Friday, June 01, 2012

Keep calm and drink wine.

Happy Friday!  Happy first day of June!  I'm feeling in a celebratory mood.
This weekend, with a little pomp and circumstance, I'm going to join in the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II to the throne, from my little corner of California.
Sixty years, that's quite an achievement.  During her long reign Elizabeth II has managed to remain calm - suffering through bothersome in-laws, ever diminishing dominions, the waxing and waning of the monarchy's popularity and her famous annus horribilis - which I'd like to think could possibly be attributed to drinking wine. However, I hear the Queen often favours martinis over first-growth clarets.  But still, I bet she has a more than passable collection of Bordeaux in the cellars beneath Buckingham Palace.
So with my Union Jack embellished serviettes, fairy cake cases and yards and yards of bunting I'm ready for a party in Vinoland.
Deus servo Regina.

12 comments:

Affer said...

I quite like the idea that we Brits have someone other than a succession of idiots and mountebanks ultimately in charge of the land - and Her Maj fits the bill as well as anyone. She's a nice old girl. The thing is though that it isn't that tricky to reign for 60years when a) you don't have any REAL power or responsibility, and b) you are filthy rich! SHE doesn't have to personally prune a vineyard to make sure it is productive, and SHE doesn't have twenty-four 10,000 word dissertations to mark by Wednesday! I'd like her a whole lot more if she lent me a few equerries to help.

You can tell I'm a bit stressed....and anyway, her tipple is Gin and Dubonnet. Dubonnet! I ask you, how can you expect to rule the world on that stuff?

Thomas said...

"...I'm going to join in the celebrations for the 60th anniversary of the accession of Queen Elizabeth II to the throne from my little corner of California."

I did not know that Queen Elizabeth came from your little corner of California :)

Vinogirl said...

Affer: That's a lot of dissertations. I think the lending of an equerry, or three, would be in order. But don't you think having to play nice to a succession of imbecilic PMs (12 in all) would eventually take its toll?
Have a glass of Dubonnet my good fellow...the subsequent retching will take your mind off grading all those papers.

Thomas: The Queen travels well...better than my command of the English language apparently!

Thomas said...

Vinogirl,

There's an old Groucho Marx joke that starts with, "One morning, I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I don't know."

Vinogirl said...

Thomas: Was it by chance an elephant that eats, shoots and leaves?

Thud said...

Many of my fellow Brits plan to celebrate this weekend and it would be churlish of me to complain and moan...more power to her madge!

Vinogirl said...

Thud: A little diversion of this sort is good for the soul. Hope you're having a roast dinner on Sunday :)

Thud said...

Lamb chops and king Edward spuds!

Thomas said...

OK, what is makes the potatoes into king Edward spuds?

Vinogirl said...

Thud: Sounds good.

Thomas: It's a potato variety, best for roast potatoes. Lighter, fluffier texture than most spuds, bit too fluffy for chips (fries) in my opinion, but Thud would disagree.
We do potatoes well in England. However, my favourite spuds when I was a kid were Cyprus (from the island) covered in red dirt and only available in May and June. Loved the unique taste they lent to chips...in fact spoke to my mum yesterday and she was boiling a couple for dinner.

Thud said...

We Liverpool/Irish never met a spud we didn't love.

Thomas said...

Thanks, Vinogirl.

I had not heard of that potato.