Arrgh! U.K. women's group sorry about pirate costume blunder
A women's institute in a small English village says they arrrrr really embarrassed after members dressed up in eye patches and bandanas for a talk by a former sea captain who was held hostage by Somali pirates for several weeks.
According to the local North Devon Journal, the ladies of Parkham Women's Institute (WI) said they thought they were going to be given a talk about piracy on April 11 and decided to wear costumes in the spirit of the topic. It wasn't until Captain Colin Darch arrived, however, that they realized their mistake.
"The speaker at the April meeting was Captain Colin Darch, who talked about piracy," reads the report on the meeting. "Embarrassingly the WI all dressed as pirates for the evening not realising that Captain Darch was going to be talking about his experience of being held hostage by Somalia Pirates rather than piracy in general."
......
Darch found the entire thing rather amusing and didn't take offense. As the picture above shows, he was a very good sport.
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-202_162-57582602/arrgh-u.k-womens-group-sorry-about-pirate-costume-blunder/
= new reply since forum marked as read
Or a Monty Python skit! 
and am half Cornish. I can feel their embarrassment, almost! Cringe! 
I get embarrassed easily, maybe it's genetic. I learned over there that one must say "I'm sorry" about 20 times a day, so here's a real opportunity to mean it!
Thanks for the links, it's fun to get a little peek into life there.
I can't read about any Women's Institute story with out Calendar Girls playing in my head.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0337909/quotes
{seeking approval for the calendar at the National WI Conference}
Chris: I'm about to commit heresy. Look, I hate plum jam.
{laughter}
Chris: I only joined the WI to make my mother happy. I do, I hate plum jam. I'm crap at cakes, I can't make sponge. In fact, seeing as it's unlikely that George Clooney would actually come to Skipton to do a talk on what it was like to be in "ER", there seems very little reason for me to actually stay in the WI. Except suddenly... suddenly I want to raise money in memory of a man I loved, and to do that I'm prepared to take me clothes off for a WI calendar, and if you can't give us ten minutes of your time, Madam Chairman, well then, frankly, guys, I'm going to do it without council approval. Because there are some things that are more important than council approval. And if it means that we get closer to killing off this shitty, cheating, sly, conniving bloody disease that cancer is, oh God, I tell you, I'd run round Skipton market naked, smeared in plum jam, wearing nothing but a knitted tea cosy on me head and singing "Jerusalem".
{laughter}
It's drivin' me nuts!
