I am happy with my Queen

I have of course been enthralled by the celebrations for my Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and did in fact watch quite a bit of it – on the basis that there is not much else to do here at the moment with Cate being away.

When she is here I am kept pretty busy with chores and the getting of meals and coffee and such like stuff. So when she is not here I tend to sit and read or watch Golf – which she hates.

However – I found the Jubilee celebrations fascinating. There is clearly no mood in Britain for a Republic and they dressed up and turned out in droves to celebrate the occasion. Which of course is appropriate – what is the point of having a Queen unless you can dress up and wave flags at her every now and then.

There was – of course – an immense amount of grovelling and curtseying. I would expect the same had I been born into the Windsor family.

There is a strong Republican movement in Australia – and indeed there were some who thought the current Labor government would move towards that.

The majority of Australians want a republic – we voted on it some years ago – but the then Prime Minister – the villainous John Howard – outmanoeuvred the Republicans – who could not decide between a President elected by Parliament or a President elected by the people.

In the latter case it would be the latest winner of Australian Idol and in the former case we could end up with a failed politician. 

I am perfectly happy with my Queen. Sure we don’t have much contact – but she is perfectly harmless – has no real power – and draws tourists to London like bees to a honeypot. And – since she started paying taxes – costs the Brits almost nothing.

She rarely visits Australia and I have only seen her once in the flesh. This was on 5 March, 1954 when she visited Victoria and I was taken on a train - with many other school children - to Echuca where we awaited patiently – waving flags – until she and the Duke drove past.

But that was enough.

I am content to know that she is there and spends every waking moment on the job - thinking of the welfare of her subjects.

What more could one ask of a Monarch.

My first contribution is the Bunny

Bunny at Belvedere

Cate is safely ensconced in  Shanghai in her hotel and her room overlooks the Yangtze river. She says Shanghai looks interesting but is polluted. No surprises there.

Before leaving she went through the first two boxes of books and there were few survivors. Naturally – seeing all these books for the first time in a long time – we want to read them all again – but just know this is not going to happen - so Cate is being absolutely ruthless.

I think that almost everything will go and we will be left with just Cate’s kindergarten crayon work, her high school text books – and all her university essays.

I have always been fascinated by clouds and cloud shapes and spend a lot of time gazing at them. I have now discovered that there is something called The Cloud Appreciation Society which has turned cloud gazing into an art form.

There are some fabulous photos on their website – and of course people specialise in taking photos of clouds that resemble things in the real world.

My first contribution is the Bunny. This was taken at Belvedere last week. Well you have to start somewhere!

We never get bored in Vienna

Cate is back home at last and doesn’t leave again until – oh – tomorrow morning when she goes to Shanghai.

She will be gone for a week this time and then after a little while at home we get to go to Cyprus together.

I told you that I wanted to get a map of Cyprus for my Garmin car navigation system but baulked at the cost. Well – after giving it serious consideration I decided that it was something we should have.

The problem is that when we travel - Cate always drives – and this means that I am in charge of navigation. I am very bad indeed at this and am so bad at reading maps that I may as well take a cup with tea leaves.

The terrifying prospect of me trying to read maps while Cate shouts ‘which way?’ at me while she hammers along at full tilt finally convinced me that it was a worthwhile investment.

It will be more relaxing for all of us.

There has been quite a bit happening in Austria during the last week so I thought I should give you some highlights from the Austrian Independent:

A man fell into a ravine while having a pee. The most interesting thing about this is that it took 28 rescuers to get him out. 28! Who counted them?

A woman bit a two year old child after a road rage incident. I simply cannot imagine this scene – but the Austrian Independent has thoughtfully provided me with a picture of some teeth so I can start the process.   

A man was killed by a toilet roll while riding his bike. This demonstrates that you should never cycle while carrying toilet rolls -  (I never shall) or should wear a bike helmet. This continues the long tradition of Austrians finding new and exciting ways to shuffle off the mortal coil.

This is just in one week. No wonder we never get bored in Vienna.