The Water-Rat captured by pirates

[shewhomust]

greengolux returned from holiday without any pictures, and people - specifically, co-workers - accused her of selfishness. Her post on the subject reminded me of something I didn't quite get round to posting about last summer: so here, better late than never, are Brian Wilson's holiday photos.

Neil and Jan came to stay last summer, to see the Tall Ships and have a holiday. Jan brought with her a vivid reminder of office life, of the way groups of people who spend much of their life together, but don't necessarily have much in common except the work which doesn't entirely absorb and fascinate them - in those circumstances, people latch onto whatever entertainment they can find. Trivial subjects are elaborated into epic narratives and complex jokes.

This reminder took the form of a toy hamster. He looked more like a guinea pig, but Jan assured us that he was a hamster - one of a collection of singing hamsters which lived on the desk of a colleague. This particular hamster was Brian Wilson (as you could tell from the surf board), and Jan's holiday task was to send back to work a photograph of Brian Wilson on his holidays.

We started modestly; Brian peeked out of Jan's backpack while she admired Durham cathedral, and the resultant photo was e-mailed back to the office. But we got caught up in the project, began to make stops so that Brian could have his picture taken, enjoyed the sheer absurdity of the exercise.




We perched him on the Angel of the North - which has, after all, replaced the Five Bridges as the emblem of Tyneside. We took him to Whitley Bay - how could we not have taken our Beach Boy to the seaside? And we took him to see the Tall Ships sailing out to sea, past the Customs House in South Shields.

At first this didn't seem a very promising prospect for photography: it was a grey, damp day, and the ships were all far out on the Tyne. But there were a crowd of people there, all determined to enjoy themselves, and some of them had taken this to the extent of dressing in pirate gear. By now, we knew no shame. We accosted a pair of amiable looking pirates, and asked if they would mind posing with Brian, in order to bring a little colour into the lives of a bunch of office workers: how could they refuse?

That's the story. I don't know what the moral is: that a little entertainment goes a long way in an office? That it is possible to do something which you find simultaneously extremely silly and extremely entertaining? That there's no point in taking photos unless you want to, because it's an activity that can eat up your life? All of the above...

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Thanks to durham_rambler for the photos.

Comments

[sovay]

That's the story. I don't know what the moral is

I don't know what the moral is either, but any story that results in a photograph of pirates with a toy hamster is worth it for me.

Brian was not the only one ...

[durham-rambler.livejournal.com]

Brian was not the only one on the Angel of the North that day: rather higher up I spotted this climber.

It was inspired silliness, and we need more of it!

[helenraven.livejournal.com]

Superb. For favourites I'm torn between the Angel photo for its spectacular silliness and the Whitley bay photo for the fine view it gives of the little wetsuit. But then I look at the pirate photo and the toucan going "I'm not with these people, you know" and think that maybe that one does make me giggle the most.

I hope Jan's colleagues are suitably impressed.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I am, of course, a keen amateur photographer and I take a lot of photos because my memory is crap. I always have great hopes of remembering just how beautiful a place is or how perfect a day, and then two weeks later, pfffft. Nothing there except a wistful wish for something a little more stable than my brain.

At my old office, we always took and shared photos, but we were all avid photographers. We also had a more or less unspoken rule that if you went somewhere for a week or more you had to bring back a little gift to the rest of the agents. And it used to drive me batshit! I absolutely dreaded trying to find something that was cute enough to warrant bringing back but wouldn't take up much luggage space. And no one ever really appreciated them all that much, but they did demand to know "what you've brought us."

I hate office sociology. I can't wait to work at home.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

That's blissfully silly.

"They act plays too, these fellows," the Mole explained to the Rat. "Make them up all by themselves, and act them afterwards. And very well they do it, too! They gave us a capital one last year, about a field-mouse who was captured at sea by a Barbary corsair, and made to row in a galley; and when he escaped and got home again, his lady-love had gone into a convent. Here, you! You were in it, I remember. Get up and recite a bit."

Nine

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

At my old office, photos were optional, but you had to bring in biscuits (a generic term covering any kind of sweets, crisps etc) on your return. Though you could always rush out at breaktime on your first day back, and buy something at the market, which seemed pointless to me...

Working there was - educational, shall we say? But home is better.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Oh, I see! Thank you.