Friday, January 25, 2013

To the Mansion House...

...home of London's Lord Mayor, for a Livery Company Dinner (pattenmakers), with kind friends.   Jamie in white tie and struggling with studs.  Glittering candles and  acres of white damask, formal Grace, and a fish souffle,  roast duck and some nice chocolatey things, and cheese...a piano playing, and then the Loyal Toast, (done in some style with  National Anthem)  that mumur of "The Queen"  and the sudden silence as everyone drinks, and the scraping of chairs and chatter as everyone sits down again...

Speeches by the Lord Mayor and others,  presentation of various awards and scholarships to young people, and Martyn Lewis as a guest speaker, being amusing about old days at the BBC and making a rather good plea that the media focus on some of the good things that are being done, especially by young people...

Auntie doesn't usually write about her social life, but this evening brought lots of memories.We had the Posthorn Gallop, which Auntie first heard at a regimental dinner at the Woolwich Mess (Royal Artillery) with her father long, long ago...and then a school choir sang, and ended with some Beatles songs..."Will you still need me/Will you still feed me/When I'm sixty-four?"  And when I first heard that, sixty four was a long way off...

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