Dear O Sung Wu,

Thank You for sharing your experiences with us.

It would have been an exciting time for you,
I dare say.

My mum was a staunch monarchist. She so wanted to
live to be 100 years old so she could get a letter
from the Queen. Well mum never made it. She passed
away a few years back at the age of 96.

I guess we'll always have divided views on the
royals. There are many who want nothing to do with them
and an empire which has been responsible for bloodshed,
conquest, empire and tyranny around the world.
Strong sentiments can be found not only in this country
but in India, Sri-Lanka, South Africa, Canada, Scotland,
Wales, Ireland, and the list goes on.

In our multi-cultural society - the royals are not of interest
to many people. Then there's also our Indigenous people and
their feelings.

There's also many people who would rather see the money go
to the elderly, infrastructure projects, transport,
health services, youth programs and so on.

It will always be debatably whether we should support royal visits
at the expense of bigger priorities this country faces.

Hi there FOXY...

Your Mum passed away at the grand ol' age of 96 years! She did well for herself I must say. It's a pity the Queen doesn't furnish a letter of congratulation to those who reach sixty five for their impressive efforts of paying taxation all their working lives!

Actually FOXY, We all found HRH the Queen, very down to earth, as most of us did the Duke of Edinburgh, certainly the very few times I met her (Purely by accident, and in the private gardens). I won't go into details of what security arrangements were maintained at Government House other than to say, we were a team when I worked there.

We each carried pistols as a sidearm, and in silent hours, we resorted to Remington 850Ps, (depending on the threat assessment). I could only imagine the expression on the Duke's face if he saw us wandering around with a Remington? On past encounters, he'd probably wish to know all manner of details of the gun and how it functioned etc. He was a real man's man, I and my colleagues found.

Most of our static duty was boring - either too hot or too cold. The occasional encounter with a VIP-P, could be outright banal, or quite exciting, depending who the protected person was of course.

Most of our Premiers were good blokes. Occasionally we'd get an alert on some government minister, to pay close attention to his or her safety. One such Minister we had was a real mug, and disliked by all the cops who were rostered to look after him/her. I'd hate to think if anyone of us was every required to take a bullet for him? It might be time on such an occasion, to have a coffee break and sort out the mess afterwards?

The Duchess of Cornflakes, has come down with the hendra virus. Someone please cancel that order of hay. I'm not having a shot at Camilla, it was ordered for her polo pony, Charles!

Dear O Sung Wu,

You've certainly had some great experiences in your life.
Ever thought of writing some of them down? It would make
fascinating reading.

Dear Paul,

I love your sense of humour and your way with words.
Great imagination and expressions.

My one brush with royalty.

I was one of about 10,000 kids lined up in rows 6 deep at the Bathurst Show Ground when Phil & Liz visited in 1954. The came, they drove up & down the rows of flag waving kids, standing in the back of a Land Rover designed for the job, & left. I was slightly disappointed she didn't wear a crown.

Four of us immediately skipped out a side gate of the show grounds to where a mates father was waiting for us, to whip us out to their 1000 acre property 7 miles east of town. It fronted the Highway, but backed to the railway line to Sydney. We knew the royal party were due to ride a special train to Sydney soon after the showground effort.

Our horses were waiting, & still in school uniform, we rode to the back fence to try for a private view. This is where the line climbs into the ranges from the Bathurst plain. It is a long climb, & the old steam trains were pretty slow climbing it, even the special 2 carriage train was not much faster than a trot for our horses. We had about a mile where we could ride along beside the track, with in the property.

After about half a mile of this, Phil & Liz came out onto the little balcony at back of the carriage, gave us a wave, & a few words, inaudible over the puffing of the train. We reckoned that Liz, being an accomplished horse lady would probably prefer to be on one of our horses than in the train.

A much happier time when they did not have to worry about someone wanting to harm them.