A little story in response to your Princess Diana comment......
After Completing the "Great British Push" which was a John O Groats to Lands End wheelchair charity event I helped with. I was invited to Grocers Hall in London to celebrate the raising of the half million pounds donated. The guest of honour was Princess Diana who had taken a serious interest in the charity for spinal research. My wife picked me up from Lands end and we headed home to the little village we lived in called Shipton Bellinger (only 1 pub, which is how the sizes of villages are determined in the UK). We meandered home via Dartmoor a place we love where we spent a couple of days on the desolate moor. Already the Hermit tendencies were evident as we dodged the limelight of the celebration when the event finished. I made time to whack a golf ball as far as I could from the cliffs of Lands End ( it seamed to fly for ever, went straight too, honest! ), then we shot off home.
So, back to the festivities with Royalty. Of course you can imagine the preparation my much better half was making in terms of hair, make up and the absolute right clothing, as a brilliant husband I understand and encourage this behaviour :-). It was somewhat easier for me because as a soldier I have a uniform and the Army frowns on soldiers wearing make up or having their nails done, some do but not normally in the Regiments I was involved with..... Uniform on, check, Car ready and fueled up, check, Wife looking gorgeous. check, so off we go. About half way to London I am asked the inevitable question, "did you put my jacket in the car?" Now every husband in the land will have been asked a similar question at some time or other and there is no answer possible that will not slide gently into a big argument mainly because as husbands we are required to be clairvoyant.
The answer of course was "no, I didn't think I was responsible for packing all of your shi.......sorry, stuff" but I am not brave enough to say such a thing so I simply said no I hadn't seen it. So there we were on the motorway speeding along with no jacket and it was about 4.30pm. Anyone who has been to the UK knows that if you are leaving a store at 4.59 pm you may get hit in the butt as the door slams shut and closing occurs. I shot off the motorway and headed to Farnborough a place I know has clothes, We barreled into a non descript shop looking for salvation, to cut a really, really long story short, I chose the earrings that went with the jacket chosen, (eventually) and yes the door did hit my ample butt as we left. So we were off again to the event.
On arrival we were starving hungry and were scoffing down any and all 'horses doofers' offered. I can't spell the word for the little fiddly finger things they offer at such events so you're stuck with the name we have always given them. At this point my lovely wife gets a peanut or husk of one stuck at the back of her throat and starts a very loud coughing fit just as Princess Diana is introduced to the audience of many. I can't say for sure that all of the people on the stage were glaring at her for imitating a truck starting on a cold morning, but it felt like it. Anyway, that is not the startling bit, my wife had selected in the shop in a hurry, a black and white 'dog tooth check' (whatever that is) jacket to go with a black skirt and black stockings with the inevitable, high heels. Wait for it...................the Princess was wearing exactly the same clothes all the way down to the heels.
To say we were dreading being introduced would be somewhat of an understatement, I could actually feel myself being sent for by my Commanding Officer on Monday morning and being asked why his chair was all of a sudden a bit warm to sit in. None the less we endured with trepidation the walk up to us by this wonderfully majestic lady who quick as a flash said how lovely it was to see another lady in the hall with such good taste in clothing. Now I grant you they both looked like twins, all except for the ear rings which in Princess Di's case were the biggest ' Harry Winstons' you have ever seen hanging from a 120lb lady's ears and the ones I had selected were cloth covered round ones, they were dog tooth check though (whatever that is). So all is well and the next bombshell is still one of the biggest surprises I have ever had ( except for a pay rise I got once, more about that in another story). Her flunky whispers in my ear that she would love to have the three lads in the wheelchairs and myself for tea at the Palace, Kensington not Buckingham that is, phew.
Everything is laid on for the trip to tea (another round of highly polishing boots, pressing my uniform etc, but it is the Palace after all) when we arrived number 2 son Harry is being a bit of a two year old and causing some commotion and because the tea was more about the lads and their achievement than me I scooped him up and let him put his sticky, greasy little fingers all over the highly polished peak on my hat, sigh.. I had no idea the photo had been taken, there was a photographer chappie floating around snapping away. It was not until my boss (who thinks he's a comedian) sent for me a few weeks later with a growl on the phone that I was in trouble again. He then handed me the photo and informed me that I was not to think of myself too highly just because I was Harry's nanny, told you he thinks he's funny.
Now, you may be thinking what has this got to do with me being a Hermit? So I am going to tell you. I can guarantee I was one of the last people on earth to hear of Princess Diana's death. We were managing a private island pre - construction at the time and chose not to have TV, radio or communication of any kind, it was a very nice Hermit like time in a busy life. When we got a resupply about 4 week after the incident that took the life of a really nice person, we got the sad news.
Photo of yours truly holding Prince Harry.......
Story courtesy of
WWW.Scubahermit.com