Oak Bay Tea Party

While I was in Toronto, I received an email from Brian Richmond, Artistic Director of Blue Bridge Theatre and also the director of Who’s Afraid Of Virginia Woolf.  His friend, Bill Murphy-Dyson had asked that he forward an invitation for me to participate in the Mayor’s Floating Tea Cup Race. 

My impulse was to politely refuse, since I am not a boat/or tea cup rower, suffer from motion sickness, am not comfortable in water over my head and am a embarrassingly bad swimmer on the best of days.

HOWEVER… in Bill’s email he mentioned that he was the lawyer who used to live across the street from us and he saved my dog once. 

Of course I remembered the incident and so… in a fit of nostalgia… I said yes.

I was perfectly happy with my decision until The Oak Bay News landed on my doorstep.  On the front page was a picture of a smiling Mayor Christopher Causton bobbing around in a large teacup.  He looked happy.  I thought, oh how fun…and then I read the article.  It was full of stories of sinking teacups, capsizing teacups, toppling teacups.  Oh dear!

Amy helped me decorate a hat which shored up my courage.  Funny how that works, put on a silly hat and it helps keep the fear at bay.

I didn’t sleep well.  Those teacups look like they would spin.  What if I sunk, tipped over, got seasick?  Oh dear.

I still had butterflies this afternoon when Amy and David came by so we could drive over together.  I was certain it wasn’t a question of if, but when, my teacup was going to dump me into the frigid Pacific ocean.  Amy made some very cute signs for her and Dave to wave and cheer me on.  I packed an extra set of clothes and took some seasickness pills.

Waiting by the stage for our race to start, my mouth was dry.  The wind was picking up and it was a little bit choppy.  Christopher told me about a council woman whose teacup got blown right out to the point.  “Oh dear,“ I said.  I was trying to act all casual, but I was scared.  I was wishing I hadn’t said, yes.

Well, none of those things happened.  Right before our race started the wind stopped and the water was as smooth as smooth can be.  I made it to the safety boat mark and back to the shore in relatively good order.  I didn’t tip over even though I was in a rudderless teacup with uneven oars!  And there was my cheering family, so proud of me.  Gerry came by too.  It was a great day. 

A special thanks to Sandy and Christopher for the helpful tips before hand.  And to the woman who helped me set my teacup up.  She was awesome and gave me the best push ever out into the water and then waded in at the end of the race, way deeper than she needed and dragged me to shore.  How nice she was! 

At the end of the photos you’ll see me holding the trophy, but really Christopher was ahead of me by a long shot, he let me win!

I was really happy I did the race.  I had a real good time.  I told Christopher I was going to put my Teacup trophy by my Golden Globe.  He thought I was being facetious, but I wasn’t. 

Here is the photo journal of my adventure!

Posted by Meg Tilly on Sunday, June 05, 2011 in Chewing the Fat