‘Getting caught in a traffic jam paved the way for a beautiful main event’

I awoke feeling excited because it was the day my daughter and I were going to Beautiful: The Carole King Musical. I am house sitting at Noosa so it meant a trip to Brisbane for the show.

Old mate and I set off at 9:30am. Plenty of time for the 1.5-hour trip to my daughter’s place at Sandgate… Or so I thought.

All was going well, a short stop along the way to deliver a beanie to a woman with a very large head, then we were back on the Bruce Highway. Suddenly the traffic stops. Kilometres of stopped traffic in front of and behind us.

It was the last day of school holidays which probably accounted for the huge amount of traffic, but it could not explain the stoppage. We inched along, nine minutes to go 1km. At that rate it would be 6pm before we arrived in Brisbane. The show would be well and truly over.

Another two hours passed and we were not even half way. It was 12:30pm by this time and Old Mate and I desperately needed a toilet stop. There was nothing for us to do but pull up at the next off ramp. We did, then went back to the crawling traffic. At least it was moving, that was a good sign.

Just before Bribie Island, the cause of the stoppage became apparent. An accident, or rather, a crash. A young bloke, going too fast clipped the bridge, flew through the air, cut a tree in half and came to rest on the side of the road. Miraculously he was unharmed.

After we went past the flashing lights of the emergency vehicles, the pace quickened somewhat. At 1:30pm we arrived at my daughter’s place.

My daughter is a wonderful person, but she’s not the most organised one. She had a shower and we aimed to leave at 2pm. It was 2:15pm when we pulled out of her driveway. Only 29 minutes to QPAC, where the show would be performed, she said. Plenty of time.

It seemed like forever, but at 2:50pm we parked under the Cultural Centre. My daughter said we’d have to walk up the stairs and across the bridge. “Not far,” she said. She lied!

My daughter had parked in the wrong spot. We had to walk and run past the museum, several other buildings, up and down stairs and across a road to get to the QPAC. Of course, when we tried to cross the road we realised we couldn’t. When we ran for the lift, we discovered it was out of order.

We raced up and down more stairs. I was almost passing out from the exertion of it all, but we made it into QPAC and raced towards our door. We made it just in time — there was 30 seconds until we’d have been locked out.

“Do you realise, dear daughter, that your mother is 70 years of age and not used to such a workout?” I said as we took our seats.

“But you did it Mum,” she said. “Now relax and enjoy the show.”

And we did. It was a terrific show.

Have you ever found yourself rushing to get to an appointment or some entertainment?

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