Quirky Events List 1



There's ping pong or table tennis and then there's Penguin Ping Pong Air Hockey. This is a game that one of my nephews invented last night. I'd played a similar game throughout the year, but without the penguins! Anyway, the game called forth a degree of riotous, asthma-inducing fun. Superb physiotherapy after an end of year cold. I doubt we've seen the last of it, as a number of us (people in my family) are prone to, shall we say, probing the potential and limitations of an idea.

Over the years, I've been involved in a range of quirky or unorthodox happenings and the time seems right to start compiling notes on some of these. The process is writing lists. I anticipate a certain resonance with these lists as they won't involve doing anything of a practical or organisational nature. 

So, here goes:

Quirky Stuff - List 1

1. When I was a teenager, I once walked into a 'wrong way go back sign'. 

2. I was famous at my secondary school for falling off a stage after playing the harpsichord at a lunchtime concert. As house tennis captain, I asked one of my young players why she hadn't come to a practice and she said, "because I was at that concert where you fell of the stage." Good to be recognised. 

3. As a pretty ordinary trumpet player, I once accidentally slid off a stage after playing The Entertainer and, years later, slid onto a stage trying to blast a fanfare as part of a skit for a church concert. There is nothing like lying on the ground in the middle of a stage to gain a different perspective to members of the cast and audience. I remember hearing my trumpet 'ding' on something during the aforementioned sliding off the stage incident. 

4. In primary school, I showed up to a band concert and was amazed when I realised that my trumpet case was empty. Nice work Mum, delivering the actual instrument in a timely manner. 

5. When living in Samoa, I ended up playing in the final of a tennis tournament by standing around in the vicinity of some courts with racquet in hand. My doubles partner and I lost narrowly. That was the first time I'd encountered sudden death in tennis. Brutal.

6. My family and I once played tennis at Noosa in heavy, or rather deluging, rain. Pointless to some extent as the balls didn't bounce, but perhaps this was a precursor of the Penguin Ping Pong Scenario from last night. Luckily for us, another family from our home town drove past and saw everything. This meant that our wider circle back home were able to be reliably informed of the events that took place. Seamless comms even back in the pre-universal internet days. 

7. Dad had a radical idea to hire a kayak at Noosaville years ago. He glided unexpectedly and triumphantly around the jetty, just prior to rolling over and into the water. Great preparation for the time when, at a headmaster's conference, he did a complete backwards somersault at breakfast then miraculously held his full glass of orange juice in the air taking in sincere admiration from family and colleagues. 

I've no doubt there's more to come, but that's for another day.

Happy ponderings.

Ruth

 


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