The Gum Tree for 2005 March 25

Louise spoke to her parents yesterday for about 2 hours. They are soooo excited to get into town next week. They are already packing. Louise wanted to know some family history about her dad and her grandfather for a school project. I found out an interesting detail of John Nicholson’s life. When he was a teenager, his parents were maid and butler for the Dutch Ambassador. Every week they would have a half-day to go and do what they wanted to do. The same day, the Dutch ambassador would always get very ill.

Louise’s dad smelled a rat, and went to check out the barley water that was being served to the ambassador. He took the evidence to a chemist who could test it and found out that somebody was putting harpic, a cleaning agent, in the old man’s barley water.

Come to find out that the wife of the Ambassador was German, and she was trying to knock off her husband for some reason. Louise’s dad described her a some quiet white-haired old woman, and it just so happens that he exposed a small scandal that was happening.

So we have a Shirlock Holmes in the family.