Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Big Blonde Moment

It turns out that I have been having a prolonged blonde moment for the best part of four months now and it has only just come to light. Simon gave my email address to his friend Vic who has moved over here and is a teacher also. For four months Vic and I have been emailling about schools and places to live etc and about Rovers which is how Vic and Simon know each other. Only problem is... Vic is a chick and not a dude as I originally thought. I have been writing to this lovely lady referring to her as him and she as he. Luckily Simon explained my "faux pas" to me in Paris (red face and d'ohs followed) and I was finally on the right playing field when I finally met "Vic the man" at the Kensington pub on Monday night. Interestingly, Vic the man reminds me a lot of Shelby. They are very, very similar.

Davina (green shirt in photo), Karen, Katrina, Simon, Richard, Vic the man and I went out for dinner at the Kensington pub on Monday night as it was Simon and Kat's last night in London. We met at Davina's place in Shepherd's Bush which I am told that, as an Australian, I am supposed to refer to it as "SheBu (Shay-boo)" in the tradtion of Tarzhay (Target).

The Cat Empire are playing at the Empire Theatre at Shepherd's Bush next month so we have grabbed some tickets for that and are planning a big evening.

Richard and I went and visited the London Fire Brigade Museum for a tour yesterday which was the best fun I have had in ages. We were booked on a 10:30am tour and didn't finish until 1pm. The tours are supposed to take about an hour. Our guide was a retired fireman who was very passionate about his work and his job as curator of the museum. I lost count of how many times he apologised for saying "a decent fire" instead of "a terrible tragedy". The rest of our group were elderly gentlemen who used to work as insurance brokers together. It was very Dad's Army and Richard and I thought it was great. Apparently the London Fire Brigades were actually started by insurance companies who didn't want a repeat of the Great Fire of London in 1666 (good website - http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/H/history/fire/). The tour guide kept asking if I was bored and if Richard has dragged me along kicking and screaming. It wasn't until he made a joke about Aussie firies still using techniques from the 1800s (e.g. knapsack sprays) that Richard spoke up about our link to the RFS. After that I kept being asked questions about what it was like being a female firie and if things were similar back home to here with regards to gear and Breathing Apparatus etc. It was a fabulous way to spend an otherwise grey and windy day.

No comments: