A RIGHT ROYAL SHOCK

Crikey! There we were in Windsor for a bit of a perambulation when who should turn up but the flaming Royals. Not just one of them either. It was flipping Royal Ascot today weren't it and the three of us from the visiting Aussie media - the honourable Michael (worm farm) Wade from Yahoo 7, Donna (Visit Ireland why don't you?) Campbell and I were treated to some exciting close encounters with their Royal highnesses.

First, we'd barely set foot in Windsor before Prince Philip came railing around a corner driving his favourite horse and buggy and not looking a day over the ninety years old he's just turned - please see photo below. The old fella looked happy as Larry and I was so astonished to see him that I quite forgot I had an actual message to give him from a tribe that worship him in Tanna, Vanuatu. No sooner had the Duke of Edinburgh appeared than he was racing past us leaving just the aroma of freshly delivered horsey poo in his wake. I feel intensely guilty because I promised the chief of the Yaohannen tribe on Tanna, Siko Nathuan, that I would get their message - "come and live with us in the hut we've built for your long awaited return" to paraphrase - to their chosen idol and I was simply so dumbfounded to actually encounter him that I said nothing.



Anyhow, after that we got an eyefull of the Queen's adored corgis and one old dorgy (dachshund/corgy love child) inside the castle grounds and then lo and behold, there was Her Majesty herself having a little ride just beyond the feeble reach of the lens I had available at the time. It was a flaming Royal feast I'll tell you.

But the Royals were not finished with us. A little later they set off from the castle en route to Ascot in a fleet of limos and the crack Aussie media team were there to bring you the news...That, sadly, former Eton schoolboy Wills and his brand new bride, Kate, in her brand new High Street branded clothes, weren't erm, there. Damn and blast and forgive my fascinator.

However, those who did give us a wave were: The Queen, the Duke of Eders, Prince Andrew, Princess Eugenie, Duchess Camilla of Prince Charles and some others the window reflections didn't give us a clear gander at.

Now that's what I call a happy coincidence. You go for a day looking around the gorgeous and magnificent riverside town of Windsor and you get almost a full set of the Royal family for your troubles. And I ain't even a royalist meself.

London looked ravishing today herself in the sunshine and the view from on high here at the brand new St Pancras Renaissance Hotel is spectacular. What a building this is - a masterpiece of Victorian flamboyance and pomposity but truly exquisite inside and out. And we even saw the bald bloke (who looks uncannily like the comedian Harry Hill) from UK Masterchef in the corridor.

I was born and brought up in this city and it's hard not to feel nostalgic on revisiting. I took so much for granted when growing up here - the amazing creativity, the extraordinary buildings, the theatre, the music, the pubs, the fifteen different languages being spoken in one tube carriage - but it's taken me a long time to realise and be brave enough to state that London really is back to its very best and among the most wonderful urban centres on this planet.

Come and you may just bump into a Vanuatan God!