East London could only muster 3mm (rounded up to the nearest mm) which was hardly enough to settle dust, but according to municipal records, June with 34mm average over 93 years is the driest in the year, so at least we have that one behind us and can now hope for better things to come.

For the record, the Buffalo City city engineer's department waterworks branch recorded it like this: Chiselhurst 3mm (93-year average 34); Bridle Drift 4 (29); Berlin 2 (22); Umzoniana 2 (33).

Thank heavens for the lovely rain this week which didn't produce any runoff but at least gave gardens, lawns, bush and veld relief from their thirst.

The Chiels recorded 35mm in the garden, but I see the airport had 44, so round and about it must have been variable. Let's hope there's more on the way to give us a good start to spring - something that was missed last year.

East London, then, has had 368mm in total so far this year compared with the 93-year average for the first six months of 416mm.

I was asked by a reader to include some of the rain figures in other parts of the province and found them on the SA Weather Service website. (So these are for you, John!) They only include stations recording 1mm and more. Here are the main ones in our region plus a couple on the western side of the province for interest sake.

Aliwal North had 7mm, Barkly East 1, Cape St Francis 64, Elliot 3, Fort Beaufort 9, Grahamstown 11, Port Elizabeth 53, Port St Johns 3.

Latest data is also recorded on the site daily and on July 15/16 extremes included two places in the Eastern Cape. Jamestown recorded the lowest minimum temperature in the country of -7,4°C yesterday morning and Barkly East the lowest maximum of 11,5°C on Thursday.

The rainfall table for Chiselhurst over the past seven years now looks like this (note the clear trend of low figures for June):

SOME organisations do the most incredible surveys to find out what their customers want. Mind you, if you're in the toilet paper business I suppose your users have to be consulted. After all, they are the "end" users.

Anyway, this is what an American paper company discovered when it asked its customers questions:

l 7 out of 10 people with a master's degree or doctorate read in the loo.

l Only 5 in 10 matriculants read there.

l 5 in 10 fold their toilet tissue neatly while 1 in 3 wad it into a ball before using. (What the other 1½ people do is not revealed. Now don't let your mind get too fertile trying to work it out!)

l 1 in 10 steal rolls of toilet paper when staying in hotels.

Another agreement is with the roll over the top preference. Do you know why? I didn't until it was pointed out by someone in the family, that when you naturally fold it (oops, you've learned another preference) the smooth side is outside. It's softer on the you-know-what.

July 17, 1954: East London's main shopping centre, Oxford Street, is due for further improvement. Early next year Woolworths is to expand into Oxford Street with a modern single-storey £45,000 building which has been designed to take more storeys if necessary. To make room for this building, the familiar "landmark" which houses a camera shop and a jeweller (in Terminus Street), and Quicks, ABC Shoe Store, Majestic Hairdressers and Mikado Tea Room (in Oxford Street) will be demolished.

July 17, 1974: (picture) Judy West, a 21-year-old East London art student, won the title of Mannequin of the Year at the Expo exhibition in East London at the weekend and will fly to London soon - her prize. With her are the two runners-up, Barbara Elson and Karen Kieck. Miss Elson wins a boat trip to Durban and Miss Kieck a boat trip to Cape Town.