What Goes Around...

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Back in 1981, in a fit of irony, I bought my Dad a commemorative bottle of beer from Cwrw Môn - which I thought I still possessed, but may well have lost: the picture is off the web - to celebrate the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer, which coincided with my Dad's birthday: he, of course, being no manner of monarchist whatsoever. The irony of producing such a thing here in North Wales I think might just have been lost on the producers of the ale, but there you go. I do, however, remember studiously avoiding the televised pomp by sitting for the duration in the summer sunshine outside the front of our then house and reading a book.

Fast-forward - maybe not that fast, as it's over forty years since - to tomorrow's bread & circuses event: The Coronation of - you get the picture - Charles, etc., etc. As with his first marriage, I will be steadfastly ignoring the event to the very best of my ability: Jane & I are going to visit a neolithic burial site, in the form of the remains of a long barrow situated in fields near Capel Garmon, just outside Betws Y Coed, which will distance us from the twenty-first-century media coverage of the said spectacle physically, spiritually and politically in equal measure. And we will probably end the visit in The Royal [irony of ironies] Oak for a drink, afterwards - no TVs there, thank God - before returning home to our fastness in Rachub. Will post a picture tomorrow evening...

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