In a poll by BBC News Online India's first woman prime
minister Indira Gandhi has been voted the greatest
woman of the last 1000 years. She pushed ahead of
Queen Elizabeth I of Great Britain to win
by a large majority.
Queen Elizabeth II is set to reopen the Royal Opera
House in Covent Garden, London. The opera house has
been closed for 30 months because of refurbishing.
~*~
December 4th
Full live coverage of the wedding of Prince Philippe
of Belgium and Mathilde d'Udekem d'Acoz at
https://www.angelfire.com/tx/nettynynke/marriage.html
~*~
December 7th
The viewing figures for the wedding of Philippe and
Mathilde are lower than expected, as the amount of
people who came to Brussels to watch the wedding live.
In total soem 3.237.000 Flemish people
watched the 13-hour-long broadcasting on Flemish
television, which by average attracted some 600.000
people. The ceremony in the cathedral was watched by
some 1.700.000 people.
Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain has reportedly
spent almost 9000 English pounds buying Christmas
puddings from a supermarket (and not from Harrod's as
usual) as festive gifts for her staff. The
1411 puddings will be rewrapped in silver foil and a
royal crest added.
The Queen has reportedly spent
almost £9,000 buying Christmas
puddings from Tesco as festive gifts
for her staff, having managed to
negotiate a £2,000 discount.
The bulk order came after the
UK-made puddings beat off
competition from Harrods and
Fortnum & Mason in a Buckingham
Palace taste test, according to the
Daily Telegraph.
Andrew Farquharson, assistant to the
Master of the Royal Household, chose
the £7.75 pudding as the best, and
took a portion to the monarch herself
for final approval.
The rich dessert, a
heavy fruit
pudding laced with
brandy, is often
eaten with
brandy-flavoured
butter, and is a
staple of the
traditional British
Christmas dinner.
The 1,411
puddings will be
re-wrapped in
silver foil tied with
a dark blue ribbon, and will bear the
royal crest and a smaller then usual
Tesco logo.
Along with a Christmas greeting card
from the Queen and the Duke of
Edinburgh, they will be given as
seasonal gifts to servants and staff
at Buckingham Palace, Sandringham,
Balmoral and other Royal residences.
But the Queen will not enjoy the
pudding for her own Christmas dinner
which will, as usual, be prepared by
her own kitchen staff.
The Times said the royally-approved
desserts were being snapped up in
droves by ordinary shoppers.
But The Sun, with tongue firmly in
cheek, claimed the spendthrift
sovereign missed out on a fortune in
loyalty card points.
The paper said it was coming to The
Queen's rescue by filling in a Tesco
Clubcard application form on her
behalf.
'Great honour'
The Sun's royal correspondent Charles
Rae said "Mrs Elizabeth Windsor" was
entitled to 9,000 Clubcard points,
which would have been enough for a
free weekend in Brussels.
A Tesco spokesman told BBC News
Online: "It is a great honour that
Buckingham Palace has chosen our
finest Christmas puddings."
He said: "It's a new recipe this year
and demand is very high.
"When we ordered them in the
summer we ordered far too many
because we knew word would get
around about how good they were."
He said demand had been boosted by
US tourists stopping off on their way
to or from Heathrow airport, by
journalists in central London and by a
special offer in The Sun.