Page 182 - Guiding LIghts: A History of the STGA 1959-2019

on when in public! This head was very wide and the costume was very hot to wear! We filmed at a Ceilidh, at The Forth Bridge, Stirling Castle, and the Panda played golf at Gleneagles! It was one of the funniest tours I have been involved with!!
‘Lastly I was asked by one of the hotels in Edinburgh to take an American couple on a day tour. I didn’t know till I returned these lovely guests back to the hotel, that the lady was Nancy Pelosi, the American politician!’
The key to the problem
By Norma Allan
‘Two Blue Badge guides and two coaches were visiting Loch Lomond Shores for shopping and a lunch break. At the appointed time for departure, the clients returned to the coaches and we were soon ready to depart. There was no sign of the driver.
In our absence the drivers were changing over and the original driver went off with the keys still in his pocket, leaving the new substitute driver without keys! I was speechless. There followed frantic phone calls before he sped off in the other coach to retrieve the missing keys. I had to bite the bullet and explain this unlikely story to the waiting passengers. They ‘werenae’ pleased, to put it mildly.
After what seemed like eternity, he returned, looking somewhat flustered. I was furious - a difficult day.’
The Gerard Butler fan club
By Norma Allan
‘Myself and another colleague were asked to be guides on a Gerard Butler Fan Club Tour.
For those unaware, he is a Hollywood film star brought up in Paisley and studied Law at Glasgow University. We guides travelled through to the west to do a reccy, to check out the key sites we would have to visit for the tour. What fun that was. When the tour day arrived, two old-looking coaches arrived with two rough-looking drivers. Soon the fans arrived; middle-aged ladies clutching effigies and photographs of Gerard Butler. As we were about to depart on the tour, I checked the microphone, only to find it was not working! The driver fiddled about with the wires but achieved nothing. I demanded that we somehow get a replacement immediately. I explained the situation to the ladies and said that I would shout my commentary from the middle of the coach until the new mike
181