The Pretoria Shuffle

My Dear Princess, Loulou and Fellows,

Today the Gromit Roadshow went to Christchurch for our presentation to the two offices based there. We did two presentations in each office so that's about five hours today talking about video conferencing technology. And ducks, dolphins, whales and kiwis, of course. 

I am quite tired. 

All the same it was a fun day. Here are Fazzy and Shenée again, joined by Ellie. They have decided to call themselves the "Zulu Wives" after Shenée told them about a book she just read in which Zulus were laughing at a white man for having just one wife. 

"If you have just one, you fight with her all the time!" they laughed. "Just two and they fight with each other. But three become friends. You must have three wives."

So there you have it. I am the Zulu in this equation. 

Not that I am complaining. 

Our visits were pretty good. The Christchurch staff seemed really happy with us and really keen. They laughed at our jokes and asked good questions. Fazzy and me did our little skit for them and even though we were a bit shit (or maybe for that reason) they really seemed to enjoy it. We got genuine howls of laughter all the way through. 

But there's always one effer isn't there? Someone has to spoil it. In this case, the admin at the Christchurch South office who decided to be incredibly rude to Fazzy, slamming down the phone on her, and then sending her snippy messages. 

This sort of behaviour shocks me. It shouldn't but it does. I've been in my white privilege bubble for so long. I just don't expect people to think being rude is okay, just so long as you are rude to an Indian person. 

Shenée was having none of it. She collared the woman's manager and said, "Bring your laptop over here Fazlyn, please." 

I don't know what happened next but there was a lot of finger-pointing and Shenée complaining, inaudibly. Shenée tells me that her boyfriend Craig knows when Shenée is angry and about to take action by her body language. He calls it, "The Pretoria Shuffle". 

Whatever you call it, it was effective. The woman's manager came out looking chastened, and I expect an arse-kicking is imminent. 

Despite arseholery, Fazzy really seemed to enjoy her day and continued amusing herself by sending selfies to Caro. But then it was time to fly home. I was somewhat touched that Shenée comforted nervous flyer Ellie during take-off and landing. 

She is a very kind woman. Also a manager. Weird combination, huh?

S.