General Chat

:-D :-D :-D

Ann, it does have an 'avoid motorways' option, but it's a very old sat-nav, and we believe it's suffering some sort of age-related problem, as it overrides itself and is determined to send my sister on to motorways :-S

We argue with it constantly....

Occasionally, it concedes it's two against one and goes into a prolonged sulky silence, during which time, we wonder where the hell we are.

It was useless when we went to Somerset during the floods.

We travelled on for a few more kilometres in silence, even the midget female in the GPS system appeared to have fallen asleep.

Absolutely not! She was merely planning a new tactic; this time the instructions were to turn left onto an unsealed road, and then turn left.

Again, this went for countless kilometres.

Meanwhile, as we passed each turn-off point, the distance to destination was increasing dramatically, as was our time of arrival.

We reached a point where we still had, according to Miss GPS, over 278 kilometres to travel and our time of arrival was estimated at 1430.

OH’s rehearsals that afternoon were due to start at 1400

Real time was 1045.

At this stage, I thought that I had better hold out an Olive Branch to my OH so I suggested that if she was late, or even made it for the rehearsal, she should just tell the choir that she had married a Richard Cranium.

“They already know that,” responded my OH

My Olive Branch had turned to Gorse!

If I were the praying kind, which I’m not, at that point I would have started praying.

At that point, if I were the praying kind, which I’m not, I would have thought that my prayers had been answered.

I never saw the Four Horsemen of the Necropolis hitch up to the front of the car, nor the Fiery Chariots form up on our flanks; nor was there a Tardis moment where we sped through the Universe, but as I looked at the GPS, suddenly, and with no deviation from the straight road we had travelled for so long, the distance to destination dropped to 170 kilometres and our time of arrival decreased to 1300 hrs.

And then, flashing on the GPS screen, despite the best efforts of the demented nymph inside, up flashed the picture 70 kilometres to the Albany Highway, the main road between Perth and Albany

But more beautiful than that, behold, the roadside signs reappeared.
These bore the message that, verily, we had been on the correct road at all times.

So, at about 1145, we cruised into Mt Barker, some fifty kilometres north of Albany where we purchased a couple of pies from the Bakery. After a long wait to be served we decided to eat the pies in Albany.

That is why we were sat outside the, locked, Catholic Church, in Albany, at 1245, enjoying a relaxed repast of meat pies.

We even had time to book into our Motel before OH was due at Rehearsals

Thank you, GPS, for making our day such an adventurous one.

And next time I will have a paper map :-P :-P

and are you on speaking terms yet :-D

With the GPS, no! :-|

Love it.

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Allan does your lady wife ever read these Threads :-D my sat nav is oh .I just put car radio on & ignore him ;-) :-D (he doesn't drive ) But being a Man well enough said :-|

Barbra, no I keep my threads well away from OH, although she does have access to my PC ;-) :-D :-D :-D

Hope you are both well .even though you are not speaking :-D best wishes to you from a Beautiful Sunny .Dumfries & Galloway . :-)

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Are we having a sequel?

Did OH's choir raise the roof? literally?

Did any of them need a lift home? ;-) ;-) ;-) :-D :-D

Ah! The sequel!

Would that be where OH and I spent a miserable evening in a dormitory style house due to a misunderstanding over a meal arrangement?

Only you could turn a miserable evening into an hysterically funny story for the rest of us Allan ;-) :-D :-D :-D

Get your writer's cap on! :-D

The story itself is simple although the Genesis is rather complex.

I think that the next time anyone mentions going to Albany I'm going AWOL

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Albany is a lovely place though :-)

Totally agree, Sylvia, which is why the last couple of trips have been so disappointing.

I would have loved to go to the ANZAC Dawn Service there, but all accommodation was fully booked:-(



The Meal

I must give some background to the next debacle that occurred last Saturday as it may help explain a few things.

Bunbury has a few Musical groups of various types, but for the moment I will concentrate on just three of them: these are

The Bunbury Young Voices, which is a choir for children up to about the age of 16 or 17

The Bunbury Men of Song, which is an all-male ensemble

The Bunbury Catholic Diocesan Liturgical Choir, which performs at Churches throughout The Catholic Diocese, which covers an extensive area.

There is a degree of interaction between the three groups, for example, some of the Liturgical choir are also in the Men of Song and/or have children in the Young Voices.

However, all three groups have the same Conductor/ Musical Director, whose immediate family is also involved with all three choirs.

Either by design or co-incidence, all three were performing at Albany last week-end. The children were doing a Musical Production of Aladdin on the Friday Night, The Men of Song were singing at the Albany Baptist Church on Saturday evening and the Liturgical Choir at the Albany Catholic Church at the Sunday Mass. Thus two choirs both had rehearsals on Saturday afternoon.

The Liturgical Choir were first, for about ninety minutes, followed by the Men of Song later in the afternoon. The Two venues are relatively close to each other.

Now before going to Albany there had been talk about the members of the Liturgical Choir getting together for a meal on the Saturday night, but no concrete proposals were made and as our journey started the idea seemed to have fizzled out.

So OH and myself talked about going to a local Indian Restaurant on the Saturday night.

On returning from rehearsals at about 4.00pm OH said that there was to be no meal as such but that we had been invited back to one of her Choir member’s place of temporary abode at the CWA cottages.

I reminded OH about OUR plan to go for an Indian.

OH implied that she had already accepted and that we could grab a Subway Sandwich. When questioned further, OH ‘thought’ that the others would be having nibbles and such like.

I suggested that if the others (and how many others?) were having nibbles it might seem stand-offish if we were to appear with a sandwich each. So off we trotted to the Supermarket to buy some dips, biscuits etc.

Next question; what time? Oh, about 5.00’ish

As it was already 5.00pm we decided to go to straight to the site.

5.15. No one home, so we decide to go for a short drive to the beach. By this time the wind had strengthened and it was getting dark, not to mention cold.

OH asked if I wanted a coffee at the local café. I said no…..big mistake!

uh oh


I think I know where this is heading :-D

........waiting in trepidation here.......

OH asked if I wanted a coffee at the local café. I said no…..big mistake!

Back to the cottage, still no one there. OH phones the member, who informed her that four of them were in the café we had so recently been sat outside, having a coffee! OH was told that the key for the unit was behind the rubbish bin and to let ourselves in, which we did.

The key had been ‘hidden’ as two further choir members were staying there who were at the later rehearsal and weren’t sure what time they would arrive.

We put our shopping in the kitchen, where we noticed two barbequed chickens and store-bought salads, together with several bread rolls

Being inquisitively nosey was also saw three bedrooms set up dormitory style with a double bed in one and three bunks in each of the other rooms.

About 15 minutes later, the four choir members from the café returned, followed a few minutes later by the other two male members who had been rehearsing with the Bunbury Men of Song.

Firstly, the saga of the cottage, or unit. It seems that as people associated with three groups had been in Albany since Wednesday plus some of the production people for the Aladdin show, they decided to hire the unit and as people from the Aladdin show returned to Bunbury, they would be replaced by other Choir members. This was very reminiscent of some of the lodging houses mentioned in George Orwell’s ‘Road to Wigan Pier’

By now there were eight of us in the unit, and I casually asked when the others would be turning up.

What others? This was it, and even then when three of them had had something to eat they were off to the actual performance at the Baptist Church.

Next thing there was a scurrying of activity in the kitchen as one of the chickens was carved and put on a serving plate, together with the salads. I did overhear one of the woman say ‘A, and her OH have bought their own food’

No we hadn’t, we’d bought things to share like a cheese platter four different dips and two large packets of crisps.

And I’m still waiting for the rest of the nibbles to turn up

OMG, didn't the floor have the decency to open up?