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SCMP Reporter

THERE was more concentrated zanyness on the streets of Hong Kong on Sunday than has probably ever been seen in this city before.

  More than 300 people entered the gnoK gnoH Scavenger Hunt. The challenge, as we mentioned on Saturday, was to perform 50 tasks in a nine-hour period.

  Here are three tasks from the list:   1. Be photographed in Hong Kong Park with a bride and groom.

  Newlyweds were surprised and delighted at the herds of gweilo who descended on the park and suddenly took an enormous interest in them.

  2. Collect the punchline of a joke, due to be told by a bartender at a branch of Dan Ryan's at 2.30 pm.

  Several people tried to cheat by phoning both branches of the restaurant at 2.29 pm and begging staff to hold the handset up to the bar. Bar staff, sticking to the rules, refused.

  3. Get a photograph of two team members with Vivian, a shop assistant at the Bossini shop in Metropolis Plaza, Sheung Shui.

  The organisers had gone to enormous trouble to make sure this particular young lady was on duty that day - although they did not tell her why. They thought she would be flattered by the attention.

  Disaster struck. Her boss transferred her to a different branch at the end of last week.

  The shop management were stunned to watch 70 groups of people trek to the shop, not far from the Chinese border, and search forlornly for her.

  Staff eventually called the police.

  Despite the occasional bits of friction, the Mobil Oil-sponsored event was a great success, raising tens of thousands of dollars for Friends of the Earth.

  The stunt was called the 176th Annual gnoK gnoH Scavenger Hunt, although it was really the first.

  One of the organisers, Peter Winn, said: ''We'll probably call next year's one the Second 176th Annual gnoK gnoH Scavenger Hunt.''   God blows nose  THE Dragonair TriStar that was struck by lightning on the way to Beijing had just been leased from Cathay Pacific a few weeks ago.

  That means the paint which was blasted off the aircraft's nose had literally just been applied.

  It must have been a bit unnerving for British negotiator Sir Robin McLaren, who doesn't need any more stress.

  We overheard the implications of the incident being discussed in the MTR:   ''Oh no. Even God's gone pro-China.''    Trading names  HONG Kong China is a property firm whose uncreative bosses were apparently so stumped for a name, that they used an address instead.

  We were reading through its results yesterday, in which it describes the shops and buildings it owns.

  These include a portion of what it describes as ''Chungking Mansion, Tsim Sha Tsui, Hong Kong, now known as World Trade Plaza''.

  Known by whom? Anybody heard anybody call it this? We haven't.

  Mind you, we've heard it called a lot of other things, the most common being ''rat-infested hell-hole'', but we guess that doesn't sound so good in an annual report.

   Leaked results  BARRY Lea of Hill Samuel, the private banking company, recently had a medical check-up. He was staring at the results yesterday with a frown on his face. The detailed examination of his urine sample, the paperwork said, showed that he was fit and well.

  So why was he annoyed?   ''I didn't provide such a specimen,'' he said. ''Now this is really taking the - er - Michael, or not as the case may be.''   You should be relieved, Barry. Or is that the wrong phrase to use?    Sign of the crime  DEREK Currie of Carlsberg Hong Kong was amazed to find this sign outside a house on the outskirts of Glasgow, Scotland.

  It's certainly brave of a chap called Robb to name his firm after himself.

  It could have been worse. He could have called it Robb Homes.

  Toby or not Toby  REMEMBER Chris Devonshire-Ellis and Toby Trustram Eve, two gentlemen who had an unseemly scrap through these columns last month?   Well, the time is approaching for their duel. Date: Sunday, September 19, at about 10.30 am, weather permitting. Sport: parachuting.

   Anyone who hasn't yet sponsored them should immediately send $100 to either them or us.

  The chaps will be heaved out of an aeroplane at a terrifyingly high altitude, over the Joint Services Parachute Centre, Borneo Lines, Sek Kong.

  Their instructor, Ron Fitzpatrick, has been considering the lads' chances of survival.

  ''It should be all over by lunchtime,'' he told them, ominously.

  Bird's eye view  THIS story came yesterday from Unisto executive Heiny Duerr, a big name in Hong Kong's Swiss community:   A foreign exchange trader walks into Ned Kelly's bar in Tsim Sha Tsui with a parrot sitting on his shoulder.

  Barman: Does he talk?   Parrot: I don't know. I've only had him since this morning.



Lack of assistant foils border raid