dryer repairs), ‘don’t you think you’re taking this a bit far?’ ‘Over to the spoilsports’ stadium,’ said Dad, ‘where it looks like another gold for Australia!’ As the days turned into weeks, we all wanted to scream. Finally Mum did. ‘That’s it!’ she yelled. ‘If I hear another mention of medals, Olympics or personal best time in the loo, I’ll kill someone!’ Dad muttered something under his breath about gold, gold, gold for getting cranky, then did what he always did when Mum blew her stack. Took us to visit Uncle Wal. Uncle Wal lives three hours away on a sheep farm. It’s a really boring trip because the land’s flat and scrubby, the road’s dead straight and you hardly ever see another car. Plus, when you get there, Uncle Wal hasn’t even got a telly. But this trip wasn’t boring. Half-an-hour up the track we ran out of petrol. ‘It’s a gold for Australia,’ said Sharon, ‘for forgetting to fill the car up.’ Dad glared at her. We waited for an hour. No cars. Finally, Dad got sick of giving us medals for waiting and set off on foot back to the petrol station in town. For the next hour me and Sharon just enjoyed the silence. Then I started to wish I had something to read.
What else might Sharon have said? Do you agree with Mum? How would you have reacted to Dad?