drove while I navigated and parked the car in the street that leads to the Southern Cross Expressway’s flyover. However, upon our arrival at the entrance to the golf course, Tiki was ready to turn around and return home because it was there that she noted that entry was to cost us five dollars each. Again, it was up to me to convince her otherwise.

Greg Norman, Colin Kaye and a young, slim R. Baker teed off at nine o’clock. Each was around twenty over par and I overheard Greg Norman — who rose to national prominence when he so clearly won his first major tournament, the Westlakes Classic, in Adelaide, last year — remark to his playing partners that he would have rather been at the tennis.

We followed this trio as far as the fourth hole, a par three, where we remained at the back of the green and watched the balls of following groups descend from the sky above the water hazard. A playful young dog was making a thorough nuisance of himself, that is, until he was caught and whisked away in a motorised golf buggy.

We returned to the area of the second green and third tee and watched more players pass through. With rain now falling, we moved to the practice tees and watched the left-hander, Bob Charles and a jocular Arnold Palmer hit some balls. Just as it appeared as though the rain was about to set in, it ceased and conditions cleared!

When I saw that Gordon ‘Showcase’ Boyd was headed in our direction I greeted him with: “Hello, Gordon”. He, however, did not present himself to be the amiable, jovial character that we had witnessed on television and appeared to be resentful of the fact that someone who did not know him on a personal basis should dare to utter such a greeting.

I literally retched at the sight that greeted me in a portable toilet. Surely, the depositor of what I witnessed must be living on borrowed time!

Jack Nicklaus teed off at noon. He bogeyed the first two holes and so we decided to wait for the final trio, namely the American, Don January, whose forty-eighth birthday falls due today, David Graham and Randall Vines. David Graham is thirty-one, but Tiki commented that he looked closer to forty. Randall was to have a disastrous outward nine and was to complete this final round with a seventy-eight.

The sunshine was decidedly warm by the conclusion of the first nine. The tall Texan, Don January, led David Graham by a stroke after the expatriate Australian had enjoyed a lead of two strokes, at one stage.

I went to put my arm around Tiki without looking and, instead, put it through that of a middle-aged gentleman. Don January carded a double bogey on the tenth after he had taken two to get out of a fairway bunker. David Graham, therefore, led by a stroke.

By mistake, we went to the twelfth green instead of the eleventh, however, it was worth the wait for Don’s ball came to rest at our feet, as we stood at the rear of the green. We must surely have been on television then and, again, on the eighteenth tee as we watched David Graham tee off on his way to winning the Australian Open, and a cheque to the value of thirty-six thousand dollars, by two strokes. Don January, New Zealander, John Lister and another American, Bruce Lietzke finished tied for second and each received thirteen thousand dollars.

We departed halfway along the eighteenth, in order to beat the crowd. I drove home by twenty-five to six to see if we were on the news, but we weren’t.

Australian Ken Warby has piloted his “Spirit of Australia” to a new world water speed record of four hundred and sixty-four kilometres per hour — the equivalent of two hundred and eighty-nine miles per hour — on Blowering Dam, near Tumut.

I washed the dishes as Tiki watched the conclusion to ‘The Horse In The Gray Flannel Suit’ on Channel Nine’s “Wonderful World of Disney”. Dean Jones and Diane Baker appear in principal roles. Tiki became really excited over the scenes which involved showjumping.

“Hawaii Five-O” followed before, at half past eight, the dial was turned to Channel Seven for the screening of “Perfect Friday”. A product of 1970, this film stars the Swiss actress, Ursula Andress and the Welsh actor, Stanley Baker. “In Like Flint”, a movie from 1967, is also on television tonight. It features James Coburn in the title role.

Our arms and noses are noticeably sunburnt.

 

It has been a pleasantly sunny day with a maximum temperature of twenty-two degrees Celsius. At 7.00 p.m., on Channel Seven’s edition of “Willesee”, Michael Willesee verbally attacked the prime minister, Malcolm Fraser, over the resignation of the treasurer, Phillip Lynch.

We left at a quarter past seven, with Tiki at the wheel as we headed to the Opera House. I had to yell harshly at her in order to get her to understand that she was left with no alternative but to double-park near the building.

I ran in to purchase four tickets to attend Kamahl’s concert on the fourteenth of December, at a cost of seven dollars and ninety cents each. Tickets for standing room were the only ones available for John Denver’s concert, which had just commenced. I emerged to find Tiki driving about in a circuitous fashion, so as to avoid the possibility of being booked.

Tiki continued to drive and we arrived home at ten minutes to nine. I managed to persuade her that we should not bother going for a walk tonight.

Western Australian, Craig Serjeant, has been appointed as the vice-captain of Australia’s team to play India, at cricket, in the First Test which begins next week. Craig is twenty-six years of age. His superior is Bob Simpson, who is fifteen years his senior.

Benita Collings and John Waters presented “Play School” on the ABC-TV’s Channel Two. John told the story of “The Three Billy-goats Gruff”. “Play School” was followed, at ten o’clock, by “Behind The News”, which was presented this morning by Desmond Murphy, in the absence of Barry Eaton who is in London.

Today’s programme centred upon Egypt’s historical mission of peace to Israel, led by the Egyptian President, Anwar Sadat. Other topics that were covered included the expansion that is being made to the Sydney Museum on the corner of College and William streets, and that of “Tango Duke”, a horse that is in its forty-third year, which means that he is the oldest thoroughbred, not only in Victoria but the remainder of Australia as well — and perhaps the world? Forty-two, in human terms is the equivalent of one hundred and sixty years.

We visited Tiki’s parents’ to observe their new circular laminated kitchen table and the green and white swivel chairs that accompany it. In “Willesee”, at seven o’clock, the voice of Prime Minister, Malcolm Fraser, was continually drowned out by hecklers, who support the Labor Party.

Following our baked dinner, I washed the dishes while the others watched a programme of the series, “Star Trek”, from a decade ago. For the first time I had ice-cream topped with Kahlua. “Mum” and “Dad” had consumed half a bottle of the liqueur in the past five days.

I left their house at twenty minutes to nine and walked and ran home by five past the hour, which meant that I could watch Channel Two and the last half an hour of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Revival”, which featured Little Richard, and The Coasters. The latter performed its hits, “Yakety Yak” and “Charlie Brown”.

It has been a fine day with a maximum temperature of twenty-three degrees Celsius. Tiki washed the dinner dishes and ironed two of my shirts before she told me, in no uncertain terms, of how little I have been doing to help her lately.

At seven o’clock, Paul Makin interviewed the actor, Lee Marvin, on “Willesee”. Lee is presently in Sydney. After “And Mother Makes Five” we departed on our walk. Upon our return, at ten to nine, we watched the film, “Hello Goodbye”, which bears the copyright of 1970. Introduced by Bill Collins, it stars the English actor, Michael “Some Mothers Do ‘Ave ‘Em” Crawford and the veteran German actor, Curt Jurgens.

 

Rain threatened as we drove to work. The day remained cold with the temperature reaching its zenith at just nineteen degrees Celsius. Tiki drove home, as I felt totally fatigued.

At half past five I watched the highlights from the first round of Colgate’s Champion of Champions tournament, which was played today at the Victoria Golf Club, in Melbourne. Bob Shearer, a Victorian, and the Queenslander, Mike Ferguson, share the lead at six under par.

At six o’clock it was time to watch the next edition of the American series, “Doc”, on Channel Seven. “Willesee” was followed by “Space 1999” and, an hour later, on Channel Two, the British comedy series, “The Liver Birds”.

Tiki is understandably somewhat irked by the fact that my compulsion to be a diarist is consuming more and more of my time. Therefore, in an attempt to, at least temporarily, assuage her, I combed her hair for a period of five minutes from nine o’clock.

My desire to scribe something diurnally began at the end of 1974 when I was handed a small, complimentary diary by a travel agent. At first, I wrote just one line per day. However, when I visited New Zealand for seven weeks in February and March of 1975 and met travellers in youth hostels who had kept detailed diaries for years I realised that I harboured the desire to follow suit.

A green substance called ‘Slime’, which comes in a light green plastic container and costs approximately one dollar and seventy-five cents, is a popular children’s plaything.

More and more refugees from Vietnam are continuing to arrive in Darwin, in all types of boats.

Tiki dried my hair and we left for work at a quarter to eight, just as it began to rain. Although the rain didn’t last for long, the sky remained overcast for the remainder of the day. During our return journey, Tiki told me that she will buy me a new golf bag, buggy and a brand-new set of clubs for my birthday next year. I’m thrilled!

I suggested that we go out for dinner and, therefore, Tiki looked through the yellow pages of the telephone directory and selected the restaurant, Cassidy’s Stagecoach, which is located upstairs and opposite Bob Pollard Discounts on the Kingsway, in Caringbah.

We sat in a corner beneath an old still that depicted the American Civil War and featured the actor, John Wayne. We were served by a woman dressed in tight blue jeans and a red top. The service was particularly slow, perhaps because we were drinking lemon squash, as opposed to wine.

Tiki ordered steak chasseur at a cost of four dollars and ninety-five cents and the woman recommended the Texan’s rib for me. It was twenty-five cents more than Tiki’s course and while it was tender, it was almost unbearably oily and all too obviously the source of too much cholesterol for me to enjoy.

A circular apple pie, that looked suspiciously as though it had been bought from a pie shop, was served with two scoops of ice-cream for dessert. A cup each of percolated coffee, accompanied by an after-dinner mint, resulted in a bill of fourteen dollars and seventy-five cents.

It was twenty past eight before we emerged. Tiki had set her mind on us walking to Cronulla from there and so she took a moment to change into what I term her “duck feet” flat-soled shoes. It was twenty minutes to ten when we returned to the car.

Tiki opted to retire to bed shortly after we arrived home, however, in order to write my diary, I remained up until five past eleven.

 

I woke Tiki at 2.55 a.m. because I felt unwell. After I had consumed a glass of water, which contained an effervescent, we partially watched Channel Nine’s ‘Late Late Movie’: “In Search Of Gregory”. Made in 1970, it stars the English actress, Julie Christie. We returned to bed by four o’clock, but still suffered from a restless sleep in what were humid conditions.

At half past eight I departed for Rockdale. Turning to the right at the town hall, I parked the car on the hill near to where I had done so in September on the day that I collected Tiki’s birthday present. As then, I boarded a train to take me into the city only this time I alighted at St. James Station.

I entered Diamond Traders’ showroom on the lower floor where I looked for a locket or pendant, preferably in the shape of a heart and in possession of a small diamond. Not wanting to spend in excess of a hundred dollars, I failed to see what I had hoped and headed off down Pitt Street to Manzo Park Lane, thence still farther on, to Prouds. I had seen an eighteen carat pendant with a nine carat chain in Manzo’s, which was priced at one hundred and two dollars. Nevertheless, I decided to return to Diamond Traders and this time visit its showroom upstairs before making a final decision.

However, nothing that the middle-aged lady showed me really appealed. It was for this reason that she directed me to the cabinets that were placed along a wall. There, I saw two pendants which matched the description of what I had sought. The only problem being neither was priced to fit within the limit of my budget.

The one of eighteen-carat gold, which came with a chain made from that of nine, was priced at one hundred and fourteen dollars. While the combination that consisted entirely of gold of eighteen carats, bore a price tag of one hundred and eighty-five dollars. Wanting what I considered to be the better of what I really couldn’t afford for Tiki, I wrote out a cheque for the latter amount.

Upon my entrance in to George Street, I was eager to remain in advance of an anti-uranium demonstration, in which people displayed yellow balloons while others blew on recorders. I entered the sport store, Mick Simmons, to price a set of thirteen superseded Jack Nicklaus golf clubs only to learn that it would have cost me three hundred and ninety-six dollars for the clubs alone!

I didn’t have to wait to board a train at Central and shared a compartment with a middle-aged woman who was obviously prepared to ignore the perceived possibility of being fined ten dollars for smoking. I stopped at the T.A.B. in Miranda and outlaid one dollar in the hope of securing the trifecta on this afternoon’s meeting in Sydney; opting for “Gold Planet”, “Little Ben” and “Star Dragon” to finish in that order.

As I pulled into our drive, at a quarter to one, I could not help but notice that our new awning had been installed above the window to our bedroom. Tiki said that the man had called at half past eleven.

We watched Will Rogers Jr. play his father in the film, “The Will Rogers’ Story”. Produced in 1952, it also stars Jane Wyman. I turned to Channel Two, at two, to watch its live telecast from the Victoria Golf Club, in Melbourne, of the Colgate Champion of Champions tournament.

At the end of today’s third round Bob Shearer and Jack Newton are tied in the lead at seven under par, two strokes in advance of the Americans Ray Floyd and John Benda. The round was played in the hot conditions as the mercury reached thirty-five degrees Celsius in Melbourne.

Whilst Tiki was asleep on the floor in front of the television, I sneaked her present in from beneath the seat of the ‘Galant’ and placed it in a pocket of my sports coat, which I have owned since 1969.

I called Tiki inside at half past four and we watched two of our three runners, in the race on which the trifecta was held, finish second and third. The favourite, “Little Ben”, was unplaced and the winner, “Lucky Launching”, started at the odds of sixty-six to one. The trifecta paid two thousand eight hundred and seventeen dollars.

We left on foot for the shop near the railway station to return four lemonade bottles and receive the deposit of twenty cents that had been paid on each. We had asked the plump girl who was serving us for two full bottles and noted that she had to subtract eighty cents from one dollar and twenty cents on a piece of paper to determine how much we owed.

At half past six the programme in Bob Raymond’s series, “Australian National Parks”, concentrated upon those in Western Australia. These included the amazing Geikie Gorge, which I visited in 1972 and Tiki, a year later.

“Brutus” rang at half past seven, to say that he will be departing for Melbourne on Wednesday. He plans to visit Susan and Roger while he is there. The conversation just dragged on and on and he informed me that if we wanted to know what he was doing, we should ring the only one of his siblings to whom he will be writing during his absence.

By this time I was becoming pretty bored with the whole thing, so I lowered the receiver and farted into it. Tiki, who was seated next to me, couldn’t believe her eyes. Nor her ears, when I proceeded to hold her responsible!

At five past eight we left to walk and jog through Gymea and Miranda. We returned by nine o’clock and Tiki  talked me into watching the picture, “Any Second Now”, on Channel Two. The English actor, Stewart Granger, plays the part of a baddie who is intent upon murdering his rich, amnestic wife. Lois Nettleton, Dana Wynter, who was born in Germany, Marion “Happy Days” Ross and Joseph Campanella are its other principal protagonists. We didn’t get to bed until half past eleven by which time I felt exhausted.

Although we awoke firstly at half past six, we returned to slumber until a quarter to eight. I tickled Tiki’s back until half past the hour. That was when I heard the paperboy’s whistle.

As I read our copy of “The Sun-Herald”, which cost twenty cents, I listened to Sydney’s 2GB. It plays a selection of music from the 1940s to the present, however, this range can’t be of appeal to the general public, as in the latest survey of ratings it is listed as the radio station with the least number of listeners.

We left at a quarter to eleven and Tiki drove to a shop on Willarong Road, in Caringbah, to return six empty bottles that had contained lemonade. As I had attempted to tell her earlier, three of the bottles weren’t acceptable because they were non-returnable.

Tiki purchased a copy of the “Woman’s Day” and drove out to Kurnell in what was then warm sunshine. At the fruit market on the corner near the entrance to Captain Cook’s Landing Place, we bought oranges, apples, cherries, celery, pumpkin, grapefruit etcetera to the sum of eight dollars and sixty-eight cents.

It was a quarter to twelve by the time we returned and five to one when I turned on Channel Two’s live coverage of the final round of the tournament, Colgate Champion of Champions, from the Victoria Club, in Melbourne. The prize money totalled one hundred and fifty thousand dollars of which the winner, Bob Shearer, received thirty thousand.

Bob’s total of seven under par, placed him a stroke in advance of the quartet comprised of Britain’s Maurice Bembridge, Jack Newton, and the Americans Curtis Strange and John Benda. John had chipped in from a bunker at the last to card an eagle. Jack Newton had enjoyed a lead of two strokes until the fourteenth, and at one stage on the inward nine Bob Shearer had been three strokes from the lead.

“Ask The Leyland Brothers”, at half past five, transports the viewer to the historic Richmond Bridge and the former penal colony at Port Arthur, both of which are located in southern Tasmania, as well as the lakes at Mount Gambier, in South Australia. An hour later, ‘Feather Farm’ on “The Wonderful World of Disney” is about the ostrich farming in the early 1900s, in Arizona, and stars a young, clean-cut Nick Nolte.

Still on Channel Nine, “Hawaii Five-O” is followed, at half past eight, by “The Mind Of Mr. Soames”. A product of 1969, the movie features Robert “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” Vaughn who plays the part of a medical wizard. The English actor, Terence Stamp, is cast as the man of thirty who has been in a coma since birth.

 

After breakfast, Tiki left for her parents’ house in order to spend the weekend with her “Mum” who has a broken ankle. Upon her departure I walked ‘Happy’ to the shop on the corner to buy a copy of ‘The Daily Telegraph’ at the cost of a dollar. The edition of a Saturday costs more than during the week. I continued to walk via the same route as yesterday and upon my return, watched the remainder of the Top 50 countdown on the A.B.C’s ‘rage’. The programme’s No.1 being No Doubt’s hit, ‘Don’t Speak’, on which Gwen Stefani provides the vocals.

This programme was followed by another, ‘Recovery’, hosted by Dylan Lewis, which is also on the A.B.C.  Dylan possesses pierced ears, as well as an earing through his left eyebrow. The show includes a someone who is referred to as “The Enforcer”. He is donned in a black outfit and possesses the job, it would seem, of keeping the peace on the programme by not only controlling guests but also Dylan. ‘Recovery’, must have proven to  be popular last year, as it has returned for another. It runs in opposition to Channel Ten’s ‘Video Hits’.

There are four races this afternoon with a hundred thousand dollars or more in stakes. The radio station, 2KY, has Ian Craig broadcasting the card from Sydney’s Warwick Farm Racecourse which is being held on a surface that has been affected by rain. Bryan Martin does likewise at Flemington, in Melbourne, where the card is being held on a course where the surface is rated as being a ‘good’ one.

Channel Nine is also covering the races in both states, with Ken Callander updating the odds prior to each event. The coverage via television has John Russell broadcasting those races from Flemington while Johnny Tapp does likewise at Warwick Farm.

‘Ten Eyewitness News’ screens on Channel Ten from five o’clock. This is read by Tracey Spicer, with Leith Mulligan delivering the segment on sport. ‘Bright Ideas-The Home Improvement Show’ follows at half past the hour, with its presenters being Renee Brack, Jane Blatchford and Mark Tonelli.

Gina Boon reads the ‘National Nine News’ from six o’clock. The coverage of sport is  provided by Peter Overton and includes Johnny Tapp’s cursory report on the racing at Warwick Farm. It is followed, at six thirty, by the return of the perennial ‘Hey Hey, It’s Saturday!’. This entertaining offering is presented by Daryl Somers and Jobeth Taylor. Its guests include the Canadian singer, songwriter and musician Bryan Adams who performed his hit, ‘Eighteen Till I Die’; a sumo wrestler, who was seated next to Red Symonds during the segment, ‘Red Faces’; a new group which Daryl said includes the son of the former Monkee, Mike Nesmith, as well as that of Donovan (Leitch ). The group, Nancy Boy, closed the show by performing ‘Deep Sleep Motel’. Midway through the  programme the British group, Boyzone, also performed. I followed it by watching ABC-TV’s Channel Two and an episode of the British series, ‘Heartbeat’. This particular offering bore the copyright of 1996. The series began in 1992 and remains popular. It is set in and around a fictional police station in rural Yorkshire, in  the 1960s, and centres upon its central character, P.C. Nick Rowan, played by Nick Berry. Berry also sings the series’ theme, ‘Heartbeat’, which was originally recorded by Buddy Holly, in 1958.

Yesterday, the Australian icon Arnott’s — known predominately for its production of biscuits — bowed to the pressure exerted by an extortionist and removed all of its products from the shelves of stores in New South Wales and Queensland. The move was in response to several prominent people, that included politicians, each being sent a package of the biscuit, Monte Carlo, that had been laced with a lethal pesticide. Yesterday, investors devalued  the company of one hundred and thirty years, by thirty-five million dollars as the price of a share dived by twenty-five cents.

The National Australia Bank has matched the unanticipated move by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia by reducing its standard variable lone for a home from 8.25% to 7.55%. Such rates have not been seen at this level since the late nineteen sixties.

Superstar, Michael Jackson wants to settle in Britain or Australia, according to his biographer of twenty-five years, J.Randy Taraborelli. Jackson became a father yesterday when his wife, Debbie Rowe, thirty-seven, gave birth to a son who weighed three kilograms at the Cedars Sinai Medical Center, in Los Angeles. Speaking after the birth, Jackson reportedly said that he doesn’t want his son to grow up to feel that he is in a “fish bowl”, as he did.

On Monday, Oasis’s Liam Gallagher cancelled his plans to wed Patsy Kensit, his girlfriend, reportedly citing that there had been too much intense scrutiny from the media. Four days later, his brother, Noel, also called off his wedding, to Meg Mathews — that had been scheduled to occur on Valentine’s Day — allegedly for this same reason.

Arnott’s Managing Director, Chris Roberts, has seen it fit to take out full-page advertisements in newspapers stating that the company is the” innocent victim ” in an attempt to have a prisoner freed from gaol. Governments in Queensland and New South Wales, are being targetted for allegedly having collaborated to imprison an innocent man. The threat was first made on the third on this month and states that contaminated biscuits will be placed on the shelves of stores after the seventeenth of this month. Mr Roberts states that “our aim is to complete the clearance of shelves by Monday, February 17″.

The Cadbury Guineas, for horses of the age of three, was held at Flemmington Racecourse this afternoon. It was won by the 10/9 favourite, Mouawad , trained by the Sydneysider, Clarry Connors and ridden by the New Zealand jockey, Grant Cooksley. It is the colt’s fifth win in its only six starts and adds $227,500 (and trophies to the value of $2000) to its earnings. It comfortably warded off the hitherto unbeaten O’Reilly, 13/4, — a ‘raider, from New Zealand, trained by D.J. O’Sullivan and ridden by Lance O”Sullivan — by two lengths. Tarnpir Lane (11/1), finished a neck away in third position. It is trained by C.I. Brown and was ridden by yet another New Zealander, in Greg Childs.

Arnott’s Limited revealed other woes yesterday as it revealed its interim net profit fell by seventy-five per cent since its last report. Its earnings after tax amounted to 8.5 million dollars down from 38.7 million, in the first half of 1995-1996 financial year. Yesterday shares in Arnott’s fell by 25 cents to $8.50. The American giant, Campbell Soup Company, owns seventy per cent of Arnott’s.

Meanwhile, shares involved in blue-chip companies on the New York Stock Exchange broke through the hitherto barrier of 7,000 points for the first time yesterday. This has reportedly raised fears in some quarters that the market might be advancing too rapidly. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher by 60.8 points to 7,022.44. The Federal Reserve, in the United States has expressed its concerns that equities there could become overvalued.

Meanwhile, here, the All Ordinaries closed the week lower by 13.8 points on 2,482.6, having earlier reached another record of 2,506.5. CRA fell by  31 cents to $18.78; BHP, 6.6 cents to $17.95; News Corp closed the week lower on $6.66, with a loss of 5 cents; CBA, 3 cents to $13.90; Westpac, 18 cents to $7.65 and ANZ by 7 cents to $.8.31. One Australian dollar is equal to approximately seventy-seven American cents.

The much lauded New Zealand pacer, Iraklis, is an easing favourite for tomorrow night’s A.G. Hunter Cup at the level of Group One. The race is to be run at the circuit, Mooney Valley, in Melbourne where it will start from a handicap of twenty metres, with the lone back-marker, Desperate Comment, off thirty metres. The trainer of the other fancied runner, The Suleiman, John Green, has been quoted as saying that the favourite will struggle to “run a place”. Iraklis started as the 1/4 favourite when it was defeated in the recent Victoria Cup.

Keith Williams, a developer of resorts, claimed a victory yesterday when the Federal Court gave him permission to commence dredging near the environmentally sensitive Hinchinbrook Island, which is situated near The Great Barrier Reef.

Mr  Williams’s company, Cardwell Properties, had fought legal battles over a period of four years against the Friends of Hinchinbrook Society, a group he has described as conservational “fanatics”. The approval is for the construction of a resort on forty-four hectares at Oyster Point on the mainland, opposite the island. It will be home to one thousand five hundred beds and a marina that is to have berths for two hundred and thirty-four craft. Hinchinbrook Island is one of the country’s best habitats for marine life. This includes the dugong and the sea turtle. Therefore, Mr Williams expects there to be another challenge vented against yesterday’s decision.

Antonio Castro Trujillo has been sentenced to forty thousand years in gaol after he was found to be guilty of having raped his three daughters 2,496 times, by a court in the Canary Islands. The court heard that he had begun to sexually abuse his daughters in 1979 when the eldest was twelve and the youngest, nine. In addition, he was ordered to pay each of his victims the equivalent of fifty thousand dollars.

Astronauts, Mark Lee and Steve Smith, have completed the first of four spacewalks in order to improve the quality of pictures sent back to Earth from the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. The pair left the shuttle, Discovery, as the spacecraft was above Australia, at a distance of five hundred and eighty kilometres. It is anticipated that the instalment of the latest infra-red camera will allow astronomers to peer deeper into the universe.

One of the world’s most renowned acrobats is expected to suffer from paralysis after he fell some eight metres during a performance in Richmond, Virginia. Wolfer Guerrero, who is twenty-eight years of age, injured his spine when he was performing with the Ringling Bros Barnum & Bailey Circus and is reportedly in a critical condition.

The daughter of President, Bill Clinton, Chelsea, at the age of seventeen, has been offered a place at America’s oldest and most famous university, Harvard. Should Chelsea accept the offer she would become the first child of the White House, in more than seventy years, to advance from high school to university during a president’s term.

Actress, Elizabeth Taylor, at the age of sixty-five, has told the interviewer, Barbara Walters, on television’s ABC, that, after having been married on eight occasions, she wants to concentrate on being the godmother to the newborn son of her friend, Michael Jackson. She said that Richard Burton, whom she married and divorced twice, and Mike Todd, who died in the crash of an aeroplane during their betrothal, were the two notable loves of her life.

A woman, who claims to be the illegitimate daughter of the actor and comedian, Bill Cosby, has been indicted to stand trial by a federal grand jury after she and an alleged accomplice allegedly conspired in an attempt to extort more than fifty million dollars from the entertainer.

The pair allegedly attempted to obtain the money from Cosby by threatening to reveal the claim to a newspaper. Cosby has allegedly admitted to having had an affair with the woman’s mother, but denies that he is the father. No evidence has been found that might link the scheme to the murder of Cosby’s son, Ennis, on the sixteenth of January.