Given that almost everyone seems to be taking, or about to take or have just taken annual leave, I thought I’d tell you about a trip my brother went on back in 1989.
My brother and my father took a trip to Europe and the Middle East, which included a sojourn to Egypt. Pete was dressed in all-pastel which, in the wake of the social phenomenon that was ‘Miami Vice’, was pretty much compulsory attire for all over 35 traveller types between the years 1985 to 1992. On the plane on the way back from Egypt, Pete was making the most of his complementary headphones, tuned into the classical station which he had fixed to a moderate volume. My brother used the time productively by staring out the window.
In the middle of the flight, with Pete still attuned to ‘Hooked on Classics’ or something else of equally dubious cultural value, he decided to try and speak to my brother. What didn’t occur to him was that there was no need to try and talk over the music in his headphones in order to communicate with him.
“CAM! DO YOU NEED TO GO TO THE TOILET??? YOU SHOULD TRY AND GO TO THE TOILET!!???!!?”
Needless to say, this war-like cry caught the attention of pretty much the entire flight, including the Captain who felt compelled to abandon the controls to come down and attempt to explain that there’s no need to try and speak over the noise in his head-phones.
However, to this day, whenever Pete is ‘wired for sound’ he shouts rather than speaks, which probably doesn’t matter too much out in the wilderness that is Tyabb. Strangely though, my brother has developed a fear of flying.