UnseenI
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Post by UnseenI on Feb 26, 2018 8:12:18 GMT
Alice in Wonderland and some senior royals
According to the biography Young Elizabeth, the Queen as a little girl found Alice in Wonderland very strange; it was too imaginative for her. Prince Philip loved it and knew it off by heart. His mother’s name was Alice... Camilla too loves the Alice books: “The Duchess of Cornwall has revealed the stories she loved as a child, and said she still sees a new book as a ‘treat’. Camilla, 70, recalled fond memories of her father reading to her, and listed The Scarlet Pimpernel, Alice In Wonderland and Oliver Twist among her favourites. Urging today’s parents to do the same with their children ahead of World Book Day on Thursday, she said she still remembers the ‘excitement of opening a book’ as a schoolgirl. ‘Whether it was the dashing Scarlet Pimpernel escaping the French revolutionaries, the inquisitive Alice in the madness of Wonderland or Oliver Twist asking bravely for a second helping in the workhouse, my father’s reading brought them vividly to life,’ she said. Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5434187/Duchess-Cornwall-loved-Oliver-Twist-girl.html#ixzz58CDSstrB She has experienced “the madness of Wonderland” and life down the rabbit hole for herself! At the London premiere of 2010 Alice in Wonderland film:
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Post by UnseenI on Feb 27, 2018 8:48:37 GMT
Edward VIII in Japanese costume
It is not only Prince William and BoJo who have enjoyed playing drums and having a good time in Japan: the future Edward VIII visited Japan in 1922 as part of an Anglo-Japanese friendship exercise. He wore local dress during his visit. Edward, Prince of Wales, centre, with his aides ‘Fruity’ Metcalfe and Louis Mountbatten: Edward in Samurai clothes: What is it with the royals and dressing up? Is there anything more to it than having fun and paying a compliment to their hosts when on tour?
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Post by truthseeker on Feb 27, 2018 12:27:31 GMT
Completely off topic but wow, look at Anne Hatheway in the background. Look at those eyes! Or maybe it is just me and you don't notice anything remarkeable/slightly unusual about her face.
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Post by UnseenI on Feb 27, 2018 20:00:52 GMT
Anne Hathaway
I didn’t notice her in the picture truthseeker ! You have reminded me that I have always thought that she looks a little strange, but I thought it was because of Botox and similar treatments. She looks even stranger as the White Queen. I wonder why she was chosen for the part, and what the royals thought of her in it:
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Post by UnseenI on Feb 28, 2018 9:30:03 GMT
Charles the petulant, peevish prince
The New Yorker article quoted in the succession thread contains material from a new biography about Prince Charles: Prince Charles: The Passions and Paradoxes of an Improbable Life by Sally Bedell Smith. The article is best read directly; these extracts give an idea of what to expect: “The man we encounter here is a ninny, a whinger, a tantrum-throwing dilettante, ‘hopelessly thin-skinned . . . naïve and resentful.’ He is a preening snob, ‘keenly sensitive to violations of protocol,’ intolerant of ‘opinions contrary to his own,’ and horribly misled about the extent of his own talents. (An amateur watercolorist, he once offered Lucian Freud one of his paintings in exchange for one of Freud’s; the artist unaccountably demurred.) He is a ‘prolix, circular’ thinker, 'more of an intellectual striver than a genuine intellectual,' who extolls Indian slums for their sustainable way of life and preaches against the corrupting allure of 'sophistication' while himself living in unfathomable luxe. (He reportedly travels with a white leather toilet seat, and Smith details his outrage on the rare occasions when he has to fly first class rather than in a private jet.) “ www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/10/where-prince-charles-went-wrongAll this sounds very likely to be true. Maybe he inherited the intolerance of opinions other than his own from George V.
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Post by UnseenI on Feb 28, 2018 18:26:27 GMT
Harrods and the royal warrants
Royal warrants are issued to tradespeople and companies who supply the court or senior members of the royal family with top quality goods and services of all kinds for five years or more. The warrants are in the form of coats of arms and are a source of great prestige and a good advertisement for the recipients. The luxury department store Harrods held royal warrants between 1910 and 2000. The store was very popular with the royals: the Queen bought provisions and household goods and Princess Diana made frequent visits. The warrants were removed from display in 2000. They are said to have been withdrawn by the royal family after Mohamed Al Fayed made allegations that Prince Philip had masterminded the deaths of Diana and Dodi. Al Fayed, whose word cannot be relied on, said that it was his decision to remove them from the outside of the Harrods building. He said that they were a curse and business tripled after he had them taken down. Royal warrants including those of The Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh and Prince Charles: Workmen removing the Queen’s warrant:
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Post by UnseenI on Feb 28, 2018 18:28:34 GMT
Mohamed Al Fayed burned Harrods’ royal warrants on camera
Not only did Mohamed Al Fayed have Harrods’ royal warrants taken down, but the now former store owner also set fire to them. Perhaps this was symbolic of the way in which his ambitions to join the royal family backfired and went up in smoke: they destroyed him so he will destroy them.The burning was shown in a film from 2011, in which he also insulted members of the royal family: “Mohamed Fayed burns the royal warrants that used to adorn Harrods in the final scene of a controversial documentary on the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. As he looks on at the bonfire, he turns to the camera and brands the Duke of Edinburgh as a ‘Nazi’. Even the film's makers admit the burning of the crests is likely to be viewed as ‘spiteful’. Critics condemned the decision to film the burning of the Royal crests as malicious and vengeful. Hugo Vickers, the Royal historian and author, said: ‘It does seem vindictive and in very bad taste to burn the warrants but I suppose it's up to him. He was the shopkeeper.’ The film, entitled Unlawful Killing, has already provoked outrage for including a sickening, close-up photograph of Princess Diana taken moments after the Mercedes she and Dodi Fayed were travelling in crashed in a Paris underpass. At one stage in the documentary the Queen is labelled a ‘gangster in a tiara’ while Prince Philip is described as a ‘Fred West-style psychopath’". www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/diana/8598896/Anger-as-Mohammed-Fayed-burns-Harrods-royal-warrants.htmlThe film Unlawful Killing has not been shown in the UK as it is far too libellous. Mohamed Al Fayed watches the warrants burn:
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Post by UnseenI on Mar 1, 2018 19:37:29 GMT
The Diana and Dodi memorials in Harrods
Mohamed Al Fayed created two memorials to Princess Diana and his son Dodi in Harrods. They may also have been intended to convey a message to/about certain members of the royal family. The first memorial consists of a three-metre high bronze statue of the couple dancing on a beach beneath the wings of an albatross. The statue is called Innocent Victims. The second memorial is a shrine consisting of photographs of the pair as a backdrop to a fountain with a pyramid-shaped display holding a wine glass still smudged with lipstick from the Princess's last dinner as well as a ring Dodi Fayed bought for her the day before they died. Al Fayed with Innocent Victims: The fountain memorial:
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Post by UnseenI on Mar 2, 2018 8:03:52 GMT
Harrods wants to return the memorials to Mohamed Al Fayed
Mohamed Al Fayed sold Harrods in 2010 to the Qatari royal family for a reputed £1.5 billion. Ever since that time, the new owners have been keen to win back the patronage of the royal family and restore the former good relationship. They want the royal family to give them new warrants! As this is unlikely to happen while Dodi and Di are still being presented in store as innocent victims, Harrods announced in January this year that they will be returning the two memorials to Al Fayed. Discussions about the logistics for sending them back are said to be in progress. It is unclear whether it was entirely Harrods’ decision to return the memorials or whether Al Fayed asked for them back. He always puts the best possible construction on these things, so may say that the memorials are being returned at his request. Harrods will have to take this sign down too:
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Post by UnseenI on Mar 4, 2018 8:10:51 GMT
Prince Charles’ spiritual side
“Under the influence of van der Post and his circle, Charles began exploring vegetarianism, sacred geometry, horticulture, educational philosophy, architecture, Sufism. He received Jungian analysis of his dreams from van der Post’s wife, Ingaret. He visited faith healers who helped him uncork ‘a lot of bottled feelings.’ Staying with farmers in Devon and crofters in the Hebrides, he played at being a horny-handed son of toil. He travelled to the Kalahari Desert and saw a ‘vision of earthly eternity’ in a herd of zebras. On his return from each of these spiritual and intellectual adventures, he sought to share the fruits of his inquiries with his people… ‘I have come to realize,’ he told an audience in 2002, ‘that my entire life has been so far motivated by a desire to heal—to heal the dismembered landscape and the poisoned soul; the cruelly shattered townscape, where harmony has been replaced by cacophony; to heal the divisions between intuitive and rational thought, between mind and body, and soul, so that the temple of our humanity can once again be lit by a sacred flame.’” www.newyorker.com/magazine/2017/04/10/where-prince-charles-went-wrongThere was a time when all this would have seemed very promising if not impressive, but after reading about all the billionaires he sponges off I no longer think that he is a cut above all the others in his family. Three in this marriage too? Camilla is making a sign with her hands that some people say has a special meaning. Prince Charles with the Dalai Lama:
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Post by UnseenI on Mar 4, 2018 18:14:37 GMT
Prince Charles and the Indian spiritual leader
I have always thought that many of the Indian gurus who are revered by westerners look a bit dodgy. Some of them act like cult leaders. I have never felt any inclination to go and hear one of them speak in London, never mind going to visit an ashram in India! Swami Chidanand Saraswatiji does nothing to change my views, but Prince Charles seems to admire him. Once again, Camilla looks as though there is an intruder in her marriage - is this karmic retribution?
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Post by UnseenI on Mar 4, 2018 18:17:57 GMT
Princess Diana with red and white roses
The memorials in Harrods have been described as tasteless, tacky, vulgar and kitsch. A floral memorial created in Chesterfield for the 20th anniversary of her death has received similar criticism: The red roses are inappropriate too: White roses – House of York!
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Post by UnseenI on Mar 4, 2018 18:20:59 GMT
Another royal warrant is withdrawn
Rigby & Peller, maker of luxury lingerie and supplier of underwear to the Queen, lost the most prestigious royal warrant in January this year. June Fenton, who bought the company in 1982 and is (was?) the Queen’s personal corsetiere, wrote a book about her experiences. She mentioned a visit to Buckingham Palace in which the corgis were present in the room while the Queen, who was half-dressed, had a fitting. It is described as a tell-all book, but there is nothing scandalous in it, just a bit of harmless gossip: “Kenton wrote that the Queen Mother told her Princess Margaret would try and interfere in her choice of hats, but that she would just ignore her advice. Shall I tell you what I do?’ the Queen Mother apparently asked Kenton. ‘I pretend to listen to Margaret and then, once she has gone, I order what I want.’ She also revealed that the late Princess Diana came for fittings, ordered swimsuits designed in Israel, and took posters of lingerie and swimwear models for princes Harry and William to display in their rooms at Eton.” Read more: metro.co.uk/2018/01/11/queens-lingerie-designer-sacked-tell-book-royal-bra-fittings-7220370/?ito=cbshareTaking the royal warrant away seems rather petty of the Queen. Rigby & Peller’s London shop, with royal warrants still in place over the door:
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Post by UnseenI on Mar 5, 2018 8:14:47 GMT
Mohamed Al Fayed the 'phoney pharaoh'
He is wearing a lion headdress here, rather like the ones we have seen on Meghan Markle, Luna Lovegood and others - apart from the horns:
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Post by UnseenI on Mar 5, 2018 20:25:17 GMT
Jubilant women and miserable men
Michael Middleton, like James Matthews, does not look too happy in many pictures. Carole, like Pippa, often looks triumphant. Carole and Michael Middleton at Pippa’s wedding to James Matthews: James Matthews often looks worried and not too happy. Perhaps he is just a bit shy and does not like publicity. Who knows what was going on below the surface? I did think at one time that this 'engagement' might not come to anything. The happy couple:
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Post by UnseenI on Mar 5, 2018 20:32:43 GMT
Kate at her sister’s wedding last May
Kate's hands look really skeletal here:
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Post by UnseenI on Mar 5, 2018 21:16:40 GMT
Unlawful Killing: the banned film
More about the film mentioned in previous posts.
Unlawful Killing is a 2011 British documentary film, directed by Keith Allen, about the deaths of Diana, Princess of Wales and Dodi Fayed on 31 August 1997. It was financed by Mohamed Al-Fayed and Associated-Rediffusion and shown in Cannes while the 2011 Cannes Film Festival was in progress.
It was banned in the UK but is available on YouTube:
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Post by UnseenI on Mar 6, 2018 8:00:42 GMT
Take those people away: I can't stand it!
This picture of black and white statues comes from a visit that the Cambridges made to the Musée d'Orsay in Paris last March. I find the horrified reaction of the white statue very amusing. The black statues cavorting in the background remind me of the Diana and Dodi memorial in Harrods.
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Post by UnseenI on Mar 7, 2018 8:41:20 GMT
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Post by UnseenI on Mar 7, 2018 18:05:27 GMT
Meghan Markle, Anne Hathaway and the Princess Diaries
There is another tenuous connection between Anne Hathaway and the royals in addition to the Alice film. I didn’t think of it myself: I just found it in places where celebrities are discussed. In the Princess Diaries films, Anne Hathaway plays Mia, an American teenager who discovers that she is the heir to the throne of a fictional country. This starts a media frenzy. Mia keeps a diary; she has to take ‘princess lessons’. This has been likened to the case of Meghan Markle, who also has to take lessons in protocol and appropriate behaviour. Meghan kept an anonymous (online) diary. Meghan Markle's half-sister Samantha Grant is said to be writing a memoir with an unflattering title: The Diary of Princess Pushy's Sister.
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Post by UnseenI on Mar 8, 2018 9:05:31 GMT
Prince Charles’s and the billionaire Indians
In 2013, Prince Charles celebrated his 65th birthday. There was a huge party at Buckingham Palace, for which the cost was estimated at £500,000. As often happens with Prince Charles, his rich ‘friends’ paid for everything: “Indian billionnaries pay for Prince Charles birthday partyChoosing how to celebrate a landmark birthday is always tricky. For the Prince of Wales, the answer was a lavish party in the palace that will become his home, to the music of Richard Wagner. The celebration took place in Buckingham Palace last Thursday, with 400 guests including George Osborne, the Chancellor, and his wife, Frances, and some of the wealthiest people in Britain… The event, which cost £500,000, was paid for Cyrus Vandrevala, the Indian private equity tycoon and philanthropist, and his wife, Priya. She was seated at the head of the table next to Prince Charles, while her husband was placed next to Charles’s wife, the Duchess of Cornwall. The couple have become close to Charles and Camilla through their financial support of the Elephant Family conservation charity, which was founded by Mark Shand, the Duchess’s brother.” www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/theroyalfamily/10470236/Prince-Charles-takes-over-Buckingham-Palace-for-party-fit-for-a-king.htmlSame old approach: make a huge donation to one of Prince Charles’ charities to attract his attention, then buy his company by funding holidays etc.
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Post by UnseenI on Mar 26, 2018 19:34:03 GMT
Killer Queen
In 2000, the Queen was reported to have killed game birds to put them out of their misery: “Animal rights campaigners have criticised the Queen after she was photographed wringing the neck of a wounded pheasant at Sandringham House in Norfolk. She was watching the first pheasant shoot of the year on Saturday when a Labrador brought her the injured bird. She took it from the dog's mouth and used bare hands to kill it.” news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1031343.stm“When a gundog brought an injured pheasant to her, the Queen did not hesitate. She took the bird from the dog's jaws and hit it four or five times over the head with her walking stick until she was satisfied it was dead. Buckingham Palace said yesterday that the Queen had acted quickly "as would any other responsible country sports person" to put the pheasant out of its misery during a shooting party at Sandringham over the weekend.” Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-206674/Queen-clubs-bird-death.html#ixzz5Ald5Aehv So she sometimes strangles them and sometimes bashes them to death. She is reported to have a small cudgel that she uses to dispatch the wounded birds. That sounds like a useful skill to have for when the revolution comes and the republicans come to take her away. Maybe she could put a few of her relatives out of their misery too... Is this the royal murder weapon?
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Post by UnseenI on Apr 7, 2018 6:59:27 GMT
Meghan Markle and the Agape International Spiritual Centre
The DM has tracked down many people from Meghan’s past. The latest is Joshua Silverstein. She met him at the Agape International Spiritual Centre, a huge, ultra-progressive, transdenominational church which she attended regularly with her mother. We have noticed Windsor and Coronado in place names associated with the Markles; this centre is in Buckingham Parkway! This is quite a coincidence. Another one: Joshua Silverstein and Meghan went to see a film called Clueless. One of the characters is a spoilt rich girl; she is played by Alicia Silverstone. www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5573791/Why-Meghan-dumped-boy-kissed.html
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Post by UnseenI on Apr 12, 2018 7:26:48 GMT
Kate Middleton’s prophetic parts in the school plays Kate played the part of Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady. She is now often called the Duchess of Doolittle by unsympathetic people – because she has no work ethic and shirks her duties. She played the female lead in the Victorian melodrama Murder in the Red Barn at the age of 13, when she was still attending St. Andrews school. A fortune-teller tells her that a rich and handsome man will fall in love, marry her and take her to London: William (the Squire) asks her to marry him: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1208478/The-moment-William-proposed-Kate-Middleton--school-play-14-years-ago.htmlPerhaps there is more to this than chance and coincidence. Sometimes people may sense the future. For example, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli played Parliament games with his siblings when he was a small boy. He was PM and the others were the Opposition!
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Post by UnseenI on Apr 12, 2018 19:19:13 GMT
Meghan Markle’s prophetic childhood play
The DM has been tracking people and old pictures and videos down. They have found something really good. Meghan starred in a show called “Your Royal Highness” at a children’s party: “It would take another 26 years for her to fall in love with her real-life prince but these captivating images show a young Meghan Markle playing the fictional ‘Queen’ of a royal household. Wearing a gold crown, eight-year-old Meghan stars in a childhood play – with her young chums as her princesses and servants. These charming never-before-seen scenes are taken from an 11-minute video recently found by the mother of Meghan’s best friend of nearly 30 years, Ninaki Priddy.” Read more: www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5539893/Meghan-Markle-video-1990-shows-dressed-Queen.html#ixzz5CTZumCij It should be “Your Majesty” for a queen, and many girls like to play the princess game, but even so it is quite a coincidence. Meghan in her crown:
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Post by UnseenI on Apr 14, 2018 6:32:02 GMT
Royal baby countdown has started
There was talk earlier that the new baby would be born at Kensington Palace, but now it will arrive in the same old Lindo Wing at St. Mary’s Hospital. People are already camping outside. This is one from last time:
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Post by truthseeker on Apr 15, 2018 8:35:58 GMT
Today I saw this picture of Meghan Markle: www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3892712/Love-struck-Prince-Harry-bombarded-Meghan-Markle-text-messages.htmlDM calls it a yoga pose but to me it looks more like gymnastics, I don't know much about yoga nor gymanstics but I can imagine that to be able to stretch the body like that one must have done gymnastics in the past. I feel like this picture tells us a lot about Meghan Markle's personality. One of this is that she is very ambitious. (A body has to be trained hard to be able to do something like this). I can also imagine that she is one of those people who are all about "healthy living". And it seems like she likes it when her public image is looking very good.
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Post by truthseeker on Apr 15, 2018 8:51:42 GMT
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Post by UnseenI on Apr 16, 2018 6:22:54 GMT
Queen Victoria and Queen Mary would wonder how something like this could happen. I would love to know what the present Queen really thinks.
Meghan is very fit and healthy but her past is not good.
There are conflicting stories about how they first met and who was responsible.
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Post by UnseenI on Apr 16, 2018 6:25:49 GMT
Royal baby madness again
Another person who camped outside the hospital for the second baby has a reminder of the first one:
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