Friday 20 April 2007

What a test!!

I passed my test :)

I am now officially a 'Chauffeur' -Punting Tour Guide on the river Cam- and I start on Monday. I am working 5 days next week and don't know how I will survive as I am already super sore after the one tour I did yesterday for my test.

For this test I had to just give my first ever tour to one of my bosses. So, a 12 person boat, with 1 person in it, who probably knows more about the river than anyone else and I was giving him the tour! Yes, I was a little nervous!

I think I gave a very entertaining tour, for all the wrong reasons though, haha. My first tour ever, phew. Pretty clumsy. I was reminded yet again how easy it is to get stuck between punts parked on the banks, under trees and bridges and behind other punts on the river.

I also discovered I am not very good at talking and punting at the same time, let alone remember all the information;

"On my right hand (stick out hand..don't loose balance, hold on to stick, oops we are loosing speed quickly, punt on) you see Trinity college which was founded in, ehm.., 1546 by.....(pushing the pole, turning the boat, sigh, sweat)..founded by....eeehm...eehem. (Shit, can't remember, just talk on) The college is known for...ehm..bla bla bla"

I remembered so many names BEFORE I gave this silly test tour, all these Queens and Kings, designers of bridges and founders of colleges. Of course they are all named either William or Henry, Elizabeth or Margaret, which makes it very confusing.

My boss pissed himself laughing for most of the Lotte tour, especially because I simply named every lady Margaret. There were no more Elizabeths or other names in my vocabulary -- they were all Margaret!

Anyway, he had a very simple tick list and timed the trip. A little reminder not to do dangerous things...stay on the right side of the river, never move the pole over the people in the boat. Tick for mentioning the names of the colleges and the bridges......okay, passed -- start ASAP!

Wish me luck!

2 comments:

Barrington said...

Yeah!
Good luck Lotte! I'm sure you'll be confident and informative in no time, and until then, I bet you'll still be a lot of fun!
Mostly tourists, right? The American ones at least will mostly be taking pictures and not processing to much historical or geographical information...it would make our heads explode! (ha ha...ha?)
Love

Anonymous said...

Top, wist wel dat je het kon!!
Trots op je zusie.
Kom snel eens een tourtje met je doen...
Enne volgens Arnold is zusie met twee s'en.