Job done
Did this gig this morning in Birmingham - what a giggle
Didn't start off too well though, the riders and the two glamorous promo girls (Lizzie and Clair) all arrived on time (7.30am) at the meeting place but no sign of the PR/media company or the scoots
After making phone contact with Megan from the PR company it transpired that they couldn't get the van into Chamberlain Square due to the fact that a German Christmas market was being set up and it was blocked off. DOH! nil points for organisation then!
Eventually Megan arrives on foot with the photographer but the van driver is hopelessly lost in central Birmingham - we give him a new meeting point just by the central library and he eventually turns up. We unload the smart looking black Vespas with tan seats bedecked with BT stickers and promotional livery with white open face helmets and black overjackets similarly logo'd up. We all get dressed and the photographer struggles to get us organised as we all start acting like a bunch of kids and start looning around on the scoots trying to do burn outs and stoppies
After much pleading from Megan we do as asked by the snapper and stop behaving like errant teenagers who've never been on a scoot before and we start posing for piccies as requested.
When the snapper has finished the glamour girls go about their business in coralling complete strangers going about their daily business asking them if they need a free lift within the city. After a quietish start it starts to get busy and we start getting interest from students, tourists, shoppers, business people, and some who just want a ride around for a bit of a thrill. My first job was a bloke who had a meeting down Broad Street and who was just contemplating taking a taxi - he jumped at the chance of a free ride and on he hopped. Even though the Vespa is just a 50cc twist and go and it was two up we whizzed in and out between the static four wheelers - dodging cars, trucks and white van man and squeezing through the narrowest of gaps to get to the front of the traffic queues. I have to say I had a huge grin on my chops and my passenger was enjoying it also.
I got him there in good time and if he had been in a taxi he would still be sat in traffic.
The scoots attracted a lot of attention and we were busy all morning. When we stopped doing the taxi service we persuaded Megan and the glamour girls to get on the back and we took all 7 scoots on a harum scarum ride around the city centre in convoy with Megan capturing it all on video cam. We were constantly using the horns to draw attention to ourselves and the whole thing was a huge hoot - we even spotted some bystanders and tourists filming us!. We probably p*ssed off a load of cage drivers as we barged in and took up the tiniest gap in the traffic - very Italian sylee
If it wasn't for the fact that it was grey and about 7C in temperature you could almost imagine yourself in Rome
Anyhoo, the whole thing was great fun, and I got paid to loon around on scoots for the morning, and who knows we may appear on a BT promo video.
...I'd rather stick a swarm of angry wasps up my arse
