Reporting from The Chateau d'Taffrail

We've just gotten home from the Leeming SHS Solar Car Challenge Quiz Night, we being Sally and Warren, their friends Deb and Peter, and Tony, and I, and in a bit of a surprise result, we came third, thus scoring a fist full of prizes, including a bottle of champagne, a castrol Cap, a Freddo, a free pizza and a coffee voucher, not a bad haul for a night's brain strain. As always I felt annoyed with myself for getting some easy questions wrong, like saying the Mayflower sailed in 1642 instead of 1620, and not backing my hunches such as writing William Halley as the discoveror of the famous comet instead of Edmund, a name I suggested but didn't back in!
We did get some difficult and obscure questions right, and of course there were a few we had no idea of and took wild guesses, for instance, who knew that Elvis Presley's backing band were called The Jordanaires and not the "Hip swivelling, body hugging, knee jerk comatose cowboys"? REALLY!
As usual there were little things about the way it was run that bugged me, like having spinning wheel prize draws, costing a dollar a shot between every round, admittedly a money spinner (pardon the pun) but intrusive after a while, and more frustratingly, having a break that stretched for 50 minutes between rounds 4 and 5!!! Sorry for being critical, overall the questions were good, the tone of the night was good, the company was good and we came away with prizes, can't really complain!

I had a great day, getting out to Armadale and a few other places this morning to set up some stuff for the camp, then picking up Phil and meeting Hugh for lunch (The Breakfast Club!) at a cafe in Mt Lawley, I had the prawns, which were tasty but not very filling, Phil generously shared some of his chicken and bacon panini with me which compensated.
He spoke arabic to the Iranian proprietor of the ice cream parlour when I bought dessert. Hugh had the inspiration to buy a lotto ticket for the first time in his life, with the three of us to share the proceeds. Don't know what we'll do about Broadie if we win!! His non-attendance prompted the first ever official motion in the 13 year history of the Breakfast Club, that being, that his membership of the Breakfast Club be down-graded from full to provisional status based on his irregular attendance and apparent lack of committment to the club! We'll see whether that sparks a revival of interest, or precipitates his complete withdrawal from our august organisation!!

Hugh took off to go to a wedding and Phil and I made the mistake of going to see the movie, "Borat"! My advice to anyone considering seeing this film is simple, don't ! It is offensive at innumerable levels, carries a .9 cringe factor, and is guaranteed to make you squirm in discomfort. There are 2-3 funny moments, but these are completely out-numbered by the stream of tasteless, anti-semitic, misogynistic, crude and unpleasant jokes and swipes at people hoodwinked into thinking he was a serious journalist from Khazakstan. The premise is funny, a few of the segmets are amusing, but in the main it's a movie with very few redeeming features and will not leave you feeling good.

Things improved again when we went back to Phils, chatted with Julie and the kids for a little while, surveyed the results of Phil's latest handiwork'; landscaping their backyard, and then descending into his basement shed where he proceeded to demonstrate how to make a picture frame. He made it look easy, it probably had something to do with the high quality (read expensive) tools he has at his disposal, and the fact he's very clever with his hands and most things practical. (Don't worry Birchy, you're still number 1!!!)

After the demo it was back to Sal's to get ready for the quiz night, and that's pretty much where I started this tale.

Yesterday's briefings at Carine went well, the staff seemed happy with their roles and what to expect, and the kids laughed in the right places, listened attentively and asked intelligent questions, and it didn't go more than an hour.
The only disappointment from yesterday was not getting to see my brother Bruce as planned, I couldn't reach him at home or on the mobile, so I ended up doing a little more camp reconnaisance in the city before heading round to Sally's place for the night.
I managed to get hold of him tonight and am going over to see him in the morning. I'll head home to Busso after lunch. Tomorrow night I'm speaking at a memorial service being held by the Busselton Hospice so I've got some prep to do for that.