I happened to be on the island when Princess Diana died - I was on a trip around Wales and wondered why on earth all these people were queueing outside Carnarfon Castle to lay flowers and sign a book of condolences. After someone told me what had happened, I wondered why on earth all these people were queueing outside Carnarfon Castle to lay flowers and sign a book of condolences. The holiday was a nightmare, as it was due to end in London the weekend of the funeral. Needless to say, German girl who was accompanying me, gave me lots of abuse about the famous English stiff upper lip and emotional repression. On the rare occasions that we did listen to the news on the radio it was full of the most ridiculous, sentimental, emotional mawkishness. Now, obviously, I didn’t have anything against the woman, but I didn’t know her and, you know, shit happens.
It was with some gratitude though that I noticed today that the BBC at least, seemed to have returned to “typical British understatement”:
Reads slightly differently if one skips the second word. It becomes positively al-Fayedian.
I’d forgotten what a good word mawkishness was.
On that fateful day I was in Japan, working off a hangover with the help of Japanese daytime TV (which is dire) and not really tuned in to the flow, except they seemed to be showing an awful lot of Chaz’n'Di footage and I was trying to work out if it was their anniversary or something. The significance of the tunnel they kept showing was however quite mystifying, until it occurred to me to turn the volume up.
(Once I’d worked out what was going on, I knew it was time to drive the white Fiat Uno up into the hills and dump it into a volcano crater, and the cheque from Prince Phillip came in very handy).
It’s amazing you Brits still manage to hold up a stiff upper lip:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/medicine/story/0,,2191204,00.html
Oh, all right, I’ll admit it. After the senseless tragedy this Commonwealth subject had a poster of the poor dear stuck on her fridge for nigh on a year.
I’m over it now, though.
“Filed under: Girls, cars, sport . . . ”
Ha ha ha ha hahahhahah hah ah ha ha ha.
Thank you.
About the stiff upper lip thing… the Tuesday edition of Outlook on the BBC World Service ( http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/programmes/outlook.shtml#Tues ) features an interview with a bloke who pulls his own teeth. Listen at your own peril. Glad I live in Germany. I was at my parents recently, and they had a byzantine letter from their dentists - in the town they used to live, two counties away because they couldn’t register anywhere local - explaining the fees and how not all the dentists (not an Anglo-Saxon name between them) were on the NHS, but were nevertheless available for the same fees (!). Beats me.
Oh, you, British people…!