![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Oct. 15th, 2006 03:00 pmTo Portsmouth Cathedral for the Annual Service for Seafarers. In the coffee and robing room, Robin the Deputy Mayor of Portsmouth asked why I wasn't being robed. I replied that I don't have robes, Robin said "Don't you have them as a councillor?" I explained that I'm not a councillor. Robin was most apologetic - "I was sure you stood this May and won!"
Since if I ever stood for the Council it would be for the Socialist Party or Plaid Cymru, that would have been a miracle.
It was all very ceremonial - my mother walked in procession, with John in front of her carrying the huge town mace, with the other local Mayors, led by Fred the Lord Mayor of Portsmouth. I didn't have to parade on the way to the cathedral; Pam the Mayoress of Fareham, Felicity the Deputy Mayoress of Portsmouth and I were simply led there down side streets by a nice lady with a name tag on. She got us to the cathedral nearly half an hour early; soon Phyllis, an ex-Lady Mayoress of Portsmouth and a friend of the parents, arrived and sat on my other side. She, Pam and I talked until the procession arrived.
The service was very good, with readings and hymns related to seafaring, and a sermon by a minister from theSeamen's Seafarers' Mission which is celebrating its 150th anniversary. At the end we all had to form a procession out of the cathedral; in the order for the procession printed in the programme, Pam and I weren't mentioned, so I assumed we had to mingle with the general congregation at the very back, but Pam gave me a prod to join the procession after Phyllis, so we did - then as we proceeded out, Phyllis and the other ex-Lord Mayors and ex-Lady Mayoresses of Portsmouth parted like the Red Sea to let Pam and me go ahead of them. We walked along the road to Nelson's Monument, where I went to stand in line behind my mother as the Dean led a ceremony of all the Mayors and a Navy representative laying wreaths on the monument. We all sang For Those In Peril On The Sea, by the harbour wall Fred threw a paper laurel and poppy wreath into the Solent in memory of all who lost their lives at sea in the past year, we watched a march past by sea cadets, then (informally!) all walked back to the cathedral for a buffet.
As we sipped our glass of red wine, Pam explained our omission from the programme was a misprint. I said I'd thought Phyllis had precedence over us as she was Portsmouth, but Pam said that as incumbent consorts, we outranked past ones - "There's nothing as Past as a Past Mayor or Mayoress." (She was Mayor of Fareham herself four years ago so she'd know.) On the buffet were lots of peanuts (YES!), tasty cheese straws, and some delicious small cheese-flavoured dome-shaped sesame-seeded snacks - I kept going back for more of those. One of the regular churchgoers, on hearing I was from Gosport, engaged me in a lengthy discussion on the Explosion museum and what it ought to do to attract more trade. When my mother and I met up again, we were approached by a Portsmouth councillor who asked us all about our Medieval Night next month. When he said he liked "dressing up", we told him a lot of people would be coming in medieval costume - "anything from 1066 to 1600, from king to serf!" It turned out that by 'dressing up' he meant wearing a dinner jacket! My mother assured him he was welcome in a DJ and he promised to buy a ticket.
Since if I ever stood for the Council it would be for the Socialist Party or Plaid Cymru, that would have been a miracle.
It was all very ceremonial - my mother walked in procession, with John in front of her carrying the huge town mace, with the other local Mayors, led by Fred the Lord Mayor of Portsmouth. I didn't have to parade on the way to the cathedral; Pam the Mayoress of Fareham, Felicity the Deputy Mayoress of Portsmouth and I were simply led there down side streets by a nice lady with a name tag on. She got us to the cathedral nearly half an hour early; soon Phyllis, an ex-Lady Mayoress of Portsmouth and a friend of the parents, arrived and sat on my other side. She, Pam and I talked until the procession arrived.
The service was very good, with readings and hymns related to seafaring, and a sermon by a minister from the
As we sipped our glass of red wine, Pam explained our omission from the programme was a misprint. I said I'd thought Phyllis had precedence over us as she was Portsmouth, but Pam said that as incumbent consorts, we outranked past ones - "There's nothing as Past as a Past Mayor or Mayoress." (She was Mayor of Fareham herself four years ago so she'd know.) On the buffet were lots of peanuts (YES!), tasty cheese straws, and some delicious small cheese-flavoured dome-shaped sesame-seeded snacks - I kept going back for more of those. One of the regular churchgoers, on hearing I was from Gosport, engaged me in a lengthy discussion on the Explosion museum and what it ought to do to attract more trade. When my mother and I met up again, we were approached by a Portsmouth councillor who asked us all about our Medieval Night next month. When he said he liked "dressing up", we told him a lot of people would be coming in medieval costume - "anything from 1066 to 1600, from king to serf!" It turned out that by 'dressing up' he meant wearing a dinner jacket! My mother assured him he was welcome in a DJ and he promised to buy a ticket.
