I am and always have been a supporter of the Royal Family, I can remember being aware of who the Queen was from a very early age. I felt she worked tirelessly for the country and was often the voice of reason. She was the perfect figurehead, clearly compassionate, so aware of her duty and role plus fully appreciative that she was born into it so had a real desire and work ethic to give herself totally to the position. Even on days when I am sure she did not feel like it there were always smiles when meeting her public and she was such a good public speaker.

I think if I am honest I am still coming to terms with the fact she is no longer with us. We saw those pictures of her meeting the outgoing and incoming Prime Ministers. She did I will concede look a bit frail but she was smiling and carrying out her duties. Therefore I did not think that forty-eight hours later we would receive the devastating news that we did. I always really wanted to meet her to say hello and thank her personally for what I feel she had done for the United Kingdom. I would have liked to have a chat with her and maybe even be the subject of her great sense of humour I will now sadly never get that chance.

I remember when I was at Primary School at the age of six or seven the whole class wrote a letter to the Queen. I will be honest I cannot recall what I said in mine now I possibly just asked some ridiculous questions about her day to day life. I will however never forget the joy and excitement when the class got a letter on Royal headed note paper from her Lady in Waiting who thanked us for our letters. We each got given a copy and I still have my one at home somewhere.

Fast forward nearly forty years to during the first lockdown in 2020. I like most people had more time than I am used to on my hands, so I decided it was about time Her Majesty had an update from me. As I suspected she may have wondered what I was up to and what had happened to me since we last spoke. Believe it or not I did write to the Queen again but this time it was a thank you letter for all I felt she did.

Having watched lots of the behind the scenes documentaries I knew as I said earlier that she had a brilliant sense of humour so I put things in there that I thought might make her at least smile. Once again I got a reply back from her current Lady in Waiting. Now I do not know if the Queen actually saw my letter or not but the fact I got to at least document what I felt about her and got to thank her was enough for me.

I have been going to Royal Ascot for many years and one of the highlights for me was always The Queen’s arrival. I used to get a good spot in the Parade Ring to make sure I could see her arrive in her carriage. She always dressed so well in such bright and vibrant colours and looked quite happy and relaxed. I think I may have got a wave one year. She did of course love her horse racing and was a winning owner and breeder several times. In fact she was still riding ponies well into her nineties. It is going to be so weird at Ascot next year knowing that she will not be there.

I took my mum for a tour of Buckingham Palace a few years ago. They had an exhibition next door of some of the presents that the Royal Family had received from overseas visits needless to say all of the items in there were stunning. We then were taken through the state rooms of the great house. I really enjoyed it I like the splendour and history of the place. I liked the way it was decorated and could certainly see myself being able to live there. It was special walking where the Queen would have walked and being in rooms where she would have met many amazing people. They showed us the room in which they perform the investitures so I had a good look around to get a feel for the place so I will be at ease when I collect my MBE or Knighthood in the future.

I will be joining the nation on Monday in saying goodbye to this country’s longest serving monarch. It is going to be strange her not leading all the usual annual events. I do like the fact she is already being referred to as Elizabeth the Great that seems totally fitting to me. I thought that she could go on for ever but of course no one can. She did an amazing job as our figurehead, although I think that the memories of her I will treasure most were in recent years when she was on the Buckingham Palace balcony with her family, children, grand-children and great children. Her smile in those situations and the joy she clearly got from looking after the youngest members of the family. Rest in Peace Queen Elizabeth II.

A couple of weeks ago I went to Pub in the Park in Chiswick. It was started a few years ago by the chef Tom Kerridge. It is run in sessions there is an afternoon and evening one and we had tickets for both of them on the Saturday. There is a hotel just around the corner from the venue so we booked in there for a couple of nights. On the Friday I went to a leaving do for one of the producers at work. She held it in a pub just around the corner from the studios that I had no idea existed but it is a great little place hidden away down a side street. I thought I had been in every pub in London but I am still discovering new ones.

I had a great time having a few drinks and talking about radio with everyone there, always one of my favourite subjects. I did manage to get Laura whose party it was a drink, mind you she asked for a half and I somehow ended up with a pint despite ordering a half at the bar. As the other drink was a wine for me I am guessing the girl thought it was the other way round and that I would like a pint. I left Laura still drinking her larger than requested beverage and raced across London to meet Lynda and our friends in a Cote in Chiswick for dinner. I got there just in time to order with everyone else and we had a nice relaxing meal to ease ourselves into the weekend.

The next morning we got up and had breakfast my gluten free option was basically fruit and yoghurt but that was fine as we were after all off to a food festival. We arrived there just after half eleven trying some free samples of food and drink on arrival. Lynda bought a few bits and pieces and I had some food from one of my new favourites chefs whose place in Marlow we ate at fairly recently. I then had to race off to go and see Tottenham play Fulham. This involved me running to Turnham Green Station getting the tube, then running from Seven Sisters to the ground. I made it to my seat five minutes before kick-off.

Happily we won which made it all worth it. On the final whistle I then had to run back up the Tottenham High Road to Seven Sisters get back on the tube. Then get back to Turnham Green and run to our hotel to have a quick shower, get changed and meet everyone back at Chiswick House for the evening Pub in the Park session. It is fair to say that my love of Spurs did make my day a lot busier and sweatier than it needed to be but with three points in the bag I was ready to party. In fact the first thing I did after meeting up with Lynda was grab a drink.

One of our favourite chefs Atul Kochhar was doing a cookery demonstration. It was from his stand that I had got my meal earlier. On the way to see him in action we stopped there again to get more of his food. The big appeal for me was unlike most other places there three out of the four dishes he was offering were gluten free. We had one of everything two dishes each and went to watch the main man show us how to make one of the creations that I was eating.

The food tasted amazing, he is a really top man and chef. He made cooking a fish curry up on the stage look so easy and was also very funny with his commentary on what he was doing. Lynda who has hundreds of cookery books then decided to buy his latest book and get it signed by the man himself as he was doing a signing straight after. He was lovely, we had a quick chat to him as he was writing and I tried to take a picture of him and Lynda but did a terrible job due to a rogue light shining at her. Most of the pictures you see on this website are taken by her thankfully.

We then went to join the others watching Sophie Ellis-Bextor on the main stage. She was doing a combination of her own hits and some great disco cover versions. I met her and her mum outside a cinema in Richmond when Janet Ellis was on Blue Peter and Sophie would have been about six. I got Janet’s autograph and I still have it. I have interviewed her since and sadly she does not remember me. Anyway Sophie’s set was brilliant she had her husband and brother playing in the band. Her final song was Murder on the Dancefloor, she got her two youngest children up on stage to dance with her during it and it was the most beautiful and hilarious thing I have ever seen. The kids were really going for it and she could not stop laughing.

We then wandered around and sampled some more food and drink including some Champagne and a Pina Colada before grabbing a pint of cider to enjoy the headline act with. It was a DJ set from Sister Bliss from Faithless. It was as you would expect very high energy and dance music orientated. There was a lot of bouncing around and it did feel like being at a nineties rave at times. She is great and as you would expect played a lot of big songs. At the time I thought it was the first time I had seen her, until I spoke to a mate this week and he reminded me that I previously saw her perform after the Cartier Polo at Windsor about fifteen years ago. Pub in the Park was as ever fantastic. It is more than likely we will be there again next year.

I had planned on seeing The Mousetrap with Lynda last Friday. I had seen it before about twenty four years ago but she had not so we booked tickets. Sadly due to recent events I was extremely busy at work and was late leaving so I actually missed the entire first half of the play. I arrived at the theatre just before the interval. I met up with Lynda who was still holding the pre-show red wine she had got me while making her way to collect the interval drinks. Nobody can say I am not extremely well looked after. She filled me in on what I had missed and we then took our seats for the second half.

I got up to speed quite quickly and if I am honest about half way through it all came back to me and I remembered what happened. It is a brilliant play as you would expect from anything written by Agatha Christie. You can easily see why it is the longest running play in the West End. I enjoyed the bit that I did actually manage to see. This experiment did prove to me that if you have already seen a show before you can still have a good time at the theatre by only seeing half of it, but if you can see the whole thing from the start that is still the best way of doing things.

It was nice to see Champions League football back at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. I was lucky enough to see us beat Marseille two nil in our opening group match the other week. It was a tough game but two great headers from Richarlison saw us through. It did help when they went down to ten men but a win is a win. I am just happy to be back in the competition. I do feel we have a decent chance of getting to the next stage. And I say that despite us losing two nil in the week away at Sporting Lisbon.

A reminder that you can listen to me every Saturday afternoon between 2pm – 4pm on Radio Ninesprings https://www.radioninesprings.co.uk/

I am in Northampton this weekend to go to a friend’s 60th Birthday party. I will tell you all about it next time we speak. Have fun and we will catch up again soon. Stay safe! Cheers Neil.