The road to Newcastle

I drove into the petrol station the other day and noticed four old guys hovering around the back of their car trying to work out how the bowser worked. It didn’t help them that they had driven in on the wrongs side of the bowsers and had to eventually pull the gas-gun and pipe over the back of their car.

What also caught my eye was that they had identical polo shirts, except two were blue and the other pair bright red, the shirts had similar patches on the left breast. I couldn’t see what was on the patches from where I was but the group intrigued me.

Eventually my tank was full so went to the shop to pay the $52 bill. I took a $2 coin out of my pocket and a $50 note from my wallet as I was entering.

I am a twice-weekly customer and being a talkative idiot the staff in the station knew me. I handed over the money and was distracted by these guys in their identical shirts talking to the other assistant in the shop who noticed me looking at them and came over. He asked if there was another way to Newcastle without going through Windsor and the City. By this time the guy behind the counter had handed me the $2 coin back! I turned to him and said, “No the bowser said $52!” He looked at me quizzically and gave me my receipt. Meanwhile the old guys were talking about the route they should be taking. So with arms swinging and pointing I explained that instead of leaving the service station and turning left towards the City they should go along the road I was pointing to. Which would give them the scenic route they were looking for and take them via the Putty Road, Singleton and then to Newcastle.

Outside I said to them that I had a Gregory (map book) in the car. I showed them the front inside cover showing the area the maps in the book cover and pointing said, “This is where we are and you need to go this way!” I then opened the book to the page where the larger scale map was and pointed to where we were and the direction they had to take to get to the Putty Road.

Meanwhile, while this conversation was going on, the service station attendant had come out and was waving a $50 note at me saying, “You paid too much! As you are my friend I will give it back!” and handed the note to the Mrs in the passenger seat. Quick thought went through the scone saying that there must have been two notes stuck together, ok that’s cool. I thanked the guy!

More confusion with the oldies so I handed them the Gregory 2003 edition, told them it’s an old one and they could keep it so they could follow the maps to the Putty Road and then it would be useless but it would at least get them on their way and in the right direction.

One of the oldies thanked me and said, “Next time you are in Czechoslovakia maybe we can help you.”

Ah, so that was what was on the patches! I didn’t have time to ask about what they were about so left it at that.

Next time I go for petrol I will shake the assistants hand and thank him once again for being so honest.

By the way, he wore a turban and his heritage was the Indian Sub-continent.

Coincidence

All week I have been listening to BBC Radio 4 & 7. On R4 the “Book at Bedtime” has been the Eoin Colfer’s sequel to Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series, “and Another Thing…”

I rarely watch TV but occasionally I pass through the sitting room where my wife does her knitting and has the box talking to her. On the screen was a face I recognised (I do this quite often) and said that she was in “Smack the Donkey” and other British comedy shows. But what was her name? My wife is not good with names, or faces come to that and only recognises me if I speak to her in passing! So I sat back down at the computer, checked out the TV guide for tonight, found out that the program was called “Heart and Soul” and that the actress I was looking for was Sarah Alexander. After a Wikipedia search on her name I found out that I was correct and that she had been part of the team in “Smack the Donkey”. I used to catch this show a few times late at night quite a number of years ago. It was an odd show but I enjoyed seeing a basically all-female cast being hilariously funny and it starred the quirky Sally Phillips who I think is fantastic.

Ok, I put all the information into the space between my ears and settled down to listen to more BBC radio programs broadcast on the net over the past 24 hours. After “Gardener’s Question Time” I clicked on the last one I was going to listen to tonight “and Another Thing…”

Usually when a program ends and I have others lined up I click on one of these and it usually interrupts the credits and other announcements at the end. Because this was the last program for the night and I was in the middle of a game of Solitaire, I was a bit late in killing the page to stop the broadcast so I endured the ending credits for “and Another Thing…”. To my utter astonishment I was sure I heard “Read by Stephen Mangan, with Peter Serafinowicz.”

I called up the Radio 4 “Book at Bedtime” page again and then the Wiki page and there it was – Peter Serafinowicz is married to Sarah Alexander!

How odd!

Living with preservatives – Part 1

A few months ago I was chatting and joking with the girls in my favourite shop in the mall. One of the girls was pregnant and didn’t have really much longer to go maybe a month or six weeks.

I brought up the subject of junk food and talking directly to the non-pregnant girl I said, “What happens to the processed food you buy in the supermarkets? It rarely moves off the shelves very fast so it must have preservatives in the recipe to keep it edible! So, if that is all you eat then the preservatives will concentrate in the body and what happens when you are totally loaded with these chemicals? You become a mummy!”

Seriously though when you cook or bake your own food you soon realise that what you have prepared has a lot shorter shelf life than store bought processed food. In fact by the time you have bought a packet of biscuits they have been on the shelf at least a week, never mind the time it has taken since processed at the factory, sent out from the manufacturer’s depot to the supermarket depot and then to the backroom of the supermarket. Try baking the same biscuits without preservatives and see how long they last in your cupboard.

Now which do you think is the healthiest for you and your family?

Yesterday with the girls

The doelings arrive

 

The wind gusted and they all came running into the pen only to find me waiting with my camera. From the left Diamond, Sunshine and Dolores with Daphne trying to look for what spooked them.

It’s tiring being a young buck

Young Dennis having a nap on my arm

Hello world!

Let’s see how much trouble I can get into with this blog !

Communicating with the Earth