This afternoon I was driving up the Newtownards Road when I got held up in a traffic tail-back. Despite the lights being green, traffic wasn't moving at the Knock crossroads. Then I spotted the Police Officer standing stopping the traffic. What could be happening?
I remembered that Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II was visiting Belfast today, and watched out for her coming past. I was about six cars back, and saw the cavalcade of PSNI motorcycles, Landrovers and vans, but I didn't get to see Her Brittanic Majesty herself.
What I did notice, though, was that the Belfast Telegraph sellers had been removed from the middle of the road by the police, and they were huddled in a wee group outside the Northern Bank at the crossroads. Which means that the Queen didn't get to sample a regular experience of drivers in East Belfast - the Tele sellers moving up and down the traffic offering their newspapers.
But then, she was going a bit too quick to stop for a paper, and she doesn't carry any cash, so no Telegraph for the Queen!
Aha! I had an identical experience, only in the South of the city!! My poor wee newspaper men had actually been shifted down to the next junction :-(
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