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They think it's all over - it is now
Yesterday was Portsmouth mayor making in the morning, with a fond final farewell to Sue and Maria, who posed for one last photo with me (one arm round each of them) in the Guildhall before we all went out to the Mayoral cars to go our separate ways...
At tea time there was a rehearsal in the Thorngate for our own Mayor Making ceremony today. It all went OK, then I had to help John the driver hump all the left-over bottles that my mother had cleaned out of the Mayor's Parlour drinks cabinet into our house while me ma rushed off to catch the bank before it shut. With that job done, I rushed upstairs just in time to catch the RL Challenge Cup draw on BBC News 24. Quins are away to Wigan :(
Then in the evening it was the newly-installed Lord Mayor of Portsmouth's Banquet. I was sat next to Margaret, the previous Lady Mayoress of Portsmouth, who kept the whole table amused with her acerbic sense of humour and her observation that she's old enough to get away with being outrageous. She kept trying to persuade me that I ought to become a councillor myself, and telling my mother that she should be proud of me and that I was a perfect gentleman *blush*
And so today was The End. The ceremony went off all right, though most of the speeches went on a bit, and one councillor's speech, meant to be seconding the new Deputy Mayor, consisted of rambling anecdotes from his army days that had nothing to do with the business in hand. Sir Graball D'Encloseland, sat in front of me, and I exchanged glances as if to say "What planet is this guy on?"
Jill, seconding the vote of thanks to my mother the outgoing mayor, had been asked to say a few words about me. She'd been provided with a script by me ma, but instead she just made it up on the hop.
The new Mayor presented us with neat little civic badges as Past Mayor and Past Mayor's Consort respectively, my mother got a big bouquet of flowers, and I got £15 in book tokens.
In the buffet lunch lots of people came up to me to shake my hand and congratulate me on my time as Mayor's Consort. Lots of people said things like "You won't know what to do with yourself now," and I confirmed that my calendar for the second half of the month is looking a bit blank, but they observed that I could probably do with a break now.
Aussie, a councillor, and his wife Carol, whom I know from The Villagers, asked if I'd seen the Eurovision on Saturday. Once it became clear to them that I was a serious fan, they invited me to come to their Eurovision party next year - everyone draws a country out of a hat and if your country wins you have to host the party the following year! I asked if Ann could come too - they agreed.
And so on to the Town Hall for the new Mayor's formal Installation Lunch. On our table were Ian, Mark and Lin. Mark, a director of Gosport Borough, who've just been promoted to a division two levels below H&W, wound me up saying that H&W and Gosport would be in the same league in a year's time...
Also on our table were Sir Graball and Lady D'Encloseland. After main course Lady D'Encloseland came up to me and ruffled my hair. We had a bit of a chat, and when she happened to mention her daughters that gave me the excuse to ask how Miss K2 was. She talked for a while about Miss K2's exploits at work, and how Miss K2 was studying for a promotion, then my mother asked after Miss K2's sister. Before long my mother said "You've got both of them at home, then?" and Lady D'Encloseland said Miss K2 still lived in her own place (as an aside, confirming what I'd thought, that she and Nobby had long split up) "but I still feed her."
Taking a calculated risk, I asked, trying to sound insouciant, "Have you been sending her mail on to her?"
When she replied "She comes round and collects her post every day," I thought for a moment I'd got away with it, but she immediately followed up with "Was it you that sent her that..." She tailed off, but didn't have to complete her sentence : I knew she meant the Valentine card.
I fessed up. "You guessed as soon as I asked if you'd been sending her mail on," I smiled. Lady D'Encloseland replied that Miss K2 had guessed in February that it was me who sent the card "because he's the only one who doesn't know I don't live at home". She promised not to tell Miss K2 I'd confessed...
Lady D'Encloseland went on to another topic for a little while, ruffled my hair again and went out to the Ladies. I sat back in a daze, my heart whirling, just before the port was passed round. Liz, the Commodore's wife, sitting next to me, asked if I was OK.
"We were just talking about a young lady I like," I explained.
Liz asked "Does she reciprocate your feelings?"
I replied honestly. "I don't know. I hope so." I told her about the Valentine card and that she'd guessed it was from me.
Liz asked how I'd met her. Not wanting to go into too much detail - Sir Graball at that moment was opposite me talking to me ma - I just said I'd met her via doing my civic duties. Liz and the Commodore wished me good luck with her.
Later, when Lady D'Encloseland left the room again, I followed her out; there was something I had to ask. She was in Michelle's office talking to her and stayed there a while; when she came out I was waiting in the corridor. "Here he is," said Lady D'Encloseland, ruffling my hair with delight, "my friend," and she linked my arm and walked back towards the dining hall with me. When we were out of anyone's earshot I said "Could you please do me a favour, can I ask you something?" She said yes.
I asked whether, after the night I'd met them all at the Gosport Festival last summer, Miss K2 had said anything to her about me. Lady D'Encloseland said no, and added that what I had to understand was that Miss K2 is "very work-oriented" at the moment. It was easy to read between the lines - she meant Miss K2 doesn't want a boyfriend right now. As we re-entered the hall and Lady D'Encloseland sat down, she called me over and said "A word of advice..."
I thought it was going to be about my fondness for her daughter, but she just advised me not to over-exert myself as social secretary to the 2006 Chain Gang. What a let-down. *raspberry*
With the formalities over, my mother indicated to me that she wanted to make tracks, so we said our goodbyes to the people in the room we knew, then went to say a fond farewell to Michelle, before making our way out front where Arron was waiting to give us a lift home.
Arron and Pete talked to me while my mother went to pick up a film from SupaSnaps. They said "Suppose you'll be feeling a bit flat these next few weeks." I confirmed yes, my diary was almost blank for the rest of May. Pete said "Never mind, there's the Gosport Festival to look forward to." My tongue loosened by an excess of red wine and a glass of port, I replied "Yes, there's a great line-up and I'm hoping a certain young lady'll come along again." They just found that amusing; Pete remembered last year.
Minutes later Pete said "Can we ask you something discreetly?" I thought he had an idea who the girl I liked was and was going to ask, but he was just asking whether he and Arron could bring their partners to my mother's thank-you party next week.
And then me ma came back from SupaSnaps and we were chauffeur-driven home for the last time.
At tea time there was a rehearsal in the Thorngate for our own Mayor Making ceremony today. It all went OK, then I had to help John the driver hump all the left-over bottles that my mother had cleaned out of the Mayor's Parlour drinks cabinet into our house while me ma rushed off to catch the bank before it shut. With that job done, I rushed upstairs just in time to catch the RL Challenge Cup draw on BBC News 24. Quins are away to Wigan :(
Then in the evening it was the newly-installed Lord Mayor of Portsmouth's Banquet. I was sat next to Margaret, the previous Lady Mayoress of Portsmouth, who kept the whole table amused with her acerbic sense of humour and her observation that she's old enough to get away with being outrageous. She kept trying to persuade me that I ought to become a councillor myself, and telling my mother that she should be proud of me and that I was a perfect gentleman *blush*
And so today was The End. The ceremony went off all right, though most of the speeches went on a bit, and one councillor's speech, meant to be seconding the new Deputy Mayor, consisted of rambling anecdotes from his army days that had nothing to do with the business in hand. Sir Graball D'Encloseland, sat in front of me, and I exchanged glances as if to say "What planet is this guy on?"
Jill, seconding the vote of thanks to my mother the outgoing mayor, had been asked to say a few words about me. She'd been provided with a script by me ma, but instead she just made it up on the hop.
The new Mayor presented us with neat little civic badges as Past Mayor and Past Mayor's Consort respectively, my mother got a big bouquet of flowers, and I got £15 in book tokens.
In the buffet lunch lots of people came up to me to shake my hand and congratulate me on my time as Mayor's Consort. Lots of people said things like "You won't know what to do with yourself now," and I confirmed that my calendar for the second half of the month is looking a bit blank, but they observed that I could probably do with a break now.
Aussie, a councillor, and his wife Carol, whom I know from The Villagers, asked if I'd seen the Eurovision on Saturday. Once it became clear to them that I was a serious fan, they invited me to come to their Eurovision party next year - everyone draws a country out of a hat and if your country wins you have to host the party the following year! I asked if Ann could come too - they agreed.
And so on to the Town Hall for the new Mayor's formal Installation Lunch. On our table were Ian, Mark and Lin. Mark, a director of Gosport Borough, who've just been promoted to a division two levels below H&W, wound me up saying that H&W and Gosport would be in the same league in a year's time...
Also on our table were Sir Graball and Lady D'Encloseland. After main course Lady D'Encloseland came up to me and ruffled my hair. We had a bit of a chat, and when she happened to mention her daughters that gave me the excuse to ask how Miss K2 was. She talked for a while about Miss K2's exploits at work, and how Miss K2 was studying for a promotion, then my mother asked after Miss K2's sister. Before long my mother said "You've got both of them at home, then?" and Lady D'Encloseland said Miss K2 still lived in her own place (as an aside, confirming what I'd thought, that she and Nobby had long split up) "but I still feed her."
Taking a calculated risk, I asked, trying to sound insouciant, "Have you been sending her mail on to her?"
When she replied "She comes round and collects her post every day," I thought for a moment I'd got away with it, but she immediately followed up with "Was it you that sent her that..." She tailed off, but didn't have to complete her sentence : I knew she meant the Valentine card.
I fessed up. "You guessed as soon as I asked if you'd been sending her mail on," I smiled. Lady D'Encloseland replied that Miss K2 had guessed in February that it was me who sent the card "because he's the only one who doesn't know I don't live at home". She promised not to tell Miss K2 I'd confessed...
Lady D'Encloseland went on to another topic for a little while, ruffled my hair again and went out to the Ladies. I sat back in a daze, my heart whirling, just before the port was passed round. Liz, the Commodore's wife, sitting next to me, asked if I was OK.
"We were just talking about a young lady I like," I explained.
Liz asked "Does she reciprocate your feelings?"
I replied honestly. "I don't know. I hope so." I told her about the Valentine card and that she'd guessed it was from me.
Liz asked how I'd met her. Not wanting to go into too much detail - Sir Graball at that moment was opposite me talking to me ma - I just said I'd met her via doing my civic duties. Liz and the Commodore wished me good luck with her.
Later, when Lady D'Encloseland left the room again, I followed her out; there was something I had to ask. She was in Michelle's office talking to her and stayed there a while; when she came out I was waiting in the corridor. "Here he is," said Lady D'Encloseland, ruffling my hair with delight, "my friend," and she linked my arm and walked back towards the dining hall with me. When we were out of anyone's earshot I said "Could you please do me a favour, can I ask you something?" She said yes.
I asked whether, after the night I'd met them all at the Gosport Festival last summer, Miss K2 had said anything to her about me. Lady D'Encloseland said no, and added that what I had to understand was that Miss K2 is "very work-oriented" at the moment. It was easy to read between the lines - she meant Miss K2 doesn't want a boyfriend right now. As we re-entered the hall and Lady D'Encloseland sat down, she called me over and said "A word of advice..."
I thought it was going to be about my fondness for her daughter, but she just advised me not to over-exert myself as social secretary to the 2006 Chain Gang. What a let-down. *raspberry*
With the formalities over, my mother indicated to me that she wanted to make tracks, so we said our goodbyes to the people in the room we knew, then went to say a fond farewell to Michelle, before making our way out front where Arron was waiting to give us a lift home.
Arron and Pete talked to me while my mother went to pick up a film from SupaSnaps. They said "Suppose you'll be feeling a bit flat these next few weeks." I confirmed yes, my diary was almost blank for the rest of May. Pete said "Never mind, there's the Gosport Festival to look forward to." My tongue loosened by an excess of red wine and a glass of port, I replied "Yes, there's a great line-up and I'm hoping a certain young lady'll come along again." They just found that amusing; Pete remembered last year.
Minutes later Pete said "Can we ask you something discreetly?" I thought he had an idea who the girl I liked was and was going to ask, but he was just asking whether he and Arron could bring their partners to my mother's thank-you party next week.
And then me ma came back from SupaSnaps and we were chauffeur-driven home for the last time.
no subject
And good look with your pursuit of the young lady - it's always tricky when people start sussing you out.
no subject
A long break! :)
And good look with your pursuit of the young lady
Cheers, mate - I'm going to need it...