BIRD'S-EYE VIEW
Page 36
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AFORM of torture new to me is being promoted by Honda. It is the International Ride and Tie Competition in which teams, each of two people and a horse, try to complete an exacting course in the fastest time.
One person sets off on horseback and the other on foot. They must change places a certain minimum number of times, either by tying the horse to a tree while the footslogger catches up or on the move if one overtakes the other.
A rider who overtakes the horse may find solace in a lift in one of the fourwheel-drive Hondas that the organisers use.
HwE WOULD be a brave man ho played the jazz classic, The Joint is Jumping, within the hearing of the builders of the Leatherhead -Reigate section of M25. Three postponements of the completion date are likely to cost them dear. It seems that the expansion joints are not up to scratch and up to 9,000 have to be replaced
before October 7.
But they are not the only joints to cause distress. A reader of The Daily Telegraph complains of a slippery jointing material used on generalpurpose roads which can cause a cycle or motorcycle rider to skid.
With the removal of tramlines and steel-edged current collector slots he thought he had weathered the skid hazard, but he concludes resignedly, "It just shows that you can't win".
ANY male chauvinist who turns up to take the driving test with the Institute of Advanced Motorists' recently recruited examiner in West London will soon have his hubris dented. His assessor, Maureen Cooper, a former Metropolitan police officer with extensive experience of traffic control, holds the prestigious police Class 1 driving certificate and should know just how to shrink a big head as well as feel a collar.
In any event, women match men's success rate of 75 per cent in the advanced test.
ALTHOUGH about 24 pairs of little terns that nested on the site of Felixstowe's £47m Trinity container terminal halted work on part of it, the
first phase will still be opened on schedule early next year. Several hectares were roped off as a sanctuary until the young birds were reared.
The little tern is one of five species ()I tern seen in Britain in summer, notably in East Anglia, and is one of the rarest sea birds to breed regularly in the UK, 'Mere are thought to be only some 2,200 pairs all told, hence the solioitude for them at Felixstowe.
THE NEXT time you wonder where to get a bite to eat while you are waiting for the AA/BRS Rescut to get your broken-down lorry back on the road, help may be at hand. Never one to miss a marketing opportunity, the motoring organisation could consider using its recovery service mechanics to promote Egon
Ronay guides.
Why? The AA has just acquired the gourmet's famous guides to restaurants. Publications include Just A Bite and for drivers whose unscheduled stops are longer than they feared, Hotels, Restaurants and Inns and Pub Food and Accommodation.
THAT MODEL of industrial cooperation and self-help, the National Freight Consortium, is the principal sponsor of, among other things, a competition to discover the best new co-operative business in the London borough of Camden. The council, with the help of large firms, ha a policy of encouraging the formation o such enterprises.
Among 50 already set up is a joke shop. Is this the one better known as County Hall?