On this gorgeous sunny evening, the last of May ’22, Phoenix Voices gathered in the beautiful garden behind Holy Trinity Church Hall for a party to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee. And wasn’t it nice to acknowledge a piece of current affairs that isn’t depressing and doesn’t leave you with your head in your hands!? Hats off to everyone who brought along something to eat. My own personal favourites were Jackie’s quiche and the Jubilee cupcakes. (I just brought along meringue nests from the shop with berries and cream – Vickie
, amongst others, urged me to cheat and pretend I had made the meringue nests myself.) It was lovely to have a social together that so many could attend, chatting and laughing together, after all those months of lockdown isolation. And we didn’t break any laws…!
Indeed, laughter was the order of the day, captured by Fiona who went round our circle of love with her magnificent golden frame, taking photos. We then bent in pairs over pieces of paper, pens poised, as Kris read out the brilliant, (and often challenging), quiz Sara had written. The questions ranged from, quite frankly, impossible ones like ‘What is the Queen’s favourite cocktail? – (Gin and Dubonnet, as it happens) – to Question 6: ‘Which white bird is owned by the Queen?’ That was a great goose impression, by the way, Kris!
Watching the Netflix series The Crown came into its own here, having furnished me with knowledge such as the fact that Churchill and Eisenhower were the Prime Minister and US President in power when Queenie acceded the throne, and that her nickname is Lillibet. Sara’s quiz also provided lots of new facts: for example, there are no less than 52 bedrooms in Buckingham Palace. Very excitingly, the marking process led to a tie-break between three teams – congratulations to all of you who scored that high!
We rounded off the evening by singing a few patriotic songs such as ‘Jerusalem’, and ‘White Cliffs of Dover’. It felt very magical doing this. As Kris said at the start of the evening, the three things he feels unite people are ‘music, food and alcohol.’ The Queen is also considered by many as a unifying constant presence in our lives. In the end, despite the rush of modern life and endless development of science and technology, it is constants such as these which still bind us, sustain us, just as they did when we were cavemen all those centuries ago. So, thank you, Queenie, for providing us with a great reason to celebrate tonight!
Liv