Saturday 30 April 2011

A Royal Affair

Well, nothing like a Royal Wedding to get the world all abuzz--so what better reason to dust off the blog?!
Love it or loathe it, the wedding of Prince William to Catherine Middleton is now part of our shared history.

I have to admit that I was a curious and excited tv-watching participant in the royal celebrations. I figured, since work commitments required me to be away from London, I couldn't be standing on the wedding parade route in London to catch a glimpse of the Royal Couple...may as well try to get something that will commemorate where I was on the day.

I arrived in Sydney VERY early in the morning from a business trip to Adelaide a few days earlier. In the cab on the way to a client meeting, I heard a man on the radio from the Australian Mint saying that they had pressed a special commemorative coin for the Big Day.
Now, I'm not a big coin collector--but my father was--so I was immediately curious and excited to find a way to get my hands on a coin. At 8:45am, the Royal Mint was set up in front of Customs House in Circular Quay in the city of Sydney, exchanging $0.20 coins for the commemorative coins. I fleetingly toyed with the idea of asking the cabbie to make a swing through the city centre so that I could get a coin...but knew that was no good...I'd for sure be late to my client meeting--a big no no, regardless of why.

I made it through the day, telling myself that if I left the office at a decent hour, I'd stop by on my way back to the hotel and see if I could still get my hands on a coin.
I left the office at 4pm and wasn't in the cab more than 3 minutes when I asked the cabbie if going to Customs House on the way to the hotel was "convenient"--like he cared...the meter would still be running!!! He radioed in the office to find out exactly where to go and expertly navigated the city streets to park up in a nearby taxi rank.
He waited patiently for me to go investigate the situation.

It could not have been easier--rocked up, filled in a form, and in exchange for $0.20 Aussie cents, I got my coin.
I could only have been happier if I could have figured out a way to get multiple coins...so I could not contain my glee when the man handing out coins said, "how many do you want?" Not wanting to appear greedy, I handed over $2.00 Aussie dollars (~$2.10 USD) and got TEN--count them--10 commemorative coins!!!

So, having chatted to the cabbie on the entire route about his family, my family, cooking, raising teenagers, higher education, the Royal Wedding...I gave him a coin to give to his 16 year-old daughter. So, I ended up being the proud owner of 9 commemorative coins.

Here is the packaging and coin...I'm going to leave the ones I keep uncirculated.
Kate & Wills Coin1

And of course, telling where I was during the royal event, the packaging says it all:
Kate & Wills Coin2
...well, nearly. I went to Circular Quay in Sydney to get my coin, then holed up eating cheese and crackers in my hotel room to watch the coverage and do my expense report...close enough!

I have a some of the coins earmarked for a few special folks. Much better than a coffee mug or some other goofy piece of tat that will no doubt be filed away and never seen again!

1 comment:

Hachie Gal said...

OK...i think you should plan on at least one blogpost per year... you ahve about another 5-6 weeks to do it :-)