Friday, July 17, 2009

Hangin' with the Harpers

We were lucky enough to be invited to 24 Sussex this summer to pour beer for the Prime Minister’s annual garden party.

I’m a very proud Canadian and being able to serve Beau’s at the Prime Minister’s house was quite a thrill. It also started bringing up all sorts of Hollywood movie memories. Its quite the Forest Gump feeling having your picture taken with the Prime Minister…where he’s good at ping pong, we’re good at beer.

And when photographers took a shot of us while Mrs Harper poured a pint of beer, the Big Lebowski quotes kept jumping through the old noggin…”yes, this picture was taken was Mrs. Reagan was first lady of the country; yes, yes, not of the state”. Although we were a bit luckier than the Big Lebowski in that Mr. Harper also found time for a picture with us.

I also found out that Mr. and Mrs. Harper have very similar senses of humour…
Me: Would you like to try pouring another pint, Mrs. Harper?
Mrs. Harper: No; I don’t really see that as a skill I need to master.
Me: Yeah, I guess you’ve got a pretty good gig already, eh?
Mrs. Harper: Yes, yes I do. I spent a couple hours on the motorcycle today.

And later…

Me: Would you like to try that again, Prime Minister
Mr. Harper: No. I don’t see that I need to master that skill
Me: That’s probably true…but if you don’t mind, I’m going to drink this beer that was poured for me by the Prime Minister of Canada
Mr. Harper: Cheers.

All in all we were there for three days, Rob and I did the first two nights and my Dad and Jamie did the third. Quite a cool experience.