When we got to London, we moved into our fully-furnished and equipped flat with our clothes and our bedding. And some music. I was always told to be of good chair, so it wasn’t long before we had to go and purchase an additional piece of furniture.
We walked down to a local second-hand furniture shop to browse through their seating equipment. The bored helpful owner of the shop came over to greet us and shoot the breeze over his cup of coffee. He was a right proper Londoner, wearing a flat cap and everything.
We told him we were looking for a desk chair. He showed us his wares. And then he showed us his chairs. Kidding.
(Exaggeration alert.)
We tried out his wheely chairs and raced around the shop in them going “Woo!” and “Beep beep!” and “Check how this one turns!”
He strolled over to us, kicking his legs like in a slow-motion goose-step, and said, tentatively, and with his head cocked to one side, “Is that an Australian accent I hear?”
We said, “Not unless there are Australians hiding behind the sofa.”
Not really. We said that we were South Africans and feigned offence. Well, maybe we didn’t feign offence, but we pretended we were feigning it. He laughed nervously, “Ha ha, jolly ha!”
He took another sip of his coffee and asked if we were new to the area. We told him we’d just moved in. He asked us what brought us to the area. We said we were new to London because my husband was doing his doctorate.
The guy stared at us blankly, like the letting agent had when we told her my husband was doing his doctorate. She said, “Can you write that down for me, please? I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
We were about to tell him question time was over, when his gaze turned to me and he said, “And what about you? Are you a lady of leisure?”
My husband had to hold me back from grabbing him by the scruff of the neck. (Not really. But please note, for health and safety purposes, that the exaggeration alert is still active.)
I smiled sweetly and said to him, “Actually, I’m job hunting.”
He said, “Pleased to meet you, my name’s Bob.”
What he actually did at that point was whistle, raise his eyebrows and make his eyes all slitty. Clearly a multi-tasker.
“Ooh, job hunting. Not easy these days, is it? Not like in them days when it was just us. Not with all these foreigners about.”
He proceeded to tell us how little he thought of the (then) Labour government and its lax immigration regulations and how foreigners were coming in thick and fast and taking all the jobs from people “like us”.
We nodded, paid for our chair and tiptoed backwards out of the shop trying not to say another word and leak out our foreign accents again. Just in case.
We carried the chair down the road and all the way back to our house. We stopped briefly for my husband to go into a convenience store to buy something, and I sat on the chair on the pavement. If I spun quickly I could keep an eye on the road and on the shop at the same time.
As we crossed the threshold into our flat, we greeted the rest of the furniture with, “Three chairs for the foreigners!”
Sunshine signing off for today!
Sunshine in London 
Nice story! Guess you weren’t the type of foreigner he objected to?!
Thanks, Lisa! I don’t know if he objected to us, or not! We didn’t ask, we just walked out of his shop backwards and nodding! 🙂
Three chairs, indeed! What a fun post! What is your husband getting his doctorate in?
Hearing about your adventures in London makes me want to go back! Thanks for the fun and great laughs!
Hugs from Haiti,
Kathy
Thanks, Kathy! This was a silly post indeed, but fun to write and I’m glad it made you laugh!
My husband is a therapist and has so far completed year one of his doctorate in psychology.
“Clearly a multi-tasker.” Oh, I love that line. Fun post! And like Kathy, I’m wondering what field your husband is in.
Thanks, Renee! And you’ll see my response to Kathy about my husband’s field of study.
First of all, the exaggeration alert is very clever and funny!
The image of you racing through the shop in your desk chairs made me giggle first thing this morning. Thanks for that.
I love your adventures, Sunshine…exaggeration alert or not! Hugs, Diane
I’m so glad to make you giggle, Diane! I think most of my stories need an exaggeration alert, or maybe a “lame alert”! 🙂
Ha! This made me laugh out loud, Sunshine. Your shop owner sounds like a real piece of work. “Lady of leisure?”…Kudos to you for not leisurely punching the guy senseless.
It was a close call, Maura! hahaha! Glad I made you laugh out loud – my work is done! 🙂
Silly fool prolly thought (hoped) you were ‘Bob hunting’ ;p
Oh nooooooooooooooooooooo!
Fun post, Sunshine! “Lady of leisure” indeed…I would have had to be held back too! Glad you got your chair though!
Hugs,
Wendy
Yip, we got our chair. Job done! Where does “lady of leisure” come from anyway, I wonder?
The part about how it’s hard to find a job “with all these foreigners about” made me laugh out loud. Fun post, Sunshine!
Always glad to make you laugh, Todd. Isn’t that just so bizarre – who did he think we were?
Ha! You’ve supplied my giggle quota for today,Sunshine! Fabulous post. I have a feeling you and your husband make quite a team!
I’m so glad to be your giggle merchant, Kate! Thanks so much. After being together for over 30 years, we’re a double act, I tell you! 🙂
“Lady of leisure”? Really? I imagine it’s hard to live “leisurely” on a doctoral student’s wages. I think I’d have been tempted to throttle him, too! And to be mistaken for “foreigners” — that’s just too funny, Sunshine. You’ve got so many vignettes to include in your book!
True, Debbie!
Does American English sound foreign to you foreigners that use foreigner English? Why can’t you all talk regular normal American English? How and why did these unique accents develop? I just caught myself because there must be at least 50 detectable accents and particular unique vocabularies here too. Should we all simply go back to Shakespeare or Chaucer?
I don’t mind when I am confused with a Canadian but it seems fairly easy to pick out American vs Canadian vs English vs Welsh vs Scottish vs Australian vs Kiwi vs South African vs etc (okay maybe not so much the Australians and Kiwis).
Still, if people didn’t hate foreigners and confuse accidents, you wouldn’t have this mini-adventure.
Quite true, Posky. I love all the different accents and locating them, but it is a weird experience being a foreigner. Good to see you again!
I think “foreign” is relative, Carl, but I do think the furniture guy’s understanding of “foreign” was people who don’t speak English. Which is why he didn’t think of us as foreigners… quite funny, really!
“We tried out his wheely chairs and raced around the shop in them going “Woo!” and “Beep beep!” and “Check how this one turns!””
This I would love to see. I can really imagine you doing just that! 🙂
Hahaha, clouded! I think you know me pretty well! 🙂
SO witty and well written. Had a good hearty chuckle at this one xx
Thank you so much – such a pleasure to know I made you chuckle! That’s my goal xx
Ummmm….. perhaps he did not quite know where South Africa was!!
Only Australia.
I also remember people often thinking i was australian, i used to be so offended. I always used to think they were so loud and rude…. I now know that it was just a few speciofic people amongst the nation. I still question whether we actually sound like them??? I dont think so, but clearly teh whole of England does.
xx
It’s so funny – I agree, I think we sound totally different, but obviously not! I have been asked SO many times if I’m from Aus or New Zealand. And my niece, who’s from Zimbabwe, has a fridge magnet that says, “No, I am not South African” – but I think our accents are incredibly similar!