As I was saying...!
The last month since the Celebration Dinner seems to have been like going over a waterfall - or perhaps a turbulent breakwater as suggested by Jeff Cant's account of the Royalist Regatta in the "Recent News" section. Actually I don't recognise Jeff's account at all, since my recollection is that we spent the two days reclining on the poop deck in velvet smoking jackets reading Swinburne - I think Jeff must have been smoking something funny!
To tea with the Queen on 6 June at a Royal Garden Party!
One of the highlights of the Master’s year, the invitation coincided with splendid weather – I gather for the first time this “Summer” from other Masters who’d been there in appalling weather – and it was a fascinating afternoon. Only in Britain, I think, would you see close protection officers wearing morning dress without intimidating sunglasses and earpieces!
The opportunity to walk around the garden – sans flamingos for some reason – and see the largest ornamental urn in the known universe was well worth the queues at the front entrance.
Parking on the Mall without undue attention of parking wardens was refreshing and the gathering in Her Majesty’s back garden was fascinating at all kinds of levels! Precipitous heels sinking in lawns ... universal ignoring of the apparently strong proscription of cameras ... and of course, a very fine line in thinly-sliced cucumber sandwiches!
Another part of the waterfall experience was the annual Iron Bridge Weekend - not a Cockney rhyming slang reference to Swinburne's oeuvre - but the opportunity for all Livery Masters and their Consorts to visit the excellent museums at the Iron Bridge UNESCO World Heritage Site marking the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution. Having lived near Iron Bridge in my early childhood and visited some of the sites before they became museums, I was astonished at the way in which the rather dry exhibits had been brought to life in a way that would certainly have appealed to the early me!
The weekend is a great way for the year-group of Masters to relax together without the robes and “bling” and a great time was had by all. Tradition is that each set of Masters adopts a name for its Past Masters Association that will work and play together in subsequent years and the big issue is the decision on the name to adopt!
Previous groups have had pretty fanciful names and this one decided – having considered Baker’s Dozen, Lucky Thirteen, Diamond (Jubilee) Geezers amongst others – to plump for “The Grate Thirteen”. There remains some uncertainty whether it’s Great as in Great Twelve or less provocatively, Grate as in iron, but that will be settled as soon as something needs to be printed no doubt!
Still haven’t caught up with the month, but, in the immortal words of Arnie, “I’ll be back”!