It's a boy! (apparently)

World news does reach us here in Moorea, though sometimes in a curious manner. Take, for instance, the news of the Royal Baby (we gather it might have merited a couple of minutes of air time on the news yesterday). A British boat,  Yindee Plus, 'dressed overall' (signals flags, in a strictly prescribed order, were hoisted up the fore and back stays – we did, of course, dress Maunie overall on Sunday for Bastille Day) prompting an Australian boat Tutto Bene to call up on the VHF to ask what the occasion was. Chris on Yindee Plus relayed the happy news of the new baby. We then received an email from one of Di's Monday Night yoga class, Wendy, whose description of the media frenzy surrounding the whole event had us chuckling. We hope she won't mind if we quote some of her email to share with our blog readers:

 

"Yesterday morning, we were greeted with the news that Catherine had gone into labour at 6am. Of course labour is a rather lengthy affair but the imminent arrival of the third in line to the throne is not only national news but is, apparently, also international news. There must have been 1000 reporters, photographers and camera men/women/operatives/executives (whatever they call themselves) camped outside the entrance to the private wing of St Mary's hospital. They were there ALL DAY, repeatedly having to fill up air time with the news that Kate was in labour. They repeated themselves endlessly, interviewed each other, interviewed random tourists, interviewed anyone who would say anything as long as it filled up air time. It kept getting funnier as the day went on......

 

...Then, at about 8.30pm (yes, they kept the press waiting for 4 hours), the announcement was made via social media and e-mail. A few minutes later, the press secretary appeared, ran down the steps to give the notice to someone in a waiting car, then ran back inside again. Words such as 'drama' and

'theatre' could not be used in this context.....

 

.... After The Announcement, the reporters really started scraping the barrel. The 'What if it's a girl?' rug had been pulled from under them. They reported how other reporters were reporting the news, they went back to interviewing each other, they went to Buckleberry to get the reaction of the

locals from the place where Catherine grew up - which inevitably involved going to the pub. We were also treated to some serious ham acting by a woman who had probably never met Catherine (but possibly has a neighbour who knows someone whose daughter went to the same school). My favourite of the day was the news that the bell ringers in Buckleberry had planned to ring a peal but one of them was on holiday so they didn't."

 

We're just sorry that we don't have satellite TV aboard Maunie (as apparently UK  Gold was showing The Magnificent Seven yesterday).