I got locked in the loo in Taupo. I locked myself in the loo in Taupo – well, everyone locks themselves in the loo. (Except my husband who says he never locks the door in the loo.) Uugh! This blog is not easy to start…How about – I couldn’t unlock the door in the loo in Taupo. And this happened simply because I didn’t follow a simple instruction – which was – Do not bring a present to John’s 90th birthday party. And, in my wisdom, I decided we should take a special cake of dark chocolate because a birthday requires presents.
Pete was having a coffee in a lovely café and I spotted an adjoining gift shop so popped through the door to see if they sold choccy. Then I saw the sign for the toilets and decided to pay a visit there first. Off I went – past the gift counter, past the café kitchen, through the door, along a dim hallway and down some steps into the darkness of the old building – and into the loo. Clean, bright but no windows or gaps in the wall or around the door and no sounds from others peeing into porcelain. This is important. Hands washed and dried and I reached out to unlock the door. Nothing happened. The knob wouldn’t budge. It was one of those old fittings that was screwed in from my side and the little thing with vacant/engaged had no access for a screw driver on the outside of my door. Several tries and nothing moved. I couldn’t hear any sounds so every now and then I would knock on the solid wooden door and call out. Eventually I heard a very faint “are you alright?”. And that person heard, ever so faintly, “No. I’m locked in here.” With an offer to get help I was alone again. Locked in. No window, no gaps, not even room for a screw driver to be passed under the door. All because I ignored the ‘no gift’ instruction.
Eventually I heard lots of scratching and scraping; we did lots of trying and finally I was free. My rescuers told me to see the lady in the gift shop and she would give me something for my inconvenience. I refused but they all insisted (I don’t know who was serving because there were about five people trying to unlock my door). Any way – I left the store with a beautifully wrapped block of fancy dark chocolate as an apology for the problem I had. And the staff were all lovely, the gift shop beautiful and my husband enjoyed his coffee – oblivious to my situation.
So, why am I writing about this in a bowling blog! Easy. If you follow simple, basic instructions you can keep out of trouble. If you take your line, take a breath, take a step and bowl – generally things work out right. Or as near as damn it, it will work out right. If you fart arse around and chat about stuff instead of focusing – you are more than likely to have a problem.
Line, breath, step, bowl. It’s simple – just like ‘no gifts, please’ is simple.
I wished I’d listened.
