Royal Visit to the USA

[Alan H]

No offense to the Prince, who is probably an excellent fellow, but this thread reminds me of why I don't much like posting here any more.

[Jock Scot]

Right on!

So...what are these awards?

I am no expert on this.These awards go from bronze, silver and gold and they are specifically designed to test young people from about the age of thirteen to about twenty. They do good works, map reading ,cross country hikes to varying standards and things like that.The disabled are encouraged to take part with specifically designed tasks to achieve. These awards have to be earned and they are not given lightly.They are highly thought of in this country. I am sure if you googled for details there will be pages about it all.

[Zardoz]

No offense to the Prince, who is probably an excellent fellow, but this thread reminds me of why I don't much like posting here any more.

Me too, I don't get the attraction.
Although threads like this let me get a workout, exercising my withstraint.

[Jock Scot]

No offense to the Prince, who is probably an excellent fellow, but this thread reminds me of why I don't much like posting here any more.

Actually Alan, with your sailing, hiking and physical fitness prowess-es your skills would be perfect for encouraging the youngsters along the right lines to achieve these awards. I am not recruiting, by they way!

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

It is my belief that this mixing of black and brown stems from Prince Philip. He took up carriage driving soon after his marriage to Her Majesty. The horses and carriages being then available to him. The vast majority of the Queen's horses are brown and the way of it is that brown horses have black (or very, very dark brown) manes and tails.

All competitors in carriage driving have livery colours for their grooms (1 sitting next to the driver and 2 hanging on at the back). If memory serves, there was some controversy at the time as to what livery colours Prince Philip could or should use. He couldn't use the Royal livery colours, so he had to opt for something else. Nor would it have been acceptable for him to use the Danish or the Greek Royal livery colours.

In the end the livery colours were chosen as Black and Brown - to match the horses. I have seen Prince Philip driving at the Championships at Sandringham, with his head groom and two hanging grooms wearing a mixture of brown and black. If I am remembering correctly all the browns were the same shade - not a mixture of tans and ox-blood and light and dark.

Regards

Chas

Actually, HRH Prince Phillip's carriages are painted in the older livery colours of murrey and black (the previous livery colours being lake and black and the present livery colours being more of a claret and black). Murrey is a sort of mulberry colour, which under certain light conditions appears to be almost brown. HM The Queen Mother favoured the older murrey on the sides of her Daimler cars during the whole of her lifetime.

Meaning no offense, but I somehow suspect that the wearing of black shoes and brown sporrans probably pre-dates Edinburgh's having taken up carriage driving.

[macwilkin]

No offense to the Prince, who is probably an excellent fellow, but this thread reminds me of why I don't much like posting here any more.

Me too, I don't get the attraction.
Although threads like this let me get a workout, exercising my withstraint.

And it is posts like these that are making me contemplate the same thing. Respect is a two-way street. It may not be your thing, but snarky comments are not necessary. If you don't like the thread, don't read it.

T.

[EagleJCS]

Right on!

So...what are these awards?

I was just reading about these awards yesterday. The Duke of Edinburgh's Award (Bronze, Silver, Gold - in that order) is an award from the Scout Association. Roughly the equivalent of the Venture awards (Bronze, Gold, Sliver) in the Boy Scouts of America.

From the website:

The Duke of Edinburgh's Award is a voluntary, non-competitive programme of practical, cultural and adventurous activities, designed to support the personal and social development of young people aged 14-25, regardless of gender, background or ability. It offers an individual challenge and encourages young people to undertake exciting, constructive, challenging and enjoyable activities in their free time.

It is a five-Section Programme with three progressive levels:

Bronze (for those aged 14 and over)
Silver (for those aged 15 and over) and
Gold (for those aged 16 and over).

The sections involve:

Volunteering (helping other people in the local community)
Expeditions (training for, planning and completing a journey on foot or horseback, by boat or cycle)
Skills (covering almost any hobby, skill or interest)
Physical (sport, dance and fitness)
Residential (Gold Award only) (a purposeful enterprise with people not previously known to the participant)

Regarding security - I'm sure the US federal government will have a hand in the mix somewhere (as liason to the locals for example), since HRH is a high-ranking foreign dignitary. They will probably leave most of the arrangements for the "up close" stuff up to the British security folks since they're more familiar with HRH's behavior, and vice versa.

[Alan H]

Actually Alan, with your sailing, hiking and physical fitness prowess-es your skills would be perfect for encouraging the youngsters along the right lines to achieve these awards. I am not recruiting, by they way!

Oh, I doubt that. I'm nowhere near correct enough to be thought a good example for the leaders of tomorrow.

But carry on, whatever. The Awards sound like good things, though I'm not familiar with them. I think it's great that the Prince is visiting one of the Games in the USA, I hope he enjoys himself while he's here.

[Jock Scot]

Oh, I doubt that. I'm nowhere near correct enough to be thought a good example for the leaders of tomrrow.

But carry on, whatever.

Oh I don't know, a good dollop of plain speaking still works wonders with most youngsters, even today.

[Alan H]

I just deleted my very plain-spoken/written post in favor of restraint, will save my plain-speaking for face-to-face encounters where it might have some impact, and will retire back to the Athletics forum.

As just Alan to Jock....I'd love to get over there and tramp around your land sometime. Perhaps we could put a dent in the trout population. I'd like that a lot, and I promise that when it's dumping down rain And the mud is ankle deep and I'm grubbing around trying to get close to an animal to shoot it........with a camera......... I'll have the common sense to wear modern raingear, and not my finest wool kilt.

Carry on.