In March 1868 His Royal Highness, The Prince Alfred (second son of Queen Victoria) was shot in the back during an attempted assassination by an Irish man. He was at a picnic on Clontarf Beach in Sydney. He recovered well and 11 days later the most influential people in Sydney voted for a memorial building to be erected. This led to the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital being built.
Every year the hospital's medical board have a dinner to recognise
achievements, the work of people who have retired or remember the contributions of those that have died recently. It has a reputation as being a dry affair, but nevertheless, Howard and I were looking forward to attending. We'd been invited so that Howard could be presented with an award, but more than that we were just looking forward to dressing up and a night out.
There was the initial debacle of getting a DJ organised, and some slight huffing and puffing as H couldn't remember how to tie a bow tie. Fortunately You Tube was at hand, so we were able to go out fully dressed, well almost, but cuff links are over-rated.
The food was good and th
e wine flowing freely, we spent a lot of time explaining the definition of "totty" as a group of very glamorous surgical trainees sat down at the next table. The speeches began and mention was made of 3 people who had achieved The Order of Australia. Then the Governor New South Wales (the Queen's representative, appointed to carry out most of her constitutional duties) came up to the podium, ma
de a speech and some awards. By this point, I was getting quite excited that Howard was going to be rubbing shoulders with the elite, but it was not to be. The Governor came and went, the speeches went on, and several hours in I suddenly became aware of a very full bladder. Needless to say, Howard was presented with his award while I was indisposed, and I felt a bit disappointed I'd missed the big event. Someone kindly took a photo for me, Howard is the fuzzy thing on the right!
On the way out we spotted the Governor's car.
