branson pickle

Last week, I saw Rowan Atkinson.

This week, it was Richard Branson.

Christ, this celebrity spotting is making me religious.

It's not like I'm hanging out at The Ivy, I mean we saw Richard in the tube ok.

The Brit and I were on our way out to the East End, where much of the London Marathon was taking place. Thought we'd do a bit of egging on, whilst drinking beer, from the sidelines.

Jump into a carriage on the Jubilee Line, and Brit turns to me, just as I see the shock of white hair: "It's Richard Branson, holy shit, it's Richard Branson."

The dude wasn't sitting, he as standing at the door, and I smiled my widest, most broadest cheesy smile and he smiled right back.

"I need to take a picture."

Brit: No it would be really obvious.

Peas: I can't just say 'I saw Branson' right after I saw Atkinson, nobody would believe me.

Brit: True.

Peas: [pull out cellphone and take a snap. Feel very embarrassed] Crap. I just got him leaning over. Need to try again.

Brit: Oh God, ok let me stand here and you take it over my shoulder.

Peas: [snap]. OK I think I took it too far.

Brit: Why?

Peas: He's pulling a zap at me. With his index finger.

Brit: Branson just pulled a zap at you.

Peas: He also smiled at me.

Brit: This is too cool. [Both frantically upload picture onto Facebook]

The great thing about the marathon - besides the fact we saw the dude that was sponsoring it take a tube like any of us normal people - was the support.

Everyone has their names emblazoned across their sweaty t-shirts as they run, so we could stand on the sidelines shouting their names ("Go on Mary! You're doing great! Come on Dale! You can do it!") for about an hour, and then lost our voices.

Double-triple excitement: Poen, who is getting married in February next year, has asked me to be her bridesmaid. The honour! The excitement! I'll be going back to South Africa for it, and I truly can't wait.

*On the title: Branston Pickle to the UK is what Mrs Balls is to South Africa. Richard Branson didn't create pickle; he created money, credit cards, trains and planes. However we did have a giggle about the fact that someone could mistake the world's most famous CEO as the dude that created pickle, simply because of his surname. Am willing to bet that this has happened.