Last weekend, Bruce was invited to attend a work and pleasure seminar with his workmates for three days located around an hour and a half from Vadodara in a small Indian village on a mango plantation.
The morning started early at 5:30am with him having to meet at a central location to be transported by bus to a location where an old volcano once heralded over the western part of India. Just to clarify, the volcano is now non active.... the terrane was dangerous but they climbed a steep escarpment of loose rocks and dirt for hours until they reached the pinnacle of where they decided to cease any further incline. He said the views were amazing of the raw surrounding landscape and he felt very fortunate that he had been included to partake in this adventure with his new workmates, even if he was one of the oldest on the trek and his poor old body was feeling a bit on the sore side. On their decline of the volcano, the gradient was so steep that they decided to all just slide down on their behinds over the treacherous terrane of dirt and rocks. One of the men was a well practiced ice skater and he was the sole hiker who managed to negotiate down the mountain upright. Bruce said the man was very graceful and successfully descended the whole way by using a skating like technique requiring good balance.
Once down on safe flat ground, the bus transported them to their guest house which was to be their home for the following two nights. The guest house was an old palace type construction with separate large guest rooms with padlocks to secure the doors of the rooms. There were communal areas with lavish seats where business dealings would have been done in bygone eras.
The night schedule was to include a BBQ, campfire and yet another hike. This time the hike did not include such dangerous conditions but still they hiked for hours along secluded narrow tracks. Bruce was a little skeptical of the food being served at the BBQ and didn't wish to risk becoming sick so he relied on the bread component of the meal and a few deep fried offerings to satisfy his grumbling tummy.
The campfire was a bit of a highlight and fear was thrown at everyone as the main organiser insisted everyone contribute to some entertainment for the night around the fire. Some of the men told jokes, some sang songs, dance was involved also....Bruce is not one for making a show of himself so he quickly went about thinking of something he could do. I was totally shocked and yet overly proud of him when he told me of what he came up with. He was the only Aussie there and quite possibly some of the men had not encountered many Aussies in their day....so he thought 'I've got to do something relating to home'.....
When he was called to the spotlight, he told his new found friends that he was from Australia and in Australia we have gumtrees, sometimes there are lots of plum trees, a sheep or two and a kangaroo, a clothesline out the back, a verandah out the front and an old rocking chair. He did some appropriate actions to what he was telling them. He then got them to all stand up and do the actions to the words he spoke. Once satisfied, Bruce broke into song and sang the Johnny Williamson iconic classic 'Home among the Gumtrees' with thirty or so Indians doing the actions. He said it went down a treat.....I was so proud of him. It's funny how you can pull a rabbit out the hat when you have to!
Lol good on YOU Bruce! What a funny sight it must have been having you involve the Indian men in such an iconic Aussie song! Very brave, very resourceful, very entertaining. I doubt that I would have been able to think & perform under pressure like that. Love it! 😃
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MERRYN
2/3/2015 11:31:48 pm
Peg....I was so proud of Bruce when he told me what he had done. It was not in his character to ordinarily do this so I was impressed and entertained upon learning this too. Xx