Categories: uncategorized
Date: 25 July 2004 21:38:14
You wouldn't believe it! Though on second thoughts, perhaps you would.
The concert was fantastic last night - the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra playing open-air at Osborne House, complete with the most breathtaking display of fireworks. The grounds were absolutely packed. People started arriving two hours before the concert, although we left it until about 45 minutes before which meant we actually got a parking place slightly nearer the exit and far easier to find than amongst the melee of cars. People learning from previous years had marked their cars to make them easier to find by tying a Safeway carrier bag on the aerial. Yes, all of them seemed to have chosen this method of easy identification.
As M was fully occupied at the County Show, I volunteered to do the picnic and accessories. I put together a fantastic spread which even I was delighted with -a variety of sandwiches, salads, fruit, drinks, nibbles, cakes, biscuits.... - and loaded the fold-up chairs into the car, along with a picnic blanket, some warm clothes and a blanket to wrap round us once the sun went down. We drove to the site and carried all our bits and pieces down to the gardens where the concert was to take place. We set up camp in the midst of the elite of the Island who were supping champagne from elegant crystal glasses and eating the most elaborate and delicious-looking meals from mountainous china plates. I opened the picnic bag and.....
....... discovered that I had omitted actually to put the picnic in the bag. It was all still sitting on the kitchen table. Apart, that is, from a packet of cheese straws, a tray of dips, and a tomato! Fortunately I'd packed the flask, so we were able to drown our sorrows in coffee as we sat dipping our cheese straws in the thousand island dressing and nibbling them slowly to make them last!
Fortunately M had come to the rescue. One large bar of Cadbury's Fruit and Nut later, and the two of us didn't feel QUITE so bad.