Diamond Geezer

It was, after all, a love match. That could be why it has lasted for 60 years. Or could it be down to the fact that in the 1940s people still had a touching belief in concepts such as doing your duty and honouring your promises.

Either way, let’s raise a glass to Elizabeth and her diamond geezer and toast them and times past. I doubt we’ll see young Harry celebrating his diamond wedding.

To mark the occasion, Buckingham Palace have revealed 60 things you might not have known about the events surrounding the wedding. (You can find all of these on the BBC website.)

I always assumed that wedding favours were a vulgar modern extravagance. But then I read this:

40. Individual posies of myrtle and white Balmoral heather were placed at each place setting as "favours" (gifts to the guests).

That's me corrected then.

A-bidie with me

Co-habiting is not a pretty word. Co-habitee sounds even worse. But I’ve just discovered that the Scots have a lovely way of describing a live-in partner: they call them a bidie-in.

I expect most of you knew that already. Sorry to be so, well, southernly. But maybe you won’t have heard of a poem I came across at the same time. It was submitted as part of an exhibition called The Art of Love, held in 2005 by Londonart.co.uk and written by the poet Diane Hendry.

The poem is called Application. It goes like this:
O let me be your bidie-in
And keep you close within
As dearest kith and kin
I promise I’d be tidy in
Whatever bed or bunk you’re in
I’d never ever drink your gin
I’d be your multi-vitamin
I’d wear my sexy tiger skin
And play my love-sick mandolin
It cannot be a mortal sin
To be in such a dizzy spin
I’d like to get inside your skin
I’d even be your concubine
I hope you know I’m genuine
O let me be your bidie-in.

I like the sound of Diane. I’m now off to track down some more of her work.