2 The bells of Westminster Abbey will ring for three hours after the royal wedding. The ringers will perform 5,000 changes for the first time since 2007.
3 Britons will take 327 million photographs of the royal wedding, street parties and other celebrations tomorrow, according to research carried out for Nikon. One in six pictures – around 65 million – are expected to be posted on social networking websites.
4 John Loughrey, 56, who describes himself as a “super fan” of Diana, Princess of Wales, became the first royalist to camp out on the pavement to secure his viewing position outside Westminster Abbey, arriving on Monday
5 The extra bank holiday will benefit dozens of inmates. Those whose release date falls on a bank holiday are let out the previous working day
6 William and Kate, a pair of royal starlings at Chester Zoo, have been renamed Billy and Nate after both turned out to be cock birds.
7 Researchers found that one in five adults plans to purchase a royal collectable and will spend an average of £17 each — with mugs, tea-towels and plates the most popular items. But seven in 10 won’t admit it to friends for fear of ridicule.
8 Prince William and Kate Middleton will spend their wedding night at Buckingham Palace, their spokesman confirmed. Previous generations of royal couples have always left London on their wedding night to begin their honeymoon.
9 The job of calming Prince William’s nerves has been given to Sir Stephen Lamport, the Receiver General at Westminster Abbey.
10 More than 9.5 million people have logged on to the official royal wedding website since it was set up last November when the couple announced their engagement
11 More than 5.8 million bin bags of rubbish, weighing 4,000 tons, are expected as a result of royal wedding tea parties and family get-togethers.
12 An unidentified gambler has bet £6,000 that Kate Middleton will wear a Russian fringe tiara borrowed from the Queen. A £6,000 bet at odds of 12-1 was placed at Ladbrokes in Ascot, Berks, on the tiara, which was made in 1919 for Queen Mary.
13 The cutting of the wedding cake is to be a private affair after the bride and groom decided not to allow pictures to be published.14 Up to 600,000 people will turn their kettles on after the couple kiss on the balcony of Buckingham Palace, the National Grid predicts.
15 The country’s largest rail union, the RMT, will keep its head office in London open during Friday’s bank holiday because it opposes the monarchy. The staff could choose whether or not to work, a union spokesman added.
16 The owners of a racehorse called Royal Wedding are hoping his name will bring them luck when he runs at Fontwell Park on April 29.
17 An American artist has spent 80 hours creating an unusually detailed portrait of the royal couple. George Vlosic, 30, completed his work of art on an Etch A Sketch toy. The artist has previously made portraits of Barack Obama, Tiger Woods and The Beatles.18 Couples getting married on the same day as Prince William and Kate Middleton plan to turn the date clash into a virtue by having royal-themed receptions, according to Crumble Bumble Bakery. The baker said its three-tier wedding cake had proved a hit.
19 The odds on the Duke of Edinburgh falling asleep at the service were cut to 8/1 by William Hill. It is one of the firm’s most popular bets.
20 The number of royal wedding street parties will now top 5,500, the Local Government Association said yesterday. Councils have received a last-minute surge of applications for road closures, with 1,500 requests in the past three weeks.
21 Airline passengers will be able to take part in on-board “street parties” on long-haul flights on April 29. Virgin Atlantic will lay on tea and wedding cake and decorate the cabins with bunting, and members of the crew will be dressed up as wedding guests.
22 Wedding guest David Beckham will stay in London for only a few hours after the ceremony. He will fly back to the US for a game on Sunday.23 Speculation that Prince William and Kate Middleton will spend their honeymoon in Transylvania has reached fever pitch in Romania. The Prince of Wales owns a property in the village of Viscri, which was visited by a security team in recent weeks, residents claimed.
24 Bookmakers are taking bets on which of a list of phrases the BBC’s royal wedding presenter Huw Edwards will utter first on the big day. Favourites include “St Andrews”, “Diana” and “commoner”.
25 Westminster Abbey will offer royal wedding tours from April 30 until May 6, when visitors will be able to see the wedding flowers and look at other points of interest.
26 The royal couple will be toasted with modest £30 bottles of champagne at the wedding breakfast. They have chosen non-vintage champagne from the family-run Pol Roger vineyard that was a favourite of Sir Winston Churchill.
27 The Duchess of Cornwall is to plant a Wedding Cake tree to mark Prince William and Kate Middleton’s marriage. The Duchess, Prince William’s stepmother, will settle the sapling on May 3 at St Mary’s Church in Tetbury, close to her home in Highgrove, Gloucs.
28 A guardsman has been banned from duties on the day of the wedding after making abusive comments about Kate Middleton on Facebook. Gdmn Cameron Reilly, 18, of 1st Bn Scots Guards, could also face a court martial after allegedly making a series of racist comments.
29 One in three Britons will try to avoid seeing the royal wedding, according to a ComRes poll for ITV News. While 75 per cent of people said the event would help Britain’s reputation, 38 per cent said they would watch it live, suggesting viewing figures of around 18 million.30 More than 500 yards of red carpet were rolled out at Heathrow Airport arrivals halls to give passengers a welcome fit for a future king and queen. Thousands of cups of White Earl Grey tea, blended by Twinings for the event, will be given out free of charge.
No comments:
Post a Comment