The day is Wednesday 8th September. (Due to work commitments couldn’t be Freddie on Friday the 3rd). It started like any other day, then I receive a phonecall from my Mum saying she was looking at a photo of me on the front page of a free weekly paper. I had not told my family about my crazy antics.
I finish getting myself ready (much to my son’s disgust) and Mum picks up my 9 year old son as he didn’t want to be seen with me.
I walk down the road to the bus stop, all the while getting odd looks. Some people didn’t look at me, some met my eye and smiled, whilst some just looked the other way.
When the bus arrives the driver just breaks into laugher, which made me laugh. I found out that wearing a moustache can make laughing and smiling difficult as it threatened to come off. As people get on the bus within the next 30 minutes, I still get some funny looks, but no-one talks to me!!!!
Arrive at EIT (local polytech). As I walk into class, there are gales of laughter and a number of cameras come out and photos are taken. Then its down to serious business of studying Maori.
At break time I convince a friend to come for a walk around the campus with me handing out leaflets I had made up.
At lunch time a group of us head to a pub for lunch where there are more photos taken. It was hard to drink a beer with a moustache on, as it would soak up a little bit each time. Grr, I just sucked the edges of it.
It was then back to afternoon class (albeit a bit late) where I was made to sing and dance to Freddie’s Great Pretender!!! Hello, I cannot sing, but I did my best (maybe the beer helped???).
At afternoon tea time I descended on the cafeteria and managed to get behind the counter and pretend to make a coffee, now that was fun.
Sadly the day ended really quick and it was another bus ride home and walk down the street.
Would I do it again??? You bet I would. I love Freddie and the music of Queen.
I hope that next year here in Napier, New Zealand more people might take to the idea. I am going to try and find someone to make me a yellow Freddie jacket and the pants.
When I get a few spare dollars I hope to buy a Freddie For A Day tshirt from the site, as it is an excellent cause.
My own personal story to this is that in 1991 I had spinal surgery and received a blood transfusion post surgery. The following year New Zealand introduced compulsory screening for HIV/AIDS for all blood donations. As the blood I received hadn’t been screened, I went for an HIV test once a year for a number of years. The tests consistently came back clear.
I will be rocking it out for Freddie every year I can.
Megan
Napier, New Zealand
