Saturday, September 4, 2010

Broken telephone



Have  you  ever  played  the  game  broken  telephone.......  when  you  have  a  group of  people,  you  whisper  something  into  the ear  of  the  person next  to  you  and  then  see  what  it  comes  out  as when  it  has been  passed  on  to  a  few  people........  well  I  have  first  hand  knowledge  of  this  game,  so  much  so  that  it took  about  5  years  off  my  life , ............
Last  Saturday  I  was  working  in the  garden, when  I  heard  the  land  line  ringing,  I  "ran'  inside  and  the  phone of  course  stopped  just  as  I  picked  it  up,  I  mean  really  why  wouldn't  it..... why does  this  always  happen,  it  is  like  someone  is  watching  you and  knows  exactly  when  to  put  the  phone  down..........  I  checked  my  cell phone,  and  there  was  5  missed  calls from  my  eldest  daughter  Kira ..........  Just  then  my  friend  Veronica  phoned, she ..................  and  so  the  fun  began........
Kayla  wanted  to  talk  to  me,   was  spending  the  weekend  at  Veronica,  and  this  is  the  conversation  that    I  got.........."Can  I  please  phone  the  fire  brigade  the  house  at  the  farm  is  on  fire,  Kira  has been  trying   to  get  hold  of  me,    but  couldn't  so she  phoned me  thinking  we  were  together"    Well  I  was  out  of  the  house  like  greased  lightning.............  As  I  was  phoning  the  emergency  services,  I  was  heading  towards  the  fire  station ,   I  live  if  Africa......  and  often  you  get  people  who  answer  the  phone  at the  fire station,  police  station,  home  affairs  office  who  are  "English  or  Afrikaans  Challenged".....   As  luck  would  have  it  for  once  I  got  through  first  time,  told  the  radio  operator that  it  was  emergency,  they  assured  me  they  would  sent  a  fire truck  straight  away........  so  with emergency  lights  flashing.......  hooter  hooting...............  I  raced  towards   the  farm...........   from  the  distance  I  could  see the  black  smoke,  and  my  heart  just  sank....................

Well  as  I  rounded  the  corner   I  could  immediately  see the  house  was  not  on   fire,  the  flames  were  off to  the  side  close  to  the  stables.... only  the  grass  next  to  the  stables,  and  also  a  pile  of  tyres  that  someone  has  put  against  the  fence were  on  fire,  at  the same  time  two  fire engines  came  speeding  up  the  drive  way.....................  to  put  out  a  grass  fire........................  boy  was  my  face  red......well  they helped  to  put  put the  fire,  and  laughed  at  all  the  drama...............  probably  laughing  because  now they  could  send  me  a  bill.............


What  Kira  had  actually  said  to  Kayla  was.....  "There  is  a  fire  I am  to lazy  to  walk  back  to the  house to get  the emergency  number do  you  have  it"  and  Kayla  changed  that  to  the  house  was  on  fire...........  well for  the  next  3  hours  I  had  everyone  I  knew  phoning  to  ask  about  the  fire.....  Kayla  had  phoned  everyone  to  try  and  get  the  number..............  now  we  have  put  it  in  our  phones............ we  have  learnt  the  lesson....   The  South  African  999  is 10111  unfortunately the  number   is  never  answered.................   so  you  have  to  phone  the  station  direct..........
Kira  and  I  spent  the  rest  of the  afternnoon,  puting  out  all the  smoking   "horse dungs"  just  in case  a  wind  came  up  and  flamed  the  grass  into  flames  again................
We  can  laugh  about  it  now............  but  believe  me  it  was  not  funny  at the  time..............

2 comments:

  1. Oh my.... That is some experience.... It must not have been funny then.. i agree Karen... but some experience...

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  2. Well, it could have been worse if the fire had spread right? It could have caught the barn on fire, right? So I think it was a good idea that the fire dept. came and helped, but so sorry you'll have to get a bill..atleast everyone, and every thing is OK! It's a holiday weekend here so I'm wishing you a happy Labor Day even though you probably don't have a day off...no I'm not gloating! Just have a great and safe week!

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