Outing Wednesday. 25th Jan 06

Ever the optimist, Bob is always convinced that we will have a fine day for our outing and though the sky looked very overcast when we set off, we did not see any rain for the rest of the trip -. right again Bob.
Our first stop was the House of Frogs, a fascinating collection of over 22,000 frogs from minute to enormous. This collection has taken 18 years to accumulate and I am sure it would earn a place in the Guinness Book of Records.
The owner was kind enough to invite us to have our morning tea on his back veranda, most enjoyable and appreciated.
Off we set again, through a huge scattered industrial complex combined with plenty of bush surrounds, at the head of the Brisbane river, along roads, which I am sure none of us had travelled before. Our aim, to get a glimpse of the hugh aircraft carrier lying in dock. It would have been wonderful to get a closer view, but even Dorothy could not sweet-talk the security guards in letting the coach through, and it was a very long walk otherwise. however, we tried.
We set off once more to Wynnum, a very picturesque spot on the water, and all enjoyed lunch at the huge Pelican's Nest, a "special" put on for us, excellent fish and chips for $5 with quick and efficient service. It was so pleasant enjoying lunch with a cool sea breeze, nobody wanted to move.
Bob then drove us around the nearby suburbs and we saw some lovely hold homes and a hugh Moreton bay fig tree that looked to be hundreds of years old.
We than headed for home with our usual ice cream stop at the big service station and arrived back about 4.30 pm. Another wonderful day with the most informative, efficient and safe driver on the coast.    Report by Doris

 

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                                                                    Outing Friday night. 27th Jan 06

 

Was the horse the funniest part of the evening but the show was dead when from a full house 35 walked out
About 20 Probus members attended Alan Ayckbourn's play, 'Ten Times Table' at GC Little Theatre on Friday night.

From a rather slow beginning showing members of committee intent on producing an historical pageant about a massacre of farm labourers by militia under the leadership of a Duke it became evident that the different characters, personal problems and political viewpoints were all going to explode in the future.

The alcoholic Lawrence producing some fancy footwork with a chair, a cleaning lady appearing in full regalia at various intervals, carpet-laying noises heard off stage and someone in the building turning off all the lights at inopportune moments in an effort to save power - all help to provide a chaotic background for the four committee meetings.  As the Marxist faction led by ladies' man, Eric gains the upper hand with recruiting players for the farm labourers and the crowd, all with costumes, the chairman's wife, snobbish Helen finds herself unable to find players for the militia or their uniforms.  Tim, a Marxist hating, ex-army man is recruited.  He is even more paranoiac than Eric in his beliefs.  The final chaotic scene complete with gunshot fire, the wounding of Eric and concussion of Tim is played out to the sounds of police car sirens in the background.  The utter dishevelment of Helen and collapse of Lawrence playing the Duke as his stage horse disintegrates is accompanied by the sweet sound of piano playing provided by the very elderly, very deaf committee member, Audrey who finds she has missed seeing the whole pageant!

Probus members in the audience must be feeling very thankful that they have such an orderly committee at Parkwood Probus.  I do not think there are any plans to produce a pageant in the future.

 

Report by   Brenda

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