Wellington identity Chris Gollins popped in yesterday and was bearer of excellent news.
Motivated by Jacinda’s request to be kind he decided to visit well known Lower Hutt legal figure David Butler, to see how he’s coping now Te Papa have his collection of British Royalty memorabilia. Apparently they’re flat out collating it and planning its display.
Anyway, Chris reported that Butler was in good heart for as he said, he still has his Bradford Exchange collection and intends henceforth concentrating on building that up.
But more significant, Chris reported, the loss of the royalty stuff has given David a new lease of life. Inspired by Gerry Brownlee, David’s taken up pole-vaulting (Brownlee is a former Canterbury champion, obviously in his younger days, but still engages in it on Saturdays).
Anyway, David insisted on showing Chris his progress. At this learning stage he’s only using a 2-metre pole.
It was fairly impressive, Chris reported. David put a shoe on the ground and soared over it three times out of eight attempts.
Apparently his ambition is to go over a shoebox by Xmas.
A future Olympian? Who knows should he keep up this impressive progress.