My friend the Energizer Bunny knew that I was back to job hunting since my part time work had fizzled out some weeks ago. Accordingly, she had passed on my details to a friend of her who ran an agency here in G Town. Last week, unexpected, I got a call from the agency asking if I was free for a one day assignment on Saturday. It was for hostessing duties at Murrayfield, the rugby stadium in Edinburgh.
Eager to earn a few handy pennies, I confirmed attendance right away. It wasn't until I had put down the phone that I realised that the game in question was the England v Scotland match, possibly one of the biggest games in all of the 6 Nations Rugby Tournament. Tickets for this game had been sold out about 5 minutes after they went on sale last summer. And I was actually going to be there. AND get paid in the process! How cool was THAT?
The agency was busing the G Town based girls over and as I made my way across the parking lot of the meeting point, I couldn't help giggle. There were about 15 girls all walking towards the bus all dressed in black suits, white tops and black heeled shoes. Together, we looked like attendees at a penguin convention!
On the way over to Edinburgh, I chatted with some of the other girls trying to get an idea of what exactly we were going to be doing during the day. I also made sure that I had done ok with my makeup application as per the job requirements. It had taken me 3 tries and about 4 stabs in the eye but I had finally managed to follow the carefully written make up application instructions my friend gave me. The other girls assured me I looked just fine.
At the stadium, I was assigned to a suite of 350 guests with two other hostesses. It wasn't particularly hard work, but as with all VIPs, there were some cranky ones and we were kept busy trying to appease those few squeaky wheels. Still, the day was set up so that we had to look after the guests before the game during the luncheon and then after. During the actual game, we were free to take our break.
Most of the other girls weren't interested in the match; half of them didn't even know who was playing! Not me! There was no way I could otherwise afford to be at such an event. I wasn't going to let this opportunity slip by. Grabbing a hold of the only other hostess who was interested, the two of us made our way around the stadium until we found a chink in the armour - otherwise known as the air tight stadium security - and weaseled our way into a corner of the stadium where we were able to watch almost all of the match without (much) interruption. Handy things, those little staff passes!
And what an exciting game it was! A tight scoring game with both teams scoring tries one after the other. The final result was a draw, 15 all. Not the win that Scotland wanted, but then again, not the loss that England was so determined to deliver at the same time!
Finally, a good 13 hours after we first met up at the parking lot, a troop of tired penguins shuffled off to waiting cars, most of them holding on to their high heels. It had been a fun day, but now, all we cared about was getting home and soaking our aching and blistered feet.
It was time to take off the super-hostess garb and return to being mere mortal women again.
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