I have many lovely memories of chats with John about gardening, lovely long lunches with John and Daphne, but my favourites are remembering Johns sense of humour. I always found he enjoyed telling and being told a joke and greatly enjoyed the humorous side of a tale. The following tale in particular still brings a big smile to my face and a giggle to my heart for both of them.
It was many years ago and I had been in hospital in Perth following an operation. John and Daphne brought me home to their place to recover for a couple of weeks and cared for me till I was well enough to travel back down to Margaret River. As I got stronger I looked forward each afternoon to drink o'clock when the home made crunchy chilli nuts and either a bottle of bubbles or a gin and tonic would appear. In those days John was brewing his own beer, so he was settled in his chair with a glass of beer, and I was nestling in another with a glass of G&T, while Daphne was sipping on her G&T, busying herself at the sink preparing containers of fresh fruit salads for the following few days. We had been chatting a while then got onto the subject of doctors and checkups and Daphne was quite chuffed to report that she had just had a check up and all was well. John jumped in and with an excited smile started to relay to me a conversation he and Daphne had had while at the doctors. John said that they had been going through all the usual checks and the doctor asked Daphne if she drank to which she said yes, generally in the evening. The doctor then asked her how many each night?, to which Daphne answered 1 or 2. The doctor said that was fine and repeated her as he was writing it down -"1 or two glasses"- to which apparently Daphne jumped and and said "No!...1 or 2 bottles!!". John broke into a fit of laughter telling the end of this story, and I wasn't expecting the story to go in that direction. As a result my mouthful of drink spluttered through my nose and we all laughed till our eyes were watering, ....it took us all longer than usual to recover ourselves that afternoon, and found ourselves joking each time we were asked if we would like a drink through into the coming days.....a glass or a bottle?
I have many lovely memories of chats with John about gardening, lovely long lunches with John and Daphne, but my favourites are remembering Johns sense of humour. I always found he enjoyed telling and being told a joke and greatly enjoyed the humorous side of a tale. The following tale in particular still brings a big smile to my face and a giggle to my heart for both of them.
It was many years ago and I had been in hospital in Perth following an operation. John and Daphne brought me home to their place to recover for a couple of weeks and cared for me till I was well enough to travel back down to Margaret River. As I got stronger I looked forward each afternoon to drink o'clock when the home made crunchy chilli nuts and either a bottle of bubbles or a gin and tonic would appear. In those days John was brewing his own beer, so he was settled in his chair with a glass of beer, and I was nestling in another with a glass of G&T, while Daphne was sipping on her G&T, busying herself at the sink preparing containers of fresh fruit salads for the following few days. We had been chatting a while then got onto the subject of doctors and checkups and Daphne was quite chuffed to report that she had just had a check up and all was well. John jumped in and with an excited smile started to relay to me a conversation he and Daphne had had while at the doctors. John said that they had been going through all the usual checks and the doctor asked Daphne if she drank to which she said yes, generally in the evening. The doctor then asked her how many each night?, to which Daphne answered 1 or 2. The doctor said that was fine and repeated her as he was writing it down -"1 or two glasses"- to which apparently Daphne jumped and and said "No!...1 or 2 bottles!!". John broke into a fit of laughter telling the end of this story, and I wasn't expecting the story to go in that direction. As a result my mouthful of drink spluttered through my nose and we all laughed till our eyes were watering, ....it took us all longer than usual to recover ourselves that afternoon, and found ourselves joking each time we were asked if we would like a drink through into the coming days.....a glass or a bottle?
