Friday, 10 June 2011

Brushes With Royalty

I have just finished watching The Prince at 90. An interview between Fiona Bruce and Prince Philip. Blimey, he was awful to her. I think she showed 'fear in the face of adversity' or actually sat there quaking in the chair. Joanna Lumley described him as a 'Hawk Like'. Fiona was his prey and frankly I would have loved it if she had fought back... Twitter was awash with comments. One particularly funny - by @jannism

'Well I think Fiona Bruce handled that admirably. If "admirably" were to mean "like a cringeworthy, sycophantic arse cloud" '.

All I can say is get your Leathers back on love and assume the 'Cowgirl' position.

Talking of Royalty the extended Muse family have had our fair share of 'up close and personal' moments with them. My dad, in his prime, was a bit of a cheeky sod. At some point during the early sixties, Princess Anne locked herself out of her car in the middle of a huge storm. My father happened to be around and managed to break into her car and send her on her way. Fast forward to the eighties. We were on tour with the Donuts in Cyprus and Princess Anne was on a visit. My father could not get into the Sycophants line up as he was only a Mini (non glazed, variety) Donut at the time and took matters into his own hands. He had a huge collection of cameras as he has always been an avid photographer and strung the most impressive of which around his neck. Strolling nonchalantly to the end of the line he flashed his 'Press Pass' and got some great pics of her and brazenly asked her if she remembered her 'Knight in Shining Armour'. Apparently she did!

My mum is such a sweet thing, she gets all of a fluster about Royalty and launches into her Hyacinth Bouquet routine (scary...) when they arrive in the same County as her. This was not to be in 1970's in Berlin though. We were there courtesy of the Boys in Blue, my fathers job prior to the Donuts and she heard that Prince Charles was landing at RAF Gatow. I can't remember, but I don't think it was an official visit, just a stop over. The news spread throught the married quarters like wildfire and my mother pulled a scarf over her rollers and hot footed it down to the airfield. Unfortunately for her, Charlie made a beeline for her and shook her hand, oh the shame of being pictured in your rollers in the local rag!

Not to be outdone, his father also embarrased my mother. Ma and Pa were loitering on Ascension Island, having fun on the Donut expense account and Prince Philip was on a 'scheduled' stop over, on his way to South America as President of the WWF. All the local dignitaries were lined up, dressed up in their finery. My mum was in the crowd. Philip wandered off the TriStar, ignored the line up and went straight up to my mother. He said hello and shook here hand. She was so shocked that she said, 'I hope you don't mind me saying but you look like you could do with a good Iron Sir'. He roared with laughter and moved on. Poor woman she has never got over it!

I have only had one brush myself. In 1991 I had landed in godforsaken Tidworth, a really horrible Army hell hole, after a blissful tour of Cyprus. What is it about those movement guys at MOD when they think its funny to post your husband to Tidworth after having such a great swan in the sun? Anyway I was driving home from work. I had just turned off the A303 toward Tidworth and could not understand why the roads were so quiet. I stopped at a junction to give way and there, right in front of me was the Queen in a glass topped Daimler. It was a perfect moment. Just me, Her Maj and her driver. I can only think that I had avoided the roadblock by taking my usual short cut, there wasn't even a Security Car in sight. I waved and 10 feet away she waved at me, sat in my humble Yugo.....awwww! Say what you like about the royals but I love Her Maj!

Last but not least, a couple of weeks ago The Queen arrived at Penzance Station on an Official visit. My number one son James works for Customer Services and the poor Queen stepped off the train to a reception of Truro 'Party Animals' AKA James, Olly and Treve....... I wonder if she has recovered from the shock!

Namaste

Muse x

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