Right then. I was wandering about in the Basement of our Wing, near the cinema, sauna and gym and decided to check a cupboard I had noticed earlier at one end of a corridor.
It opened onto another corridor which went off at right angles. I set off and saw a door marked ?Rumpus Room?
. Naturally I was curious and went in. It was big ? I imagine about 35 feet by 20 feet and it had a parquet floor, a large number of ceiling mounted spotlights and, at the far end, some very obvious disco equipment. SO they have their own discotheque. With four kids and doubtless lots of kids? parties, this made a kind of sense.
I was puzzled, though, by the presence of 6 swivel barstool type chairs. You know the sort: chromium pole fixed to floor, footrest about half way between floor and leather seat. They were spaced evenly around the edge of the dance floor.
Anyhow, I went to leave and was arrested by the switches next to the door. Each room has the following next to the doors: Light switch, bank of light dimmer switches, knob for adjusting volume of sound system, intercom, internal phone. This room had an extra feature: two large buttons marked ?Up? and ?Down?
I looked at these for a while and then, inevitably pressed one. (It was ?Up?). There was a sort of hum and a clunk, but nothing else happened. So I thought for a moment and then stabbed ?Down?.
If you have seen Goldfinger you will have to recollect the scene where he described his proposed heist at Fort Knox with the aid of a large model.
A VERY BIG section of the ceiling began to descend on sort of telescopic rods. I reckon it left a four or five foot gap all around the room. As it came down, spotlights came on and focused on the center of the room. The ceiling section stopped automatically at the level of these 6 chairs. The whole area was covered in a perfectly made, fully decorated and permanently fixed enormous
6 lane
Scalextric set
I pressed the ?Up? button and left. I have not mentioned this to The Boy
