Almost a nasty hay bale incident

There was almost a nasty hay bale incident in Ahakista last night.

We were about to start cooking the lobster. A fire had been lit on the beach and the BBQ had been started.

The lobsters had been left to rest in the the vegetable tray at the bottom of the old fridge in the garage and they needed to be fetched for dispatch. As I headed across the road to fetch them I heard the sound of a large car heading down the hill from the pub so I stood back to let it pass.

It turned out the large car was a people carrier pulling a trailer load of hay bales. As it thundered past The Cottage it took the slight bend in the road. The tilt was enough to send the top layer of bales loose from where they were packed and they duly scattered across the road.

I tried shouting and waving to get the attention of the driver but clearly his eyes were on the road in front and he carried on down the road. We all leapt into action and dragged the bales onto the side of the road.

Ten minutes later the people carrier was back and we went out to help the loading back of the bales onto the trailer. They were heavy enough to lift but the driver had the better equipment to do the job – a heavy and dangerous looking pitchfork that only took the twist of his shoulders to have a bale up from the ground and on top of the load.

He carried on driving not much slower than before and I finished off the lobsters.

They were dispatched and split with a sharp knife in the kitchen. They were then laid out on the BBQ where they only took ten minutes or so to cook. Halfway through I dabbed them with a mixture of melted butter and Pernod. More Pernod was then scattered over to finish them off flames rising I the evening air.