QUEEN'S BIRTHDAY

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Today is Her Maj’s birthday, well it’s not really, she was born on April 21, 1926 but in most States in Oz it is celebrated on the second Monday in June and is a public holiday. This allows more even spacing of holidays and the release of the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.

Here are some anecdotes about Her Maj . . .

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At Highclere, better known as Downton Abbey, a farm worker was wedged under a broken-down trailer when he heard a familiar voice asking, ‘Can I help?’ It was the Queen, in a headscarf, out walking with a dog. She is one of those guests who wants to make a contribution.

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When the Queen is recording her Christmas broadcast, the producer puts surprise silly pictures at strategic points to ensure that she smiles.

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After Prince Andrew was born, the Queen had a post-baby phase of not working. Once she went to the theatre with Prince Philip and had become so anonymous she was shown to the wrong seats.

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‘I can’t wear beige because people won’t know who I am,’ the Queen once said.

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The Queen’s handbag has an unusual secondary function – as a signalling device. Handbag placed on the dinner table means, ‘I want to leave in five minutes.’ Handbag moved from arm to arm says, ‘It’s time to talk to someone else.’

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There were lots of parties on Malta in the 1940s, when Princess Elizabeth was enjoying a spell as an ordinary naval officer’s wife. Spoons and buns would fly through the air, according to Henriette Abel Smith, the lady-in-waiting. If it got really hazardous, Prince Philip would sit both ladies on the piano to keep them out of danger.

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In June 2011, the Queen was having lunch at Windsor with racing friends. ‘Boeing 747,’ she said at one point. Then she said, ‘Airbus.’ The castle is right next to Heathrow airport and planes roar overhead. The Queen knows them all by their sound.

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On a tour of Canada in 1950, the Duke of Edinburgh chased his wife down the corridor of a train, wearing some joke false teeth.

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‘I shall call her Bud,’ said Princess Elizabeth, when informed that her new sister was to be called ‘Margaret Rose.’ ‘She isn’t really a rose yet. She’s only a bud.’

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‘It’s what we’re made for’: the Queen’s view of child-bearing.