They’d tidied up the village by the time I went running this morning but there seemed to be a lot of community policemen around. o had heard sounds of merriment drifting in from outside as I went to bed last night but it all seemed goodnatured. The cashier in the coop store said the village had been a mess when she arrived very early this morning. Clearly someone had been busy in the couple of hours since then. One of the coop employees was busily taking down Union Jack bunting, a sign that the jubilee and Whit Friday are now officially over and done with.
We strolled round the village, but not into the crowded centre, late yesterday afternoon. There was no need to go right into the centre as we could hear the bands perfectly well from the outer lanes around the village. Very good they were too! I have heard community bands in various parts of Spain and Italy and they almost always sound very tinny (not brass at all then) and decidedly amateur. They couldn’t hold a candle to those competing in yesterday’s band contest.
Today I went to our local Tesco in Greenfield. There seemed to be quite a large number of whiney and moany children. The cashier said there had been a lot of such tearful children all morning. “I expect they stayed up too late last night!” she said, “When my children were small we always took them home by 8 o’ clock. They’d had enough by then.” Well, yes, quite so! But yesterday evening was beautifully mild and sunny, if a little blustery. Today, by way of a change, is blustery without the mild and sunny bit!
My friend Colin commented recently on some Spaniards’ amazement at our queen taking part in sketches with Paddington Bear, not forgetting with James Bond back in 2012 for the opening ceremony of the London Olympic Games. Colin said that the Spanish take their royalty seriously and expect them to be dignified (that perhaps explains Juan Carlos’s fall from grace!). The same applies to politicians - would they ever stand someone as shambolic-looking as our PM?
And now Prince William has been out on the streets selling the Big Issue! Whatever next? Perhaps good works should be done in a genteel fashion, not involving serving food in shelters for the homeless and selling the Big Issue. I suppose the heir to the Spanish throne, currently studying at a school in the UK, is a bit young to be out and about doing good works. Mind you, according to one of the characters in a novel I just read set in Victorian England - Sarah Moss: Bodies of Light - children of good Christian families should be involved in good works from a very young age! It stops them taking things for granted!
The immediate heir to our throne has been courting controversy again, commenting that Priti Patel’s Rwanda plan for refugees is appalling. Give him his due, this was in a private conversation, the content of which has been leaked, and the firm is neither confirming nor denying that he said any such thing. But just the leak has led to some speculation as to how easy and accommodating a monarch he will turn out to be. Will he find it hard to refrain from political comment? It was interesting that one of the pundits commenting on Prince Charles’ supposed opinion said that she wholeheartedly agreed with him. Quite so!
Incidentally, while I am rambling on about royal people, why do we refer to the King of Spain as King Felipe and not King Philip? Our queen is usually Isabel in Spanish newspapers. Charles is el Principe Carlos. William and Kate used to be Guillermo y Catalina bit lately I notice its Guillermo y Kate. Harry and Meghan, no longer proper members of the family firm, remain as Meghan y Harry. So it goes.
Life goes on. Stay safe and well, everyone!
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