The Queen and I

Helen Mirren's BAFTA success for her portrayal of Her Maj. HRH Queen Elizabeth II in the film "The Queen" seeded an idea for this weeks blog: of the time I almost met the queen while out for a wonder on the Balmoral Estate with a friend - not once, but twice.

It was a couple of years back, we were taking a wonder up a track from the Braemar side of Lochnagar towards a small chalet style cabin that sits on a little lake/fishing pond. We had intended to stop and have a cup of coffee there. The cabin in question is obviously used and being on the Balmoral estate it's easy to imagine that one might bump into a minor royal. As Anna and I walked up the track four or five corgies came bounding down the track towards us, I said they looked like the Queens dogs (meaning they looked like corgies). Anna took this to mean I meant that they were the Queens dogs which she thought highly unlikely.

As we approached the cabin a lady came towards us and suggested we might like to take a different path, and as we stood there thinking about this who stepped out? The Queen of course. Needless to say we were so surprised we took the alternative path and had our coffee elsewhere. Later that day as we were walking along the track back to the car two Range Rovers trundled past. The lead one driven by the Queen, driving like my Grandmother. So twice in one day we were a matter of metres away from the Queen, without a barrier, crowds, minions or anyone else surrounding her. She struck us as incredibly ordinary stood there in her wellies and plaid skirt and hunched over the wheel of her car. She did give us a smile and a wave.

A headline in yesterdays Guardian caught my eye, "Blair to give £1 for every £2 gift to universities". Wow, how generous of him, I thought. The money grabbing, celebrity hugging, corporate indulging champion of the fashionable is going to stick his hand is own pocket and do something worthwhile. Then I remembered the mornings edition of "Today" and everything became a little clearer. Of course Blair isn't going to dip into his own pockets (he's mortgaged up to his eyes by all accounts anyway), no, the real story I reckon is that the Grauniads is starting a belated campaign for a peerage by printing overly flattering headlines.

And now for something completely different; our little girl is now almost a month old, and boy is she growing quickly. My partner had planned to plant a tree burying the placenta under it. One of her colleagues asked whether there was some tradition behind this. At the time we had to admit that we had no idea it just seemed like a good idea. Well it turns out that there is a vast cultural of placenta "disposal" including burial beneath a tree (Hawaii I think). Try this Google search http://www.google... search?q=burying+placenta. Sadly because of circumstances we were unable to keep the placenta. We did, however, plant a plum tree for the wee one. Finally, just in case anyone is wondering how green we are, yes we do use cloth nappies. As such they have proven to be less trouble than conventional disposable nappies when used in combination with disposable nappy liners.

A regular blog service should resume from next week, that's all for now folks.


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