Q1) 10th September, 2020, saw the death of Dame Diana Rigg. She played Mrs. Winifred Gillyflower in a 2013 episode of Dr Who. Who played the Doctor in that episode: David Tennant, Matt Smith or Peter Capaldi?
A1) MattSmith. (The Crimson Horror is a fun episode. But always leaves me thinking of this scene from Carry on Screaming. Frying TONIGHT!)
Q2) 10th September is the feast day of Saint Nicholas of Tolentino. He’s the patron saint of whom: ferrets, babies or judges?
*I think I’m going to apologise, now, Olgaª. I’ve seriously managed to mangle the language, in today’s video!
Charles’ taking the post has been debated for years. As I recall, the discussion started after he and Diana divorced. The feeling was that — if he was going to break his marital vows — what would he do with the far more serious coronation oath? I think he’d tell us where to get off, if it was suggested, now. He’s been preparing for this for a lifetime.
Stamina would help, Olga: but I suspect that — like the Spanish royal family — they get a lot of support.
I caught her speech, too. Remind me not to buy cheese from her!
At any rate … ? We’ve now got a date for the funeral: it’s next Monday. Once that’s done, things can start to get back to normal. Until the Coronation, at any rate. That should be next year.
Hopefully? I’ll have met my case worker, by then! (And hopefully, I’d’ve got the next cost of living payment.)
† Hello, Mum!
‡ Talking about extended credit, Debbiª? Did I ever mention We Can Rule You Wholesale? The fictional nation anthem of the equally fictional Ankh-Morpork, on Terry Pratchett’s Discworld? The first verse ends with;
‘We own all your helmets, we own all your shoes
We own all your generals - touch us and you'll lose.’
At any rate, Debbi? The UK’s government is arcane! (Charles did an address on Friday: where he reminded us the Sovereign Grant — the money the Royals get from government — stays in place. In return, the government gets the far greater amount of money from the CrownEstate.)
ª They’ve just played a clip of the national anthem on the radio. Again. I’m starting to hate that tune: God knows what the Queen thought of it!
Q4) Barcelona!!! (Not shouting, singing with Montserrat Caballé and Freddie Mercury)
Q5) Wine regions Thanks, Paul. In recent years this day had been very politicized, although with the pandemic, things got more complicated. Let's hope things look up. And yes, I know what you mean about Charles and the BBC. Here (well, not here, in Madrid), Isabel Ayuso, who is the president of the community of Madrid, decided to declare three days of mourning on the passing of Elizabeth II. She is famous for her "controversial" and I'd add "attention seeking" decisions. She likes theatrics and has a bit of Trump's populism (although most people don't seem to take her so seriously, and her party doesn't either. Of course,she's right wing) and people were reminding her a few things (yes, Gibraltar as well, but also the fact that we don't belong to the Commonwealth, and that she has no power to call official mourning. It has to be the central government. To make matters worse she compared it to other times when they'd lowered the flags (like the pandemic, because, of course, many elderly and citizens in general died there. The problem is there were questionable decisions about not removing elderly people from the nursing homes that resulted in more deaths, so...) I hope things work out, whatever happens. After all, the monarchy doesn't hold any real power, but so much good could be done with the money spent on them (and by them), but probably wouldn't, looking at how well the politicians handle everything.
Speaking of funerals Penny and I had the misfortune to fly out of Gatwick on the morning of the funeral of Diana Princess of Wales. Gatwick airport was operating on the very minimum staff it could and still stay open. We checked in and had our bags weighed and then they were given back to us and we took them over and placed them in the container which went into the aircraft.
We were going on a holiday booked months earlier. We flew from Gatwick to Innsbruck en route for 2 weeks at Mayrhofen. The driver of the coach from Innsbruck airport to the resort decided because he had a coach full of English tourists to put on the BBC world service broadcast so that we could hear the funeral. Penny was very annoyed at this. As a Communist she would have dealt with the whole Royal family in the way the Russians dealt with their last Tsar.
On the evening of Diana’s accident we were awoken by a 05.00 (London time) Sunday morning phone call. It was Penny’s sister Patsy calling us from late evening (21.00) Saturday night in Vancouver. She was asking what we knew. As we had bee deep asleep it was nothing. I got out of bed and went next door into the lounge and put the TV on. There was martial music playing on the BBC who at that time did not know if the Princess was alive or not. We told Patsy that there was no news here in London at that time and went back to sleep.
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Q1) Catalunya
ReplyDeleteQ2) It is in the north-east! Now, now... Spain.
Q3) Andorra
Q4) Barcelona!!! (Not shouting, singing with Montserrat Caballé and Freddie Mercury)
Q5) Wine regions
Thanks, Paul. In recent years this day had been very politicized, although with the pandemic, things got more complicated. Let's hope things look up. And yes, I know what you mean about Charles and the BBC. Here (well, not here, in Madrid), Isabel Ayuso, who is the president of the community of Madrid, decided to declare three days of mourning on the passing of Elizabeth II. She is famous for her "controversial" and I'd add "attention seeking" decisions. She likes theatrics and has a bit of Trump's populism (although most people don't seem to take her so seriously, and her party doesn't either. Of course,she's right wing) and people were reminding her a few things (yes, Gibraltar as well, but also the fact that we don't belong to the Commonwealth, and that she has no power to call official mourning. It has to be the central government. To make matters worse she compared it to other times when they'd lowered the flags (like the pandemic, because, of course, many elderly and citizens in general died there. The problem is there were questionable decisions about not removing elderly people from the nursing homes that resulted in more deaths, so...)
I hope things work out, whatever happens. After all, the monarchy doesn't hold any real power, but so much good could be done with the money spent on them (and by them), but probably wouldn't, looking at how well the politicians handle everything.
1 Catalunya
ReplyDelete2 Spain
3 Andorra
4 Barcelona
5 Wine
Speaking of funerals Penny and I had the misfortune to fly out of Gatwick on the morning of the funeral of Diana Princess of Wales. Gatwick airport was operating on the very minimum staff it could and still stay open. We checked in and had our bags weighed and then they were given back to us and we took them over and placed them in the container which went into the aircraft.
ReplyDeleteWe were going on a holiday booked months earlier.
We flew from Gatwick to Innsbruck en route for 2 weeks at Mayrhofen.
The driver of the coach from Innsbruck airport to the resort decided because he had a coach full of English tourists to put on the BBC world service broadcast so that we could hear the funeral. Penny was very annoyed at this. As a Communist she would have dealt with the whole Royal family in the way the Russians dealt with their last Tsar.
On the evening of Diana’s accident we were awoken by a 05.00 (London time) Sunday morning phone call. It was Penny’s sister Patsy calling us from late evening (21.00) Saturday night in Vancouver. She was asking what we knew. As we had bee deep asleep it was nothing. I got out of bed and went next door into the lounge and put the TV on. There was martial music playing on the BBC who at that time did not know if the Princess was alive or not. We told Patsy that there was no news here in London at that time and went back to sleep.
Perhaps it's time for Johnny Rotten to write a new song? Or a variation on his old one. :)
ReplyDelete1. Catalunya
2. Spain
3. Andorra
4. Barcelona
5. wine regions