Happy Birthday, Your Majesty!

One of my neighbours [Her Majesty and I are merely separated by Buckingham Gate] celebrates her birthday in a very public way. During the week the usual channels supplied me with a ticket to enable my attendance at the spectacle on Horse Guards Parade this morning. As you know, I rather like uniforms! I imagine there were a few uncrowned queens present (not just spectators) and perhaps even a few divas on the parade ground? Well, I thought I had a fairly decent seat. I arrived punctually. There were four empty spaces adjacent to me (I was on the end of the front row in the block). I thought, what a waste. Maybe somebody slept in? A rather pompous looking fellow came along to do a "recce" and just before the ceremony began a couple of awkward looking chaps (wired up) came along and asked me to stand aside a second. I felt slightly miffed that I was going to be "squashed in" by these latecomers and bang goes my leg room! Then suddenly I spotted The Lady in-tow. I thought I recognised her. Ah yes, my old friend, Lady Thatcher. So there you are, Maggie sat next to me! Maggie, The Queen and Me. [For those of you who occasionally get a little confused, Maggie is the one on the right!]. The similar apparel* reminds one of the occasion when the Private Secretary at Number Ten telephoned the Private Secretary at BP to suggest that it might be a good idea to exchange notes about dress sense for certain public occasions to avoid a "clash" or the possibility of the two dames appearing at the same event similarly (not scantily - Heaven forbid!) clad. Her Majesty's "man" replied icily "Her Majesty never notices what other people are wearing". Quite so.

The perk to having a former Prime Minister seated next to you is that you become the second person to take leave of Horse Guards; with the military top brass, admirals, generals and the like, trailing behind. As I stepped into Whitehall behind Lady Thatcher, where the traffic had stopped to facilitate her, I heard someone mutter, with a hint of emotion; "She's still the real Prime Minister, you know". My sentiments exactly. Good old Maggie. [11 days to go, TB].

*I have a rather "exotic" hat that I contemplated wearing today. My father would have been furious and I resisted. The Hat will be the subject of a future posting!