There have been two bits of history made over the past 24 hours and I'm not quite sure which has been the more interesting. Wayne Rooney became the first England player to score 50 international goals and also overtook Bobby Charlton as the top England scorer of all time and today the Queen becomes the longest reigning monarch in history.
I suppose technically the latter is the more important, but it is highly unlikely that anyone living at the moment will live to see either record broken, particularly as the Queen has many more years ahead of her and Rooney has many more England caps and goals ahead of him.
Rooney has always been an enigma to me. I would stop short of saying he is one of the greatest England players of all time as I believe that he has never really lived up to his true potential. This is particularly true in major championships where he has never convinced or delivered. His record speaks for itself of course but I wouldn't mention him in the same breath as Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore, David Beckham or some of the other true greats. But as one commentator said "perhaps we won't truly appreciate him until after he has retired."
Breakfast television was asking for details of people's memories and encounters with the Queen. I have never actually met or spoken to her but I did have a rather embarrassing encounter where I may have sworn in front of the Monarch, although very softly.
It involved my previous life when I was a Press Officer with Norfolk Constabulary. Part of my function at the time was Royal visits. This meant looking after the Media at visits to Norfolk of any member of the Royal Family. Journalists would be on a so called "rota" and have full accreditation. So we wouldn't have any ineterlopers. My job was really to inform them of the movements of the Royal party, ensure they didn't get in the way and also ensure that they got access to photographic opportunities etc at specific points.
The Media knew the rules and were always well behaved. Because of my role I would go to pre-visit meetings where the technicalities were discussed. I would be known to protection officers and Royal staff and so nobody would question my movements and indeed at times I got very close to the Queen and other members of the Royal Family who probably had absolutely no idea who I was but assumed that I was acceptable as nobody tried to arrest me or move me on.
On this particular day, the Queen was opening something or other at Lynn Sport in King's Lynn. Part of her day included watching various athletes knocking over high jump bars or other equally inept things.
At one point I was aware that I needed to cross over from one side of a running track to the other. I would move from right to left and the Queen would move from left to right. That was the plan. I still don't know whether I got it wrong or Her Majesty deviated from the route, but I suddenly had one of those frozen in time moments when I went one way, the Queen went another and I ended up directly in front of her, almost barring her path.
Of course this all happened in a split second and I shot off to either the left or the right out of her way. I'm sure before I did that I may have inadvertently used the s--t word. A very minor matter of course but one that has lived long in my memory and which I can have a good laugh about now, but which was slightly embarrassing at the time. Luckily I don't think anyone else noticed what had happened.
Needless to say I have to date never stepped into the path of Wayne Rooney, nor am I ever likely to do.
* * *
This afternoon we are going to a performance of the play "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" which is based on the book by Mark Haddon. I will tell you what I thought of the play at Norwich Theatre Royal in tomorrow's blog. Also tomorrow sees the start of four very busy days at the annual Norwich Heritage events. More about all this as it happens (as they say).
I suppose technically the latter is the more important, but it is highly unlikely that anyone living at the moment will live to see either record broken, particularly as the Queen has many more years ahead of her and Rooney has many more England caps and goals ahead of him.
Rooney has always been an enigma to me. I would stop short of saying he is one of the greatest England players of all time as I believe that he has never really lived up to his true potential. This is particularly true in major championships where he has never convinced or delivered. His record speaks for itself of course but I wouldn't mention him in the same breath as Bobby Charlton, Bobby Moore, David Beckham or some of the other true greats. But as one commentator said "perhaps we won't truly appreciate him until after he has retired."
Breakfast television was asking for details of people's memories and encounters with the Queen. I have never actually met or spoken to her but I did have a rather embarrassing encounter where I may have sworn in front of the Monarch, although very softly.
It involved my previous life when I was a Press Officer with Norfolk Constabulary. Part of my function at the time was Royal visits. This meant looking after the Media at visits to Norfolk of any member of the Royal Family. Journalists would be on a so called "rota" and have full accreditation. So we wouldn't have any ineterlopers. My job was really to inform them of the movements of the Royal party, ensure they didn't get in the way and also ensure that they got access to photographic opportunities etc at specific points.
The Media knew the rules and were always well behaved. Because of my role I would go to pre-visit meetings where the technicalities were discussed. I would be known to protection officers and Royal staff and so nobody would question my movements and indeed at times I got very close to the Queen and other members of the Royal Family who probably had absolutely no idea who I was but assumed that I was acceptable as nobody tried to arrest me or move me on.
On this particular day, the Queen was opening something or other at Lynn Sport in King's Lynn. Part of her day included watching various athletes knocking over high jump bars or other equally inept things.
At one point I was aware that I needed to cross over from one side of a running track to the other. I would move from right to left and the Queen would move from left to right. That was the plan. I still don't know whether I got it wrong or Her Majesty deviated from the route, but I suddenly had one of those frozen in time moments when I went one way, the Queen went another and I ended up directly in front of her, almost barring her path.
Of course this all happened in a split second and I shot off to either the left or the right out of her way. I'm sure before I did that I may have inadvertently used the s--t word. A very minor matter of course but one that has lived long in my memory and which I can have a good laugh about now, but which was slightly embarrassing at the time. Luckily I don't think anyone else noticed what had happened.
Needless to say I have to date never stepped into the path of Wayne Rooney, nor am I ever likely to do.
* * *
This afternoon we are going to a performance of the play "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time" which is based on the book by Mark Haddon. I will tell you what I thought of the play at Norwich Theatre Royal in tomorrow's blog. Also tomorrow sees the start of four very busy days at the annual Norwich Heritage events. More about all this as it happens (as they say).
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