Quickly, quickly!
May. 9th, 2008 03:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jenepelI'm doing this now, because if I don't, then I know I never will! A little while ago I made a teasing remark about my night with the beefeaters, and then I never elaborated. I hate to leave things like that hanging, so...here goes!
Early last week (Tues?) I went to the Embassy in the afternoon to turn some client paperwork in and (basically) goof around with my friends there. If I need to go, I always do it last thing in the day so I can hang out. Man I miss those people! Anyway, I timed this one particularly well for two reasons: 1) they had just had a goodbye party for the CI TDY guy, so there were TONS of baked good lying around and 2) also b/c of him, they had gotten permission to go to the Tower of London "ceremony of the keys". Turns out one spouse wasn't going to go, so there was an extra spot. Enter Jennifer!
"What is the Ceremony of the Keys?" you say. (Well, maybe you do, if you care!) Basically, it's the official locking of the tower for the night by the beefeaters (properly known as Yeoman Warders). So it's at 10PM and they've done it without fail for 600 years, etc, etc. And it was pretty cool, because it was all dark and sketchy and the guard leading us told us lots of ghost stories and Tower background (ie. beheadings) to kill (hee!) time before it started. So that was cool. And it's all solemn, with guards marching out and being stopped by other guards before they try and enter:
Guard: HALT! Who goes?
Beefeater (with keys): The keys.
Guard: Whose keys?
Beefeater: Queen Elizabeth's keys
Guard: Pass. All is well.
Or something like that. And then they play taps.
Okay, so that was cool, but evidently pretty much anyone can go see it, you just have to write in for tickets ahead of time. However, if you followed that link, you will notice that on the bottom it says "There are no toilet or refreshment facilities available" - NOT TRUE FOR US! That's a weird way to introduce it, but before and after the ceremony, we Embassy people (and some others - no idea who they were) got to go to the private club (read: bar) of the Yeoman Warders. It's probably not some huge deal, but it was a cool and random thing to do in London, which I always love. And it felt special and insidery, whether it truly was or not. And in order to tip your guard, you don't buy him a drink, instead you buy him a domino, and then he can use that to trade for a drink at a later time. Weird huh? And they were actual dominos too. Oh! And there was a raffle, and I won a clock! Pretty cool huh? I'm good at raffles.
And for proof (and so you can see what a beefeater is if you don't know) a picture of me at the club:
And now? I am off to Athens! One hour of work left...
Early last week (Tues?) I went to the Embassy in the afternoon to turn some client paperwork in and (basically) goof around with my friends there. If I need to go, I always do it last thing in the day so I can hang out. Man I miss those people! Anyway, I timed this one particularly well for two reasons: 1) they had just had a goodbye party for the CI TDY guy, so there were TONS of baked good lying around and 2) also b/c of him, they had gotten permission to go to the Tower of London "ceremony of the keys". Turns out one spouse wasn't going to go, so there was an extra spot. Enter Jennifer!
"What is the Ceremony of the Keys?" you say. (Well, maybe you do, if you care!) Basically, it's the official locking of the tower for the night by the beefeaters (properly known as Yeoman Warders). So it's at 10PM and they've done it without fail for 600 years, etc, etc. And it was pretty cool, because it was all dark and sketchy and the guard leading us told us lots of ghost stories and Tower background (ie. beheadings) to kill (hee!) time before it started. So that was cool. And it's all solemn, with guards marching out and being stopped by other guards before they try and enter:
Guard: HALT! Who goes?
Beefeater (with keys): The keys.
Guard: Whose keys?
Beefeater: Queen Elizabeth's keys
Guard: Pass. All is well.
Or something like that. And then they play taps.
Okay, so that was cool, but evidently pretty much anyone can go see it, you just have to write in for tickets ahead of time. However, if you followed that link, you will notice that on the bottom it says "There are no toilet or refreshment facilities available" - NOT TRUE FOR US! That's a weird way to introduce it, but before and after the ceremony, we Embassy people (and some others - no idea who they were) got to go to the private club (read: bar) of the Yeoman Warders. It's probably not some huge deal, but it was a cool and random thing to do in London, which I always love. And it felt special and insidery, whether it truly was or not. And in order to tip your guard, you don't buy him a drink, instead you buy him a domino, and then he can use that to trade for a drink at a later time. Weird huh? And they were actual dominos too. Oh! And there was a raffle, and I won a clock! Pretty cool huh? I'm good at raffles.
And for proof (and so you can see what a beefeater is if you don't know) a picture of me at the club:
And now? I am off to Athens! One hour of work left...
