Datchet Days

Room with a view for Charles-Camilla wedding

London, March. 30 (AP): Bidding is intensifying, albeit slowy, on the Interet for a clear balcony view on the wedding of Prince Charles to his longtime partner Camilla Parker Bowles.

Real estate agency Nelson Bakewell, put the corner balcony in Windsor, west of London, up for auction on eBay last Friday with a starting bid of just one pound. By 9:30 am (1400 IST) today the bidding had gone up to 26 pounds, but a higher price is expected before the auction winds up on Friday -- exactly one week before the nuptials.

'The package includes a private room that can accommodate up to 20 people. The balconies (sic) provide excellent views to The Guildhall where the royal couple will be married,' said the description on eBay. 'You can bring your own catering (but) you and all guests are potentially subject to police checks,' it said, adding: 'To enhance your viewing experience, we advise that you may want to bring binoculars.'

Only a select group of friends and family will be inside the Guildhall for the civil wedding, after which Charles and Camilla are to make their way back to adjacent Windsor Castle for an Anglican blessing and a reception.

The very best views on the Guildhall are to be had from a hotel right across the street from the 17th century town hall, but rooms there have been re-priced for the day to a eye-popping 1,000 pounds."

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On the Thames in Datchet there is an establishment called Kris Cruisers that offers boats for hire. We'd been having sunny days and decided to try our weather luck and hire a boat for the day. We did not have perfect sunny weather; but we did not get rained on and the sun broke through a few times.

We started off at about 0945 and headed towards Windsor and points beyond. We made it as far as Maidenhead by 1300 and stopped for lunch in a pub. After lunch we headed back down river. We were able to make it past Datchet to Old Windsor before we needed to turn back in order to return the boat on time.

If you were to look at a map of the Thames, you'd see we didn't go particularly far. These boats are cruisers, not speed boats. We did five mph tops. Though the speed was slow, it was very pleasant. I would not have wanted to speed up the river, though I'm pretty sure that a couple of members of the party would have been happy to have picked up the speed a bit.

We went through four locks, enjoying the process of filling on our way upriver and emptying on our way down. The lock operators quit for the day at 1700, so Steve and John got to do the last lock we went through by themselves.

It was a very agreeable way to pass the day. Perhaps some day we will be able to hire a boat for a week and make it even further upriver, perhaps in the fashion of Three Men in a Boat.

The photo included here is Windsor Castle as seen from the Thames (headed back towards Datchet). For more photos of the day, including a larger copy of the Windsor Castle shot, click here.
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The Air Force Memorial is at the top of this slope. Sadly, the sign saying that it was a slope was not down at the bottom of the hill where we started.


Fortunately we were rewarded with a lovely view of the surrounding area.
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This monument reads:

This acre of English ground was given
to the United States of America by
the people of Britain in memory of
John F. Kennedy Born 29 May 1917
President of the United States 1961-1963
Died by an assassin's hand 22 November 1963
Let every nation know whether it wishes us well or ill
that we shall pay any price bear any burden meet any hardship
support any friend or oppose any foe in order to assure
the survival and success of liberty
From the inaugural address of
President Kennedy January 1961
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The memorial reads:

To Commemorate
Magna Carta
Symbol of
Freedom
Under Law

And was erected by the American Bar Association (!)

Click here for photos from our outing to Runnymede last week.
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We've had glorious weather the last couple of days. Since it is approaching 70 degrees out, Steve and I went for a bike ride into Windsor. We rode to the Long Walk, then walked the bikes up to the walk a ways (no cycles allowed) and biked back through Old Windsor.

We stopped in at the Windsor Farm Shop to have a bite to eat at their Coffee Shop. I had a lovely turkey and cranberry sandwich and a bottle of sparkling water. Steve had a piece of cake and a bottle of juice. We sat outside and enjoyed the sunshine.

After we ate we wandered around the shop a bit. It's not very big, but has a nice selection of fresh veg and canned sauces and spreads. They have a bakery, a deli and some dairy as well. I found a jar of cranberry sauce that I got with a mind to trying to make my own turkey and cranberry sandwich.
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Yesterday was our last day to work in the Bridge Tea Shop in the village. We are not going back the states for another month, but with my parents coming for a visit next week and then the preparing for the movers and the two weeks of travel in Europe we have planned, we had essentially run out of time for helping out there.

I certainly enjoyed volunteering in the tea shop. I don't think the kids enjoyed it as much as I did, but they did a good job helping out. We said goodbye to the lady that works before our shift every week and to the people who come in on a regular basis and the fellow that works in the Parish Council Office upstairs.
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To most Americans, a diary is a place to write down thoughts and things going on in your life. Something that teenaged girls scribble in. Here in the UK, a diary is a calendar. So, rather than "check your calendar and let me know" you get "let me look at my diary" or "has everyone got their diary so we can set a date for the next meeting?"

What do they call what we would call a diary? A journal. Let's see...

Dear Journal,
Today Joe Bob asked me to the prom! He's so cute! We're going to have the best time ever! Suzy is going to be so jealous!
Love,
Fiona

Hmm. Doesn't sound quite right to me.
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Saturday afternoon we spent about an hour in the Maritime Museum in London.

After closing time we walked up the hill to the Royal Observatory. At the top we took a few minutes to catch our breath (okay, it was just me catching my breath) and to take a picture or two of the prime meridian line. The view of the surrounding area was very lovely.

I hope we can go back sometime and give the Maritime Museum and the Royal Observatory the attention they deserve.

(note on the photo: the line is the Prime Meridian line. The sign overhead says Greenwich Meridian then East Longitude over Steve and West Longitude over me. The line went down the wall and across the pavement.)
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Saturday evening we all went to see the musical Jailhouse Rock at the Picadilly Theatre. It was loud, but fun.

Jailhouse Rock The Musical is a new stage musical version of the classic 1957 Elvis film Jailhouse Rock. The show also charts the development of rock'n'roll from its roots in blues and country music and will feature a mix of musical styles alongside a host of popular rock'n'roll hits which will appeal to all theatregoers, with plenty of classic hits to satisfy Elvis fans!

Featuring a rich catalogue of 1950's rock'n'roll classics, Jailhouse Rock The Musical tells the story of Vince Everett, a young man from the wrong side of the tracks who discovers his own unique musical talent whilst doing time in jail and emerges to become the world's greatest rock n' roll star, only to discover that he isn't ready for the pressures that money and fame can bring.

Source: thisistheatre.com

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On the train ride home after the musical I took a couple of pictures. Here is what Cara thought of me taking her photo!


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Before coming to the UK, I had never heard of Fair Trade. The more I hear about it, the more I think it is a good thing to support. So, as Fair Trade Fortnight is coming to a close, I thought I would post a little bit of information about Fair Trade.

When commodity prices fall dramatically it has a catastrophic impact on the lives of millions of small scale producers, forcing many into crippling debt and countless others to lose their land and their homes. Too many farmers in the developing world have to contend with fluctuating prices that may not even cover what it costs to produce their crop.

Development agencies recognised the important role that consumers could play to improve the situation for producers. By buying direct from farmers at better prices, helping to strengthen their organisations and marketing their produce directly through their own one world shops and catalogues, the charities offered consumers the opportunity to buy products which were bought on the basis of a fair trade.


Fairtrade Labelling was created in the Netherlands in the late 1980s. Max Havelaar launched the first Fairtrade consumer guarantee label in 1986 on coffee sourced from Mexico. Today, there are now 19 organisations including the Fairtrade Foundation, that run the international standard setting and monitoring body Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International (FLO).

Producers registered with FLO receive a minimum price that covers the cost of production and an extra premium that is invested in the local community.

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Comic Relief on Course to Break Record

LONDON (Reuters) - The Comic Relief charity appeal has raised more than 37 million pounds for projects at home and in Africa and is on course to beat its own fundraising record set two years ago. Organisers are hoping to beat the 2003 total of 61 million pounds.

Comic Relief, held every two years, was set up by British comedians in 1985 with a live BBC broadcast from a refugee camp in Sudan. It has since raised more than 337 million pounds.

Each appeal sees children across Britain don red noses while a host of stars donate their time to raise money. Lenny Henry, Rowan Atkinson, Elton John and Stephen Fry starred in the BBC 1 show on Friday, with Fry also making a guest appearance on the BBC Radio soap 'The Archers' in a special edition written by comedienne Victoria Wood.

Radio 1 DJ Edith Bowman won the Fame Academy singing competition over EastEnders actress Kim Medcalf and DJ Chris Moyles and his team embarked on a week-long road trip from John O'Groats to Lands End to raise funds.

More than six million red noses were sold for the event."

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Today is Red Nose Day here in the UK. There was a lady at Sainsbury this morning who had made gingerbread men with red noses that she was selling to raise money for Red Nose Day. Sainsbury was also selling plastic red noses as a fundraiser as well.

Red Nose Day is a UK-wide fundraising event organised by Comic Relief every two years which culminates in a night of extraordinary comedy and moving documentary films. It's the biggest TV fundraising event in the UK calendar. On Red Nose Day everyone in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is encouraged to cast inhibitions aside, put on a red nose, and do something a little bit silly to raise money - celebrities included. It is an event that unites the entire nation in trying to make a difference to the lives of thousands of individuals facing terrible injustice or living in abject poverty.

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Another of the things I really like about the UK, and Europe in general, is the cloth shopping bags. Many people (though certainly not all) carry their own cloth reusable shopping bags rather than collecting a new plastic bag at every shop they stop into. There is something quite lovely in my mind about a person making the effort to use a shopping bag that does not end up adding to some landfill somewhere. I especially enjoy seeing the older people walking about town with their grocery bags that they've obviously been using for years and years.
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Here is what the wedding stamps will look like:

Looks like they could have worked a bit harder to get all of Camilla's head in on the 68p stamp.

And, just for comparisons sake, here is the wedding stamp from 1981:

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As they say in the Navy, we are getting "short". Our time here in the UK is slowly drawing to it's conclusion. Today I spoke on the phone with the mover from London. He comes next week to see what we're planning to have packed up, then by April 4th or 5th they will come and pack it up and take it all away.

I've already started my pre-move preparations. We are beginning to sort through things and think about what to leave behind and what to take. I've started noticing all the things that will have to be deep cleaned before we move out. I've also started thinking of all the things I wish we had done while we were here. Of course, it's like that with every move.

More later.
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LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Registrar General on Tuesday dismissed 11 objections to the marriage of Prince Charles and his longtime lover Camilla Parker Bowles.

The principal grounds for objecting to the April 8 wedding in Windsor town hall were that the law did not allow the heir to the throne to marry in a civil ceremony.

'I am satisfied that none of these objections should obstruct the issue of a (marriage) certificate,' said Len Cook, Registrar General for England and Wales.

The run-up to the royal wedding has been bedeviled by confusion with the venue having to be switched from Windsor Castle to the town hall after a mix-up over marriage licenses.

Well. We'll see if that takes care of it or not. I'm guessing that one fellow will show up to voice his objections.

I drove past the wedding venue today (the Guildhall in Windsor). It's not a very pretty building for a wedding. But, I know they do weddings there fairly frequently. There are often bedecked limos parked out front.
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Queen okays Charles, Camilla stamps

The Queen has agreed to issue a set of stamps commemorating next month's wedding of Prince Charles to Camilla Parker-Bowles. Britain's Sunday Telegraph newspaper is reporting it as an early gift from the sovereign to her son.

Much has been made of Queen Elizabeth's decision not to attend the civil wedding ceremony next month. The stamps are likely to be heralded by royal watchers as a sign of her approval of the marriage.

The paper also says that Britain's poet laureate, Andrew Motion, will write a poem commemorating the event.

- AFP

We were just talking yesterday about the difference in the amount of memorabilia between this wedding and Prince Charles and Diana's wedding. As of yesterday the only thing we had heard of was a knock off of Camilla's ring being sold by Marks & Spencer (?) for £19.
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Times Online - Britain

The legal complaint was made by the Rev Paul Williamson, 56, the vicar of St George’s Church in Feltham, West London, who has filed, by fax and by registered post, formal objections to the ceremony.

Mr Williamson, a royalist, claims that the law is clear. “A member of the Royal Family cannot have a civil marriage, cannot be divorced, cannot marry a divorcée, cannot marry in church, and cannot marry abroad if he wants to become king,” he said.

The vicar has already served notice that if his written objections are ignored and the wedding goes ahead on April 8, he will turn up to Windsor Guildhall to object out loud.

Legal experts have questioned the Lord Chancellor’s assertion that laws banning members of the Royal Family from marrying outside the Church have been overturned by the Human Rights Act.

The Lord Chancellor is confident that the government law officers’ advice to the Prince of Wales, that the marriage is legal, is correct and that there is no need to change the law.

Hmmm. Interesting. Is Mr. Williamson not wanting Prince Charles to be King? Or is he wanting his King to behave according to his standards? (Oops, looks like PC has already done one of the cannots. Why worry about the others now? Or is it a matter of maybe overlooking one, but more than one is too much?) Or is it a reminder that this is considered unKingworthy behaviour?

Mr. Williamson apparently keeps busy trying to keep everyone in line. This article reminds us that:

In 1994, Mr Williamson fought an unsuccessful campaign to prevent the Church of England ordaining women priests. His efforts culminated in a cry — sanctioned in advance, and ignored — of “heresy and apostasy” during a ceremony to ordain 36 women priests in St Paul’s Cathedral.

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Three formal objections against Charles's wedding in latest snag

LONDON (AFP) - At least three objections have been lodged against the wedding between Prince Charles and longtime mistress Camilla Parker-Bowles in the latest hiccup to their plans.

The legal complaints, or caveats, were delivered to the head of the registrar office in Cirencester, Gloucestershire, which covers Charles's countryside retreat of Highgrove, the Daily Mail reported Tuesday. If they provide a convincing argument, any one of the documents could prevent the two divorcees from holding a civil marriage ceremony in Windsor on April 8.

'I can confirm that at least three objections have been received by the Cirencester office and I have been copied the one lodged by (outspoken Church of England reverend Paul) Williamson,' Diane Waddington, registrar for Chippenham in Wiltshire, told the newspaper. Parker Bowles, 57, has informed Chippenham of her plans to wed. Under British law, each objection must be considered on its own merit and, if necessary, advice can be taken from the Registrar General of England and Wales, Len Cook, and his legal team. It will be up to the local office, however, to inform Charles, 56, and his fiancee whether their wedding can go ahead as planned.

Questions over the legality of the marriage between Britain's heir to the throne, currently on a trip to Australia, and Parker Bowles have been swirling in Britain since their sudden engagement announcement in February. Lord Chancellor Charles Falconer, the country's top legal authority, last week issued a statement explaining why he believed the union to be legal. The Daily Mail, however, reported that six senior lawyers -- all staunchly traditional in their views -- were said to be planning to lodge their opposition and even might be prepared to go to court over the issue.

The government of Prime Minister Tony Blair was apparently drawing up emergency legislation to erase any doubt over the matter, the newspaper said, while adding that it was doubtful whether an attempt to rush through such a law would be made so close to a general election.

Once again I'll have to say that I am glad that I am not a "Royal". Good grief! It baffles the mind to think that lawyers care so much about whether these two get married. Granted, I've never been subject to a Queen or King so I am not going to have their perspective on the whole business. But, even so, I can't imagine that I'd want to challenge their legal right to be married. What a strange world we live in.
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Bill Gates to Receive Honorary UK Knighthood

LONDON (Reuters) - Microsoft co-founder and chairman Bill Gates will be awarded an honorary knighthood by Britain's Queen Elizabeth Wednesday for his outstanding contribution to enterprise.

Gates, the world's wealthiest man, will receive the award from the Queen at Buckingham Palace. He will become a Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, an honor that dates back to 1917, although monarchs have been creating knights for hundreds of years. Among the pomp and grandeur of the formal state rooms at the palace, Gates will kneel in front of the sovereign, who will gently tap him on the shoulder with a sword. Britons and citizens of the Commonwealth are entitled to add the title 'Sir' in front of their names, but that honor does not extend to other nationalities.

When it was announced last year that Gates was to be knighted, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw paid tribute to him. '(Gates) is one of the most important business leaders of his age,' he said. 'Microsoft technology has transformed business practices and his company has had a profound impact on the British economy.'"

Looks like they'll Knight just about anyone these days. ;-)
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