Harry’s bound to miss his country
REMEMBER that Icelandic volcano no one could pronounce? When it erupted back in 2010, planes were grounded and suddenly people were marooned in paradise, stuck on their holidays with no way to get home. Do you recall how deeply they detested it? Sure, they’d saved up all year for a blissful sojourn in a beachside idyll. Yes, they’d dieted and dreamt of disporting themselves in the pool while sipping on cocktails.Yet the news that this ecstatic existence might last longer than the prescribed fortnight had them frantic, panicked and in a perpetual state of sitting on suitcases at airports, waiting to grab the very first chance of dashing back to rain and the grindstone.
Do you think the same might happen to Harry and Meghan? Wafting about Canada for six ecstatic pre-Christmas weeks must have been peachy. Getting back to nature while using a rented $14 million mansion – what’s not to love? Who could ask for more than unlimited hiking, biking, backpacking and popping on your pyjamas to roast vegan marshmallows on an open fire away from the pesky paparazzi?
But as the Bard pointed out: “If all the year were playing holidays, to sport would be as tedious as to work.” A perpetual vacation quickly turns into a life sentence.
SO HARRY strides through their Canadian front door. Meghan and Archie are wreathed in smiles. The place is sparkling. No bossy boots from the palace blot the landscape.There’s no protocol to be worked around. No one has to worry about whether Princess Anne’s opening a school canteen or the Duke of Kent planting a tree. There are no royal correspondents holding forth and no emails from the Cambridges warning Meghan not to wear lilac because it’ll clash with Kate’s mauve ensemble. George and Amal are coming to tea and there’s an email from Netflix/ Rolex/Porsche to discuss.
So far, so fabulous, but what will happen the next day and the day after? Meghan will be fine swapping style notes with Jessica Mulroney, popping in to unsuspecting women’s refuges and sipping a wheatgrass shot on her way to yoga. Archie will be fine.The dogs are snuffling about, nanny is on hand and mum is on tip-top form.
I just wonder about Prince Harry? His sad speech for charity Sentebale spoke volumes: “The UK is my home and a place that I love. That will never change.” What’s the betting he misses this green and pleasant land as much as we’ll miss him?
■ IT’S just a niggle, but when did British folk, and old Etonians to boot, begin to say, as Prince Harry did: “I haven’t always gotten it right”.
Since when was the word “gotten” part of contemporary spoken English? At school we were warned on pain of minus points and livid red crossings-out never to use “got” in any circumstances.
We were not to say “I’ve got one” but “I have one”. A sentence like “I’ve just got here” was unacceptable, while “I have just arrived” would be fine. “Gotten” in any context or capacity is an abomination.