Praise the Grand Woofie Bird

Well of course I am thrilled by the news of the engagement of Prince William to Kate Middleton. And I just love it that these days Princes can marry commoners without the fuss that used to go on years ago when royalty married beneath their station.

Of course there have been some colossal disasters in the past but if you mix and match you have to expect the occasional foul up because after all commoners are so – well – common.

I would have preferred not to have learned about this blessed event from CNN - who very nearly had kittens with the excitement of it all. 

It was breaking news for some hours as they told the same story over and over again overlaid by the same video footage. I did not watch it continuously but checked in every hour or do to see if anything had changed – no – still engaged – still breaking.

Eventually they crossed in turn to a great many people who confirmed that William and Kate were in fact engaged and told us many things that we already knew. Then they told us again - and again.

I think there should be rules about breaking news. New breaks when you tell it. After that it is broken. Once they told us the first time about the engagement that was the news being broken. Telling us the same thing 10,000 times does not count.

But on a day when there are no plane crashes or earthquakes I suppose you just have to do the best you can and flog it senseless in the hope that there may be someone, somewhere who is confined to a wheelchair and has been propped up in front of the TV by nurse and cannot escape. This person will now have a new Mastermind subject.

Of course the other people having kittens are the gossip magazines which have all stopped the presses and are at this moment all preparing the same ‘exclusive’ stories - while already planning wedding and baby editions. 

This will give a brief respite to the D grade celebrities and poor drunken slappers with their knickers round their ankles being photographed as they lurch from nightclubs trailing clouds of Mary Jane.

Cate is in Bad Homburg which is close to Frankfurt. She is there for a meeting with her peers and bosses from the USA.  They are apparently working very late and do not get to bed until the wee hours.

Next week she goes to Dubai, then she goes to Moscow and then – praise the Grand Woofie Bird – she has a month or so at home and we can enjoy Vienna at Christmas.

A most delightful time of the year for us because we love the cold and we adore snow. The decorations are up in Landstrasser Hauptstrasse and are probably already up in the city. I shall check soon and report.