PHEW! WHAT A RELIEF..

I saw a report yesterday that the Royal Family`s summer garden parties have been cancelled.  A palace spokesperson said, "The decision has been taken that garden parties will not take place in 2021."   The events, normally held annually for tens of thousands of people, were cancelled last year due to the first Covid lockdown and it is understood that the latest lockdown came as deadlines to commit to staging the summer parties grew closer, making it impossible to plan for this year`s events taking account of the Covid precautions.

Now what seems like a hundred years ago in a former life, Mrs. S and I were invited by a former Mayor and his lady to accompany them to a garden party at Buckingham Palace.  A kind and thoughtful invitation which was genuinely appreciated.  However, we mulled it over and came to the conclusion that, as much as we were grateful for the opportunity, we both knew that we would feel `awkward,` `uncomfortable,`  a little out of place - those kind of things are really not for us - and so we politely declined the invitation.

I suppose in the end we decided that in actual fact we really, really didn`t want to go.  So we didn`t.  The Mayor understood entirely - he accepted our conclusion with much good grace and it had no adverse effect on our future relationship;  in fact, I think he admired the honesty.  So, someone else and his wife took our place and they said they had a wonderful afternoon and enjoyed it very much - I was pleased for them.

I just wonder how many people who might have been invited to this year`s garden parties will be as relieved as we were when they learn that they`re not going to happen?