Tuesday, April 11, 2006

80 - the same age as my uncle

Husband just told me that the Queen has given away 78,000 Christmas puddings during her life. That is just one - and the only one he could remember - of the 80 facts about the Queen listed on the Buckingham Palace website (or as it is called, The Official Website of the British Monarchy) http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page4823.asp

It also says that she's entertained 1.1 million people at garden parties - and I'm one of those! Yay, I've been to tea with the Queen. We did have cucumber sandwiches and all sorts of yummy food but we were kept away from the VIPs, who were herded into a roped-off area, for our safety I expect.

But there was remarkably little security apart from men in big bushy hats on the gate - or perhaps it just wasn't obvious.

The interesting thing was that, at the end the band played God save the Queen, and that was, apparently, the signal for the waiters to stop serving. I asked for a glass of barley water just as they started playing and the tea-lady looked around anxiously as she slid a glass across the table to me. 'We're not supposed to serve you once the Queen has left,' she whispered. I was expecting a man with a grey mac to come and take my drink and me off to the tower.

Why a grey mac, I wonder? A sort of faceless bureaucrat I suppose.

Another interesting fact - but about my family not hers - is that my uncle and my great-aunt have also been to garden parties at the palace. But not all at the same time. In fact, great-auntie Vi went twice.

1 comment:

MaryB said...

The Queen and I share a birthday - the month and day, not the year. (April 21) She's never once sent me birthday greetings. Never. :-(

But unlike the Queen, I celebrate my birthday ON my birthday, not some random day in June.

Happy Birthday, Liz Windsor! (Is she amused?)