The Queen Is Alive and in a Bush

She's always watching

View of British monarch Queen Elizabeth II, in a silk headscarf, tweed overcoat, and woolen gloves, ...
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bubble games
Royals

Oh oh, remember March 2020? The Zoom fatigue we endured from spending all those hours puzzling remotely in tie-dye sweatsuits with Tom Nook’s sourdough starter. Life is so different now… our lives are runaway Delta planes and we’ve ripped our masks off mid-flight. It’s hard to imagine how dark it all was back then in quarantine with the sorrow, uncertainty, and the Queen of England hiding in a bush observing her staff partake in mandatory relay races.

Hello! magazine excerpted a new chapter from The Other Side of the Coin; The Queen, the Dresser and the Wardrobe, a book by the Queen’s personal stylist Angela Kelly. The excerpt recounts a day of compulsory outdoor fun for employees who were stuck in isolation at Windsor Castle back in March 2020. It was the so-called “Bubble Olympics,” which are not to be confused with the Invictus Games for which Prince Harry is currently actively doing press as we live and blog.

What went on at the fabled Bubble Games? Races and rounders, among other activities.. “If I told you that there were balloons filled with water you might get an idea of the fun that was had out on the golf course in Home Park,” Kelly wrote in her book. OK, then say that? Or is the truth about a wet skirt-suit and luncheon hat contest at Windsor Castle too randy to commit to print?

The best part of the Bubble Games, though, was Lilibet Senior’s awards ceremony at the end of it:

On the day, she came out very quietly and discreetly, and it was amazing to see the looks of surprise and delight when The Queen's Range Rover pulled up by the golf course and Her Majesty stepped out … Little did the staff know that The Queen had actually arrived earlier and had been watching, hidden behind the bushes. The prizes were awarded and each team member came forward to receive their award and congratulations from The Queen.

Then she drove away in her Range Rover and everyone was “speechless.” Wow! Almost makes the whole pandemic of it all worth our time.