Hiya froglettes,

Well, froglets, I have now just about recovered from my bit of volunteering at the World Coracle Rowing Championships and what a carry on that was!

I thought volunteering would be a blast and indeed it was – apart from the Closing Ceremony which was watched by just about everyone in the world!

You see, my boss, Reggie, had asked me to look after the VIP box which meant checking the tickets of guests when they arrived at the entrance and showing them to their seats before the ceremony started. Well, all was going fine until Fergus Snapfish (from that famous sailing family) arrived and showed me his ticket, no. 66. I showed him to his seat and then went back to the entrance.

A short while later when I was showing some other guests to their seats, I glanced over and found Mr Snapfish having a furious argument with a tall frog who looked like Toby Topaz (a famous rower) over the seat. Looking at their faces, it did not look good so I pretended I had not noticed and went back to the entrance passing Reggie on the way who was rushing passed me, probably to deal with Fergus Snapfish and Toby Topaz.

I followed him and sure enough, there he was trying to calm the two cross frogs down and see what had caused their argument. Both frogs showed Reggie their tickets which he had a good look at and then I heard him say, “I am so sorry, Mr Snapfish, but there has been a mix up. You see, you are sitting in the wrong seat, this is in fact Mr Topaz’s seat.   If you would like to come with me, I will show you to your correct seat.”

Still looking cross, Fergus Snapfish followed Reggie to his new seat, in my opinion, it was a better one as being higher up in the VIP box, it had a better view of the ceremony.   Then, before I could disappear, Reggie made a bee-line for me and said my name, “Errol” in a not-to-be-disobeyed tone of voice.

My heart sunk, froglettes, as Reggie informed me that Mr Snapfish’s ticket was no. 99, not no. 66 as I had thought. He said that the confusion was all my fault but how was I to know that he had shown me his ticket up-side down!

The next day I was reading my newspaper, The Tropical Reed, and on the front page was there a photograph of the Closing Ceremony? No, it was two photographs of the argument between Fergus Snapfish and Toby Topaz which would not have happened had Fergus not given me his ticket upside down.

Oh, the embarrassment of my mistake being in the newspaper. Apparently, it had made good television watching!

Yours very embarrassed –

E