Saturday commute xi
When one thinks of all the Royal Navy has en-dured, in its endless volleys of the sun to as-sure that it never sets beneath Greenwich's badminton net, the Falk-lands campaign still takes one's breath away for its digression in latitude, when in the same longitude there remained, after all, Canada, flouting empire.
And so it was, that in 1982 the flimsiest flotilla ever floated from the floorboards of a Gilbert & Sullivan farce was requisitioned by Her Majesty's flanneled clubmen of Whitehall, to sail to Argentina and serve suit for repatriation of some islands none of them had ever known. Yet who is to say where the commute of imperial repossession might lead next, with such a precedent? Could there be hope for Virginia?
But this got nasty. There would be VC's, there would be inquiries, there would be no excuses.
Except at White's.
In an age when the im-portance of man manage-ment loomed large in British society, British warships were built to very high standards of comfort... But the cost of increased comfort was reduced armament.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Allegro grazioso
Rondo in D, K. 382
Alfred Brendel
Sir Neville Marriner
Academy of St Martin in the Fields
Philips, 1976©
Max Hastings
Simon Jenkins
The Battle for the Falklands
Norton, 1983©
One would hope that while travelling to said conflict in the hastily converted QE2 that our young men were lucky enough to dine in the Queen's Grill. However I think that that was reserved for their superiors.
ReplyDeleteI am enjoying your blog, having spent time in it these last several weeks, most recently (today) as a follower. Of course the pictures are . . . but it is actually your prose that I find so intriguing. One doesn't come across a blog so well written as yours. At least it is so infrequently as to be most unusual, indeed. Reggie
ReplyDeleteDavid, the consolation of not being superior is one of the high callings of haute cuisine - but in the less sardonic sense in which I know you will know what I mean, supports a humane humility that serves rank very well. Here, the "underlying ingredient" of battle is properly recalled, before the croûte of honorific elaboration has made its consumption.. conventional.
ReplyDeleteRD, I knew your initials from Bollinger before encountering their more recent disgorgement at your blog. Like everyone else, I've noted a consistency in your vintage which makes its transliteration to the page especially coherent. It's very kind of you to remark on this little project with such companionable courtesy. A quiet word to one's art director may yet prove to be of help. :)
Chivalry was never a apparent in the navy!
ReplyDelete;-)
Well, no chevaux.
ReplyDelete