I went to bed last night with the news that finally young Prince William had proposed to young Catherine. The best bit was finding out they had kept it secret since last month. Good on them. They would have known they’d be in for it once it was announced, so having a bit of quiet time together must have been heaven.
I’m not a rabid monarchy fan, but I do have respect for one of the oldest family businesses on the planet. This kind of tradition is slipping away from the modern world at a rapid rate of knots. Pity. History shouldn’t be confined to books and museums, especially when you have such a living breathing reference still walking about the place. Of course they are a little strange, how would you cope living in the fish bowl these people endure? A lot of them since the day they were conceived, let alone born.
The announcement of a royal engagement couldn’t have come at a better time either. The Old Dart is seriously down in the dumps, everyone is broke, miserable and basically the whole country didn’t really have squat to look forward to. Say what you will about a royal wedding, especially when the costs are involved, but one thing should be remembered, the royal family will pick up a huge part of the tab for this one, just as they always have in the past, England as a tourist destination just got incredibly popular over night, and every person with a shop or business will now be organising their special commemorative wedding souvenir something or other. In other words, the income for many people, let alone the government coffers just got a boost like no other.
For starters, jewelers everywhere will now be frantically sourcing Ceylon blue oval Sapphires this morning, there will be an increase in the amount of demand for rings and other jewelery of this type, not only by newly engaged ladies but all the women who remember the first time this was worn. I thought about the ring a while ago, it struck me as rather sad that such a spectacular piece seemed destined to spend who knows how long wallowing in a safe somewhere. Prince William might have made the decision to give it to his bride to be out of love for his late mother, but the other side of the coin is in these austere times, he has also helped sooth the masses of people who will no doubt rally loud and long about what a waste of money the whole event will be. As I said, while England will have to come to the party in terms of money for the wedding, the profits from the wedding will have a knock on effect for at least a year from today. By Christmas you will be able to buy anything and everything with these two young ones faces plastered on it. For those who remember Charles and Diana’s wedding, they will agree with me that waiting for the special edition toilet rolls back then wasn’t exaggerating the situation.
The other end of the situation is simply England just got an invite to a pretty big party. Really, who doesn’t get cheered up by the thought of a public holiday and the chance to down a few toasts to the bride and groom and watch something on TV that isn’t a bloody repeat?
