After just missing out on serving Prince Charles a few weeks ago, fate tried to soothe the blow last night when I was the wine waiter for Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh (Queen Elizabeth's husband)!
To be honest, it was a very easy night for me because, just like his son Charles, Phillip had not a drop of drink (not even the water I poured at the outset) all night long. After the third time offering wine before dinner and being waved off, I just stopped bothering him.
Last night's event was at St. James Palace, a beautiful old place which required a security check, passport and proof of address to get into. This palace is the actual residence of Prince Charles. As such, we the wait staff were instructed to be silent while leaving the palace courtyard until we were beyond the main gate, "lest we wake His Royal Highness." I admit this conjured in my head of vision of Charles emerging in a huff from some side door wearing a night shirt, floppy night cap and bunny slippers, chasing away noisy waiters with a broom, shouting things like "Scallywags!"
Friday, May 30, 2008
Saturday, May 24, 2008
Insert Monkey Joke Here
Rather than come up with a lame joke for a title, I'll let you hear the following story and create your own joke at my expense.
Yesterday, Brianne and I went down to Canary Wharf in the south of London (think Toronto Harbourfront for a visual) for a catering gig. It was a whiskey and cheese tasting, which we had trained for a couple of weeks ago, giving away samples of Ardbeg 10-year-old Scotch Whiskey with a selection of cheeses. A very tasty experience.
Brianne was set up in a little community square with bottles and cheeseboards, while I . . . was two blocks away at the Tube station, standing for two and a half hours holding a sign to indicate (primarily to invited members of the press) just exactly where the tasting was.
That's not the best bit.
The best bit is that for the last twenty minutes of this . . . THEY PUT ME IN A GORILLA SUIT.
I am NOT joking.
Part of their marketing involved the phrase "untamed spirit" and a promotional van called The Beastie with a chain motif on it. So I put on a rubber and fur gorilla costume, held the sign a little longer, and then took a bunch of promotional photos holding the sign, pretending to drive The Beastie, and even holding a bottle of whiskey like Fay Wray and pretending to climb a building. There was absolutley NO forewarning to all this, by the way.
Brianne was in tears, she was laughing so hard. I played it to the hilt, recalling animal mimicry exercises I did at Randolph (any of my de Sade castmates remember that one?), and gave them a very creative and original spokesmodel for practically no charge.
I say practically because, for being such a good sport, they gave me a bottle of whiskey as a bonus. I sent it home with my uncle Bill as a gift to my father.
So, scroll back up to the title of this entry and put in any monkey joke you like.
Yesterday, Brianne and I went down to Canary Wharf in the south of London (think Toronto Harbourfront for a visual) for a catering gig. It was a whiskey and cheese tasting, which we had trained for a couple of weeks ago, giving away samples of Ardbeg 10-year-old Scotch Whiskey with a selection of cheeses. A very tasty experience.
Brianne was set up in a little community square with bottles and cheeseboards, while I . . . was two blocks away at the Tube station, standing for two and a half hours holding a sign to indicate (primarily to invited members of the press) just exactly where the tasting was.
That's not the best bit.
The best bit is that for the last twenty minutes of this . . . THEY PUT ME IN A GORILLA SUIT.
I am NOT joking.
Part of their marketing involved the phrase "untamed spirit" and a promotional van called The Beastie with a chain motif on it. So I put on a rubber and fur gorilla costume, held the sign a little longer, and then took a bunch of promotional photos holding the sign, pretending to drive The Beastie, and even holding a bottle of whiskey like Fay Wray and pretending to climb a building. There was absolutley NO forewarning to all this, by the way.
Brianne was in tears, she was laughing so hard. I played it to the hilt, recalling animal mimicry exercises I did at Randolph (any of my de Sade castmates remember that one?), and gave them a very creative and original spokesmodel for practically no charge.
I say practically because, for being such a good sport, they gave me a bottle of whiskey as a bonus. I sent it home with my uncle Bill as a gift to my father.
So, scroll back up to the title of this entry and put in any monkey joke you like.
Canterbury Tale
To begin with, I must tell you that my wife is loveably sneaky. She would not tell me where it was we were going on this trip, only that I must book the day off and wear good walking shoes. I didn't know exactly where were going until we got on the bus!
The city centre of Canterbury is surrounded by an ancient wall. All the buildings have an old feeling, even if they have a Starbucks in them. If you look closely, there's one just to the right of the this arch that leads to the cathedral.
The cathedral is spectacular. Soaring spires, flying butresses, detailed statuary and intricate details in the masonry; it's a feast for the eyes. The very air inside has an aged feel to it, the ambience is quite amazing.
The stained glass windows are gorgeous. Of course, no photo could do them justice, but I've put my modest attempts on display here.
These two were favourites of Brianne and me. They're quite recent compared to the other windows, the originals having been blown out during The Blitz. They were redone after WWII by a Jewish Hungarian immigrant who had escaped the deathcamps and come to England. His family had not been so fortunate. The photo below is of the window entitled "Salvation," and if you look to the right and left of the central figures of angels appearing to a kneeling prisoner, you can see jail doors flung open. What I found was really interesting when a guide pointed it out was that on the left-hand door there is depicted is a round padlock - which you may be able to see - and that if you looked very carefully at the padlock you could see that the keyhole was in the shape of a swastika; a very powerful thematic choice for the artisan to make, I thought.
Below you can see a picture of the sculpture which marks the spot where Thomas Beckett was murdered.
This succession of photos gives you a zoom,ing-in glimpse of looking straight up into a hundred foot spire.
After our time in the cathedral we wandered around some of the side streets and found a great Italian cafe to have a sandwich for lunch. We also found a shop dedicated to Winne-the-Pooh (!) and an ecclectic clothing store that Brianne vividly remembered visiting the last time she was in Canterbury with her school. We wandered along to find the ruins of Canterbury castle, which is really just a shell of the building it was in ancient times. Seriously, it would have been a garden shed compared to the Tower of London. One thing that tickled our fancy was that marking of a "Well-shaft" on the posted diagram of the ruin outside, and after reading it both B and I sang "SHAFT!" a la the classic TV theme . . . complete with jazz hands. We giggled on and off for the rest of the day over that one. Below is a picture of the hole in the ground that inspired us, and below that a view of the ruin from inside a spiral staircase window.
The city centre of Canterbury is surrounded by an ancient wall. All the buildings have an old feeling, even if they have a Starbucks in them. If you look closely, there's one just to the right of the this arch that leads to the cathedral.
The cathedral is spectacular. Soaring spires, flying butresses, detailed statuary and intricate details in the masonry; it's a feast for the eyes. The very air inside has an aged feel to it, the ambience is quite amazing.
The stained glass windows are gorgeous. Of course, no photo could do them justice, but I've put my modest attempts on display here.These two were favourites of Brianne and me. They're quite recent compared to the other windows, the originals having been blown out during The Blitz. They were redone after WWII by a Jewish Hungarian immigrant who had escaped the deathcamps and come to England. His family had not been so fortunate. The photo below is of the window entitled "Salvation," and if you look to the right and left of the central figures of angels appearing to a kneeling prisoner, you can see jail doors flung open. What I found was really interesting when a guide pointed it out was that on the left-hand door there is depicted is a round padlock - which you may be able to see - and that if you looked very carefully at the padlock you could see that the keyhole was in the shape of a swastika; a very powerful thematic choice for the artisan to make, I thought.
Below you can see a picture of the sculpture which marks the spot where Thomas Beckett was murdered.
This succession of photos gives you a zoom,ing-in glimpse of looking straight up into a hundred foot spire.After our time in the cathedral we wandered around some of the side streets and found a great Italian cafe to have a sandwich for lunch. We also found a shop dedicated to Winne-the-Pooh (!) and an ecclectic clothing store that Brianne vividly remembered visiting the last time she was in Canterbury with her school. We wandered along to find the ruins of Canterbury castle, which is really just a shell of the building it was in ancient times. Seriously, it would have been a garden shed compared to the Tower of London. One thing that tickled our fancy was that marking of a "Well-shaft" on the posted diagram of the ruin outside, and after reading it both B and I sang "SHAFT!" a la the classic TV theme . . . complete with jazz hands. We giggled on and off for the rest of the day over that one. Below is a picture of the hole in the ground that inspired us, and below that a view of the ruin from inside a spiral staircase window.
We finished off the day with a leisurely boat tour of a main causeway in Canterbury, a picture of which you can see above. The guide was very friendly with a dry wit. We saw some minor points of interests with a nice little story behind them, but the highlight really was steering the boat past a mama duck and her dozen little ducklings. Couldn't get a good enough picture of them, but they were so adorable we wanted to scoop one up and take it home in B's purse. After that we made our way back to the bus stop and trundled home, the end of a wonderful day.
We look forward to more daytrips in the future - to Leeds Castle, or Stratford-upon-Avon, or even the beach in Brighton!
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
The Godparents, & Random Thoughts to Pass the Time
I still haven't had the chance to upload the photos taken in Canterbury, so I continue to postpone writing about our trip there.
I saw Richard Branson and Sarah, Duchess of York at a function I was serving the other day.
Brianne and I had a great time with Aunt Mary and Uncle Bill (my godparents) last week, as they're visiting London right now. We went to lunch at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, one of the oldest pubs in London, dating back 400 years. Brianne and I sat in the same places usually frequented by Samuel Johnson and Charles Dickens! The classic British fare was delicious, we'll have to go back again.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
- We take for granted our conservation abilities in Canada. There is no recycling pick-up here, they just have specialized dumpsters for each item clustered together at seemingly random places. And forget about the Green Bin.
- The Brits are quite friendly and helpful on the street. Directions are given gladly, and mothers with prams are usually met with three different offers of help down stairs before they even get to them.
- TV commercial breaks come at a completely different rhythm than how we're used to, and programs are usually sponsored by one product, so you see the same placement at least a dozen times a show.
- After spending most of my life in cities and towns built in a general Grid pattern, it can be unnerving and frustrating to find one's way in a city that is almost entirely meandering Garden Path-style streets which change names every hundred metres and increase/decrease numbers in opposite directions on either side of the street. Grrrr.
- "Pushing Daisies" is a very fun show. It's been showing here in new release, though the season is done back home. Catch a rerun if you can.
- I've been reading some classic literature in my spare time, which I usually only find I have on Tube journeys. I finished "Murder on the Orient Express" (what an ending), and I'm in the middle of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," which I've never actually read but vividly remember hearing the book-on-tape as a child.
I saw Richard Branson and Sarah, Duchess of York at a function I was serving the other day.
Brianne and I had a great time with Aunt Mary and Uncle Bill (my godparents) last week, as they're visiting London right now. We went to lunch at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, one of the oldest pubs in London, dating back 400 years. Brianne and I sat in the same places usually frequented by Samuel Johnson and Charles Dickens! The classic British fare was delicious, we'll have to go back again.
RANDOM THOUGHTS
- We take for granted our conservation abilities in Canada. There is no recycling pick-up here, they just have specialized dumpsters for each item clustered together at seemingly random places. And forget about the Green Bin.
- The Brits are quite friendly and helpful on the street. Directions are given gladly, and mothers with prams are usually met with three different offers of help down stairs before they even get to them.
- TV commercial breaks come at a completely different rhythm than how we're used to, and programs are usually sponsored by one product, so you see the same placement at least a dozen times a show.
- After spending most of my life in cities and towns built in a general Grid pattern, it can be unnerving and frustrating to find one's way in a city that is almost entirely meandering Garden Path-style streets which change names every hundred metres and increase/decrease numbers in opposite directions on either side of the street. Grrrr.
- "Pushing Daisies" is a very fun show. It's been showing here in new release, though the season is done back home. Catch a rerun if you can.
- I've been reading some classic literature in my spare time, which I usually only find I have on Tube journeys. I finished "Murder on the Orient Express" (what an ending), and I'm in the middle of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," which I've never actually read but vividly remember hearing the book-on-tape as a child.
Thursday, May 15, 2008
Canterbury Tale Tomorrow - Charles Tonight
First and foremost, my darling wife took us on a wonderful day-trip to Canterbury to see the cathedral the other day. It was a glorious day which I adored sharing with her, but I want to save that story for the next post so I can upload the pics along with it.
In this post . . . last night I served drinks at a benefit attended by PRINCE CHARLES.
Before anyone hyperventilates, neither William nor Harry were with him. Sorry.
I was actually told by my catering company beforehand that I would be serving the Prince myself, but in the end that job went to another guy (an actual British citizen, I might add) and I served the two tables right next to His Highness, so I was walking past him all night. Apparently in order to be allowed in such proximity to his table and my two tables, both myself and the other guy were triple-checked by the British Home Office. Our records were the cleanest, I guess.
I served the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, Sir Richard and Lady Beckett, and some more apparent VIPs I did not know. All of them were nice, polite, and grounded, indistinguishable from any regular person, except the accents were a bit more posh and proper.
Random notes about Prince Charles:
- Upon his arrival, he was served a special martini in his own personal very special glass which was sent on ahead of him to the event. This glass was entirely unremarkable, save for the fact that is was his. Ye Olde Royal Sippy-Cup.
- Aside from this first drink, he imbibed nothing. We were instructed that he would drink nothing but still water the rest of the dinner, but we HAD TO pour him a glass of red and white wine anyway so as not to look out of place at the table.
- Before the Prince and his table guests arrived and sat down, the entire table and each chair was thoroughly inspected by a squadron of five police officers.
- Sitting at a dinner table, the Prince looked just like any tweedy-looking member of your local Legion bar stuffed in a tux. He was more impressive when he took the stage for a speech later on.
- He was very amiable and friendly with all the inner-city kids who had been helped by the charity of the night and were invited to the event. He chatted with them at his table.
All in all, an interesting night. Now if I could just get to an event with Ian McKellan or Judi Dench, some real ACTING royalty, that would be amazing.
In this post . . . last night I served drinks at a benefit attended by PRINCE CHARLES.
Before anyone hyperventilates, neither William nor Harry were with him. Sorry.
I was actually told by my catering company beforehand that I would be serving the Prince myself, but in the end that job went to another guy (an actual British citizen, I might add) and I served the two tables right next to His Highness, so I was walking past him all night. Apparently in order to be allowed in such proximity to his table and my two tables, both myself and the other guy were triple-checked by the British Home Office. Our records were the cleanest, I guess.
I served the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire, Sir Richard and Lady Beckett, and some more apparent VIPs I did not know. All of them were nice, polite, and grounded, indistinguishable from any regular person, except the accents were a bit more posh and proper.
Random notes about Prince Charles:
- Upon his arrival, he was served a special martini in his own personal very special glass which was sent on ahead of him to the event. This glass was entirely unremarkable, save for the fact that is was his. Ye Olde Royal Sippy-Cup.
- Aside from this first drink, he imbibed nothing. We were instructed that he would drink nothing but still water the rest of the dinner, but we HAD TO pour him a glass of red and white wine anyway so as not to look out of place at the table.
- Before the Prince and his table guests arrived and sat down, the entire table and each chair was thoroughly inspected by a squadron of five police officers.
- Sitting at a dinner table, the Prince looked just like any tweedy-looking member of your local Legion bar stuffed in a tux. He was more impressive when he took the stage for a speech later on.
- He was very amiable and friendly with all the inner-city kids who had been helped by the charity of the night and were invited to the event. He chatted with them at his table.
All in all, an interesting night. Now if I could just get to an event with Ian McKellan or Judi Dench, some real ACTING royalty, that would be amazing.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Playmates & Potatoe Jackets
I had wanted to post this before - a picture of our first potatoe jacket that we shared near Trafalgar Square - really tasty!
Before....
And after....
Then of course there is the fact that every free minute we have to ourselves (a very rare idea...) Andrew & I are in parks. Don't believe me?
Andrew swinging in Bristol
Us at Buckingham palace in the Queen Victoria gardens
Us at Buckingham palace in the Queen Victoria gardens right before my Mom called me. (I told her the view was amazing.)
Us at Kensington Gardens by the Italian Gardens (yeah swans!)
We often get other tourists to take our picture in exchange for us taking theirs. Families are best - kids can't run that fast. The weather keeps on getting warmer & warmer and I know that soon I will have to book a trip out to one of the beaches in the South West of England. Miss you all!
The Days are Just Packed!
It's been quite a while without an update, a cardinal sin the blogging universe I'm given to understand. We may have lost some valued regular readers. Best to plunge back in full steam, and hope our adoring public will forgive and forget.
It's an odd feeling to realize that you have more work than you know what to do with. Keeners that we are, we spent our first week and a bit in Olde London Towne (how many superfluous E's can I use?) bombarding the market with CV's and showing a willingness to be as available for work as possible. Now it's come back to us in spades, and there aren't enough hours in the day for the shifts offered to us. Temp agencies, catering companies, even the London Eye ferris wheel. We've narrowed it all down to a manageable schedule, but we still have to remember to book our own weekends into all of this. And remember to breathe. And sleep.
Ah, sleep. Not much of it this weekend, as B and I both had late catering gigs on Saturday night followed by an ass-crack of dawn start for another gig on Sunday! Grand total of 3 hours sleep between the two! I don't recommend this. We managed to get through it all, and are pretty much back to sanity now.
RANDOM THOUGHTS:
- I have been unfortunate enough to witness an average of at least one man a day adjust his crotch in public this week. EEEW!
- We saw Spamalot last week, the Monty Python musical, and here's my favourite line:
King Arthur: Wait a minute, you're Jewish? (they need a Jew, been looking for a while)
Why didn't you say so before?
Patsy: Well, it's not something you announce to a heavily-armed Christian!
- London really knows how to do parks and public green spaces, they're awesome here.
- I do miss some North American food, like good Buffalo wings, but I've managed to control the cravings, shakes, and night sweats so far.
- A Ploughman's Sandwich is delicious, just beware the hungry Ploughman chasing after you.
- It's so weird to open a sports section of a paper and see wall-to-wall soccer and NO HOCKEY.
- Pedestrians are an afterthought on London streets, so jaywalk with impunity . . . and great bravery and skill
Keep checking back with us, we swear we'll do something interesting soon!
It's an odd feeling to realize that you have more work than you know what to do with. Keeners that we are, we spent our first week and a bit in Olde London Towne (how many superfluous E's can I use?) bombarding the market with CV's and showing a willingness to be as available for work as possible. Now it's come back to us in spades, and there aren't enough hours in the day for the shifts offered to us. Temp agencies, catering companies, even the London Eye ferris wheel. We've narrowed it all down to a manageable schedule, but we still have to remember to book our own weekends into all of this. And remember to breathe. And sleep.
Ah, sleep. Not much of it this weekend, as B and I both had late catering gigs on Saturday night followed by an ass-crack of dawn start for another gig on Sunday! Grand total of 3 hours sleep between the two! I don't recommend this. We managed to get through it all, and are pretty much back to sanity now.
RANDOM THOUGHTS:
- I have been unfortunate enough to witness an average of at least one man a day adjust his crotch in public this week. EEEW!
- We saw Spamalot last week, the Monty Python musical, and here's my favourite line:
King Arthur: Wait a minute, you're Jewish? (they need a Jew, been looking for a while)
Why didn't you say so before?
Patsy: Well, it's not something you announce to a heavily-armed Christian!
- London really knows how to do parks and public green spaces, they're awesome here.
- I do miss some North American food, like good Buffalo wings, but I've managed to control the cravings, shakes, and night sweats so far.
- A Ploughman's Sandwich is delicious, just beware the hungry Ploughman chasing after you.
- It's so weird to open a sports section of a paper and see wall-to-wall soccer and NO HOCKEY.
- Pedestrians are an afterthought on London streets, so jaywalk with impunity . . . and great bravery and skill
Keep checking back with us, we swear we'll do something interesting soon!
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