PALIN!
Emily, Papia, Emily's sister Amy, some random from some Facebook community which Emily has created, and myself - we have all returned from seeing MICHAEL PALIN.
He was doing a talk and signing of his new book based on his diaries. To be honest, I'd bought the ticket a while ago, and because I've been busy with other things, and not participating in this MP Facebook community thing (which undoubtably would have helped whip up some sort of internal anticipatory frenzy), I hadn't really been thinking about it all that much.
I got there late thanks to a combo of work and the tube, and had to sit on the floor behind a giant man who was fidgeting. But the talk was good, and funny, as expected. And afterwards there was a long, long, long, longer-than-Wimbledon queue for signing.
The random Palinite from Emily's Facebook community was truly obsessed with the event - stressing for hours over what to say to Palin in the 30 seconds it took for him to sign the book (had to not be memorable but not desperate or naff etc. etc.). And Papia thought about various ways she could insinuate the fact that she'd done a big and very important exam that day into the Palin-hello-how-are-you-thanks-bye convo. And Emily and Amy too were like, what shall we say to him, what shall we say. I really didn't see the point in thinking about it too much. He's always seemed more like a grandad-figure than someone I need to impress.
So ANYWAY. There were these satellite people who hovered around the queue handing out post-its for us to write our names out in block caps and stick them on the books for ease of autographing, and a camera-clicker, and a man who stood in front of Palin, asking the name of the person in front of the queue and then introducing the person by name to Palin. This man, the introducer, read my name from my post-it and was like, "What an unusual name! Where are you from?" I mean, yes I do have an unusual name but people don't ever ask that question in London, a place where loads of people I'd've thought have un-English names. But whatever. I said, "India." And then the (white, English) man said, "Oh, I've spent a lot of time in Baroda and Bombay." And I was like, "Oh, really, did you make it to Poona at all?" But he hadn't.
And then I remembered that in Round the World in 80 Days, Michael Palin had taken Indian Railways via Poona and mentioned that his dad had served in Poona during colonial times. In the meantime, the introducer-man was introducing me as, "This is Deya - she's from India." (Whereas everyone else had been "This is Amy" and "This is Tom".) And instantly, the Palin was like, "What part of India?" And I had to say, "I've lived in Poona for a long time - I remember you mentioning in ATWI80D that your dad lived there." And then, Michael Palin said his dad had won a cup for rowing - The Poona Cup it was (and I remembered he'd said that on the prog too). He said his dad kept the cup on the mantlepiece and he'd always wondered what Poona was like, and what the people from there were like, "and now I know. It's you!" And then I said, well, when I first watched ATWI8D, and heard him mention the Poona-dad-connection, I had indeed been in Poona. And Palin agreed that this was indeed strange. And that was the end.
Yay! MICHAEL PALIN. I am happy.
Tomorrow I am on call until midnight. :(
He was doing a talk and signing of his new book based on his diaries. To be honest, I'd bought the ticket a while ago, and because I've been busy with other things, and not participating in this MP Facebook community thing (which undoubtably would have helped whip up some sort of internal anticipatory frenzy), I hadn't really been thinking about it all that much.
I got there late thanks to a combo of work and the tube, and had to sit on the floor behind a giant man who was fidgeting. But the talk was good, and funny, as expected. And afterwards there was a long, long, long, longer-than-Wimbledon queue for signing.
The random Palinite from Emily's Facebook community was truly obsessed with the event - stressing for hours over what to say to Palin in the 30 seconds it took for him to sign the book (had to not be memorable but not desperate or naff etc. etc.). And Papia thought about various ways she could insinuate the fact that she'd done a big and very important exam that day into the Palin-hello-how-are-you-thanks-bye convo. And Emily and Amy too were like, what shall we say to him, what shall we say. I really didn't see the point in thinking about it too much. He's always seemed more like a grandad-figure than someone I need to impress.
So ANYWAY. There were these satellite people who hovered around the queue handing out post-its for us to write our names out in block caps and stick them on the books for ease of autographing, and a camera-clicker, and a man who stood in front of Palin, asking the name of the person in front of the queue and then introducing the person by name to Palin. This man, the introducer, read my name from my post-it and was like, "What an unusual name! Where are you from?" I mean, yes I do have an unusual name but people don't ever ask that question in London, a place where loads of people I'd've thought have un-English names. But whatever. I said, "India." And then the (white, English) man said, "Oh, I've spent a lot of time in Baroda and Bombay." And I was like, "Oh, really, did you make it to Poona at all?" But he hadn't.
And then I remembered that in Round the World in 80 Days, Michael Palin had taken Indian Railways via Poona and mentioned that his dad had served in Poona during colonial times. In the meantime, the introducer-man was introducing me as, "This is Deya - she's from India." (Whereas everyone else had been "This is Amy" and "This is Tom".) And instantly, the Palin was like, "What part of India?" And I had to say, "I've lived in Poona for a long time - I remember you mentioning in ATWI80D that your dad lived there." And then, Michael Palin said his dad had won a cup for rowing - The Poona Cup it was (and I remembered he'd said that on the prog too). He said his dad kept the cup on the mantlepiece and he'd always wondered what Poona was like, and what the people from there were like, "and now I know. It's you!" And then I said, well, when I first watched ATWI8D, and heard him mention the Poona-dad-connection, I had indeed been in Poona. And Palin agreed that this was indeed strange. And that was the end.
Yay! MICHAEL PALIN. I am happy.
Tomorrow I am on call until midnight. :(