A postcard from London

Among the old postcards my mother gave me was one featuring the Royal Wedding of the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana Spencer on July 29th, 1981. The date is chiselled in my brain, because it was celebrated exactly one year and three days after my own wedding day, July 26th, 1980!

This is one of the rare cards that weren’t addressed to me, but rather to my parents. I kept it though, because of the memories that are attached to it. On that particular day in 1981 I was in Deal, spending a short vacation with my late husband at my former, 1970’s hostess Rowena’s house. As a present, we had brought her one kilogram of genuine Corné chocolates, many of which had a delicious and rich ‘crème au beurre’ (butter cream) or ‘crème fraîche’ (fresh cream) filling.

Rowena had invited her long-time friend Sue, who had a kinky Pekinese called Snooks, to spend the day with us at the house, watching the festivities and the wedding ceremony on TV. The box of chocolates had strategically been placed in the centre of the drawing room table and a bottle of Champagne was sitting in the fridge, waiting to be opened after the official ceremony. There were crisps, peanuts, egg and cucumber sandwiches, mini pork pies, sliced tomatoes, cheese and crackers … enough to keep the four of us (actually six, if you are counting Snooks and Slinky, Rowena’s nifty Siamese cat) happy all through the event.

The card and Sue's mug.

It was a very jolly occasion and we had a great deal of fun, ‘stuffing’ ourselves with the food and watching the bashful Diana become Princess of Wales. Poor girl, if she had known what life had in store for her, she surely would have fled right there and then.

The card and Rowena's mug.

The card isn’t the only memorabilia that I have from that day in July 1981. In my cupboard I still have two mugs commemorating the event: a rustic one, which was a present from Sue and a more traditional one, with a golden rim, that Rowena bought me. They are perfect for serving a soothing or invigorating herbal tea.