The Audience...with the Queen

THE AUDIENCE....

One of the things Sally asked for as a birthday present this year was an evening at the theatre to see

The Audience - a play starring the famous British actress Helen Mirren. The synopsis goes like this...

For sixty years Elizabeth II has met each of her twelve Prime Ministers in a weekly audience at Buckingham Palace, a meeting like no other in British public life because it is private. Both parties have an unspoken agreement never to repeat what is said. Not even to their spouses. The Audience breaks this contract of silence – and imagines a series of pivotal meetings between the Downing Street incumbents and their Queen. From Churchill to Cameron, each Prime Minister has used these private conversations as a sounding board and a confessional, sometimes intimate, sometimes explosive.

From young mother to grandmother, these private audiences chart the arc of the second Elizabethan Age. Politicians come and go through the revolving door of electoral politics, while she remains constant, waiting to welcome her next Prime Minister.

With William in New York, Sally, Mark, Aisha and Mark's Mum, Elizabeth, headed out for what turned out to be a great night of theatre. Not all 12 Prime Ministers were included in the performance.  Some, including Tony Blair, were only referred to. The young princess Elizabeth was represented throughout the play as she learnt for her future role.  There were some poignant moments and some in which she railed against the duty that would have to be done and the constant service given.

After the play was finished, we headed round to Stage Door, as we usually do when we go to the theatre in London, and waited to see Helen Mirren.  She duly appeared and was gracious in her conversation with the small crowd, thanking all for waiting on a cold and wet evening and encouraging us to head home, which she then did too!

WITH THE QUEEN...

The week after, it was Mark's 50th birthday!! For such an auspicious occasion one must celebrate in style, so we dispensed with actresses playing the Queen, and took Mark to visit the real one! Sally had gone in the ballot for tickets to the annual series of Garden Parties held by the Queen at Buckingham Palace and Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh. She was fortunate to not only get tickets for her and Mark, but also for Elizabeth, who was kept in the dark till only a few days before. The only instruction Mark had given his Mum was to bring a nice outfit for a special function. Sally, knowing how much she herself was worrying about what in the world to wear and where to find a matching hat, when to get her hair done, what shoes were best with the dress etc etc, encouraged Mark to let Elizabeth know so she didn't go into meltdown on the day!

Sally got the tickets, but protocol dictates that Mr Strutt is noted first!

So, duly spruced up, Mark and Elizabeth met Sally outside the gates of Buckingham Palace and made their way in to join some 8,000 others for a pretty swish afternoon tea in HRH's back garden!

The weather had been fairly good for the preceding days but threatened all afternoon. It was much cooler than forecast and we saw many glammed up young (and not so young) things tottering around on ridiculous high heels sinking into the lawn and shivering. We agreed there really should be better dress rules!

Having swiftly secured an early afternoon tea, including little cakes with the crown iced on top, we left others in the queue and went to await the arrival of whichever royals were to appear on the day (always a surprise!). As it turned out, we saw all of the key royals there on the day - the Queen stopped right in front of us and spoke for about 5 minutes with a family who was being presented to her. She was so close we were able to listen in on the conversation and observe HRH at close quarters.  She was much smaller than we had thought, had lovely skin and beautiful blue eyes!

The lake, looking back to the tents

yeomen in front of the royal tent

We then moved across to the next "corridor" (grass area with guests forming lines down each side, which the royals walked down so everyone could peer at them as they met those who were being presented). Here we saw the Duke of Edinburgh having a laugh with various guests. He seemed in good form and quite sprightly given his age. As he went past, we moved to the last corridor and watched Prince Charles go by. We didn't fuss too much about him because we'd already met him in 2011! Further back, the Duchess of Cornwall followed. She stopped to ask a couple women next to us where they had come from and when they had chatted, Sally, extrovert that she is, advised that her mother-in-law had come all the way from Australia. Thereafter followed a conversation of some several minutes between the three of them about the recent royal visit to Australia and how much they enjoyed it! She seemed very nice and jolly and wore her great big hat with style!

After some more patient waiting, The Duchess of Cambridge slowly made her way up the same corridor. She stopped beside us and spoke with two women who had worked in the doctor's surgery she visited early in her pregnancy. As she stood but a mere metre away, we were able to inspect at close quarters the baby bump, the make-up and hair, the very white teeth and THAT RING - it's huge!!!

Guess who we saw?!!

If you are wondering where the photos of all this royal watching are, you need to know that Sally earnestly obeyed the rules spelled out on the invitation regarding NOT bringing cameras.

She firmly, some might say stridently, even vehemently lectured Mark and Elizabeth on obeying the ROYAL rules ( SEE ABOVE) and not jeopardising her ENTIRE  DIPLOMATIC career AND the reputation of the Australian NATION by possibly causing a royal SCANDAL. Faced by such a barrage, Mark & his lovely, gentle, almost saintly 80 year old mother brought no cameras along to record this truly once in a lifetime experience.

None.

Nada.  Niente.  Netchgo.  Ingenting.  Nihil.  τιποτα δεν.  아주 적은.  Ekkert.  Nash.i  Nichts.

None.

We were not long in the grounds of the palace before we realised that no one else had followed the rules. These PLEBS had kept their mobiles switched ON and were taking photos anywhere AND everywhere they pleased. Willy. Nilly.

Saddest of all was the fact that neither Sally, Mark nor Elizabeth have a mobile phone with a camera worth taking pictures on. When Sally finally broke down and decided to join all the rule breakers, she only got photos on a crappy phone camera.  This explains why we have so few photos and why they are of such poor quality!!

WHY DIDN'T SHE LISTEN TO MARK !!!????!!!

main and royal tents

Despite the lack of photos, we ate well, loved the beautiful gardens we were able to wander, and had a fabulous time!  Here are some of those that Sally did take....

Illegally photographed...by Sally.

Inner gates

The end of an afternoon to remember!

in the forecourt

An afternoon to remember and a special way to celebrate some special birthdays in 2013 !

NB this post is largely written by Sally ...with a few lines by Mark. 

Can you guess which lines ?

WILLIAM TURNS 12 AND VISITS ELY CATHEDRAL, THE NATIONAL GALLERY & THE PUB. AGAIN.

Our boy turned 12 on the 10th of June. Having arrived here in late 2010 as a 9 year old, he is now almost a teenager. Heavens! 

William's birthday falls on the Australian long weekend for the Queen's birthday so he often is away for it. This year was an exception. Although Sally had the day off and we were supposed to be going away, in the end a combination of a work function (subsequently called off) and all of us just being a bit weary from so many weekends away meant we stayed in town - mostly. 

We had briefly visited Ely Cathedral, just outside of Cambridge, back in 2011. It impressed us and we had intended to return for a longer visit. On 'William's birthday long weekend' we drove up for another look with friends Denise and Rowley Tompsett from Australia who were staying a few nights with us. It remains one of the most beautiful cathedrals we have seen - and William will tell you we have seen a more than a few!

ceiling detail.

 

The first Christian building on the site was founded by St. Etheldreda, daughter of the Anglo-Saxon King Anna of East Anglia, who was born in 630. After the end of her second marriage to Ecgfrith, a prince of Northumbria, she set up and ruled a monastery at Ely in 673. When she died, on June 23, 679, possibly of a throat tumour caused by the bubonic plague, a shrine was built there to her memory.

The monastery and the whole city is generally believed to have been destroyed in the Danish invasions of the late 9th century. One relic from the 700s remains in the form of the base of a stone cross dedicated to Ovin, Etheldreda's steward.

Ovin's stone.

The present cathedral was started under William I in 1083 and survived until 1539& Henry VIII's 'Dissolution of the Monasteries'. While the cathedral suffered only minor damage, St Etheldreda's shrine was destroyed. The cathedral was soon refounded in 1541, although many of the statues in the lady chapel were severely damaged. 

 As with almost all the once Catholic churches in England, the stained glass windows were smashed out during the nation wide orgy of anti papist destruction of the 1530s. The beautiful windows there now are from Victorian times.

In 1322 the Norman built central tower collapsed. It was replaced by the current beautifully decorated octagonal tower.

Mark's mum playing 'peek a boo'.

Apart from the splendour of the architecture, the windows and the painting, Ely Cathedral has a variety of graffiti some being more than 300 years old. Alongside the cathedral is a house which has been there even longer.

It is almost impossible to go anywhere in England without finding something historical. What many might consider long past can be here as if it were in living memory.

There was a military commemoration service on that afternoon. As we were leaving the Cathedral Rowley's subtle Australiana drew the attention of one of the officers. It turned out that after serving in Iraq and Afghanistan and winning a DSO and MC for the Australian Army he decided to join the British army. Mick is now Commanding Officer of the 1 R ANGLIAN regiment and this week received another DSO from the Queen.

The Cathedral's modern history includes various movie roles including standing in for Westminster Abbey in the film of The King's Speech. It also featured in The Other Boleyn Girl and Elizabeth:The Golden Age.

To complete the historical experience we popped into a house once lived in by Oliver Cromwell - the man who overturned the monarchy, had King Charles I executed and ended up leading the Commonwealth of England from 1653 - 58. An intensely religious man he also banned Christmas as a pagan festival. After his death from illness in 1658 he was buried in Westminster Abbey, with all the pomp of a king. After the royalists returned to power in 1660 King Charles II ordered Cromwell's corpse along with other leaders of the commonwealth and regicides ( king killers) John Bradshaw and Henry Ireton,to be dug up, hung in chains, and beheaded. Their heads were placed on a 20-foot (6.1 m) spike above Westminster Hall. There they stayed for 25 years when the pole fell down during a storm. Cromwell's head ended up in the hands of various people including distant relatives, private collectors and museum owners until 25 March 1960, when it was buried at Sidney Sussex College in Cambridge.

Considered a regicidal dictator by some and a hero of liberty by others, Cromwell was placed in a 2002 BBC poll in Britain as one of the ten greatest Britons of all time.

Mark's mum wanted to celebrate the variety of birthdays by going out. Denise and Rowley joined us as did Mark's Auntie Mary. After returning from Ely and having a suitable hour of rest, we walked to one of our local pubs, The Bald Faced Stag.

Will loves his Auntie Mary.

But we all know there is no arguing with her !

It was a fun but late night with kids being silly on the way home.

Planking.

We love Shakespeare Gardens !!!!

We had intended for the kids to have the Monday off as part of the Australian long weekend. As it turned out we didn't go away and Aisha opted to go to school. Will reminded Mark & Sally of the importance of keeping one's word and stayed at home. Rather than letting him lay about we went into central London for the day. He decided he wanted to be at Big Ben when it sounded 12 for his 12th birthday. We took in the heart of the city before walking up Whitehall, past number 10 and up to Trafalgar Square to the National Gallery to show Grandma a couple of his favourite paintings - Sunflowers by Van Gough and The Execution of Lady Jane Gray by Paul Delaroche.

That night Mary joined us for 'the great unwrapping' and dinner with cake. Will cooked his own birthday cake again - this time a lemon drizzle polenta cake.

Next year we will get him to wrap his own presents.

William received far too many presents. His enjoyment of cooking was encouraged by Auntie Mary giving a cookbook of hers from the early 80s along with copies of the Olympic and Paralympic DVDs. We gave him a couple of aprons - one from The Royal Yacht Britannia and the other from Windsor Castle.

rubber ducky, you're the one....

Although he is keen on cooking he is still a boy and also loves sport, cars, chocolate and money.

It was a lovely evening of hugs all round.