It has finally dawned. The Royal wedding takes place in London today between second in line to the throne, Prince William, and his fiancée, Miss Catherine Middleton. From Bucklebury to Buckingham Palace, the marriage will make her Princess Catherine, and possibly Queen one day in the future. What we are mainly thinking about here in Edinburgh is that we have a day off, and for the second weekend in a row, it is a four day weekend.
What are you doing to celebrate that? Do tell us! (We might be watching the TV for a wee while this morning….)
Lord Provost George Grubb is making the final preparations for his journey to London today where he will be a guest at the wedding of Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton.
The Lord Provost, who is also Lord Lieutenant of the City of Edinburgh, is taking an early morning flight to attend the event at Westminster Abbey.
He said: “I am delighted to be representing the City of Edinburgh at the Royal Wedding. It promises to be a lovely occasion celebrating the happiness of two young people and I will no doubt remember the event for a long time to come.”
The Lord Provost also revealed that he had received two thank you letters – one from St James Palace, one from The Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund (RAFBF) – in gratitude for the wedding gift of £250.
This sum was presented to the bridal couple from the Lord Provost’s Benevolent Fund, with the request that it should go towards the RAFBF. The Lord Provost served as an RAF padre for eight years, and Prince William is an RAF helicopter pilot.
The letter from the RAFBF passes on the organisation’s gratitude to the City of Edinburgh Council, stating: “We are all honoured that Prince William and Miss Middleton have chosen the RAFBF to benefit from the Royal Wedding Charitable Gift Fund. Any donations that we receive will directly support our work with serving and former RAF personnel and their families, providing them with financial, practical and emotional support whenever they need it.”
Royal is a lion who lives at Edinburgh Zoo.
Join Royal the lion as he and his two mates, lionesses Kamlesh and Gita, make a meal out of their ‘wedding cake enrichment.’ Lovingly decorated by his keepers with Union Jacks, icing made from paper and the initials C and W, Royal will have the chance to explore and play with the meat packed treat.
Royal Zoological Society of Scotland carnivore keeper, Sharon Hatton, explains: “Providing Royal with his own version of a wedding cake is perfect enrichment for him and the lionesses, stimulating them physically and mentally. The lions will have to use their sense of smell to find the meat hidden inside and will need to work out how to get the goodies within. The wedding cake is made out of three tiers of cardboard boxes, painted and decorated by his keepers, and filled full of meaty treats!
“With a name like Royal, and as the Prince of Wales’ coat of arms features golden lions, we thought it would be the perfect opportunity to introduce a new form of enrichment into our lion enclosure – something we do regularly. Royal is also a handsome lion and very photogenic, just like the Prince William!”
Visitors to Edinburgh Zoo will also be able to see Royal the lion and the lionesses enjoy another wedding cake enrichment on the actual day of the wedding itself – Friday 29th April at 11.00am.
At the Council meeting yesterday the council voted through a motion proposed by Councillor Alison Johnstone on examining the possibility of providing free wifi for those in the public gallery at meetings. This would enable The Reporter to bring you live reports rather than just the odd tweet as we were able to do during yesterday’s proceedings.
The text of the motion was this:-“That this Council:
Acknowledges that access to Council debates, particularly for residents who would otherwise be unable to attend, would be greatly enhanced if these meetings were webcast or podcast and calls for a report outlining costs and potential benefits, including free public access Wifi.”
Meanwhile in parts of Edinburgh it seems that there are some bins overflowing with rubbish which have not been collected. The Council has issued a statement as follows:-
“We apologise that a small number of people are being affected by the temporary backlog in rubbish collection, particularly in the West of the city.
Measures have been put in place to clear the backlog and we ask residents leave their bins out for collection.
We are confident that it will be cleared by the end of the weekend (1 May 2011) and we apologise once again.” The matter was raised at the council meeting and it appears that part of the problem is a dispute between the council and refuse workers.
Oh and if you don’t know what to do today then Informed Edinburgh have a great list of what you can get up to – sort of linked to the nuptials in London. And that will have to do until the Queen’s other grandchild gets married in Edinburgh in July. And if you are very hungry you can get along to Illegal Jack’s tell them that your first name is Kate or William and they will give you a free burrito…..
