Restaurant turns away Britain’s future king

ANGLESEY, Wales—Everyone wants to get close to Prince William as his wedding approaches—but it turns out the future king can’t always get the restaurant table he wants.

William and a group of his friends were turned away from the Seacroft restaurant in Wales because the establishment didn’t have room to seat about 20 additional guests.

“The plan was to eat there, but unfortunately they had one of their chefs off sick so they weren’t able to cope with the number that we had brought,” the operational commander of William’s unit, Squadron Leader Iain “Spike” Wright, said on Thursday. “And so we found another location and we moved on.”

A local businessman, Jonathan Campbell, 39, said the restaurant phoned the nearby Treaddur Bay hotel to see if they could take the party.

“They thought it was a joke that it was Prince William and his buddies and they had to ring three or four times and say ‘no, this is real,’” he said.

But Campbell said he was not surprised the party was turned away from the Seacroft.

“We’ve got to prebook, he’s got to prebook,” he said. “So it’s only fair.”

Not with Obama

Although residents weren’t surprised, Marianne Swanner, an engineer visiting from Orlando, Florida, was shocked.

“In the States, if (President Barack) Obama wants to go there, they’d have let him,” she said. “They would have cleared it out and let him in.”

The restaurants are near the Royal Air Force base where William serves as a helicopter search-and-rescue pilot.

Royal weather

In London, weather forecasters at Britain’s Met Office say that William and his bride-to-be Kate Middleton can expect sunshine and clear skies on their wedding day on April 29, if recent history is a guide.

They say that skies have been clear on April 29 for the past two years, and rainfall on the date over the past 20 years has averaged a paltry 2.6 millimeters (0.1 inch).

Temperatures have been more erratic, ranging from 23.4 degrees Celsius in 1994 to 10 degrees Celsius in 2004.

No promises, though: the Met Office says it’s still too early to make a detailed forecast for the big day.

Beware souvenir snatchers

Global interest in the upcoming wedding is mounting, attracting even souvenir snatchers.

In Melbourne, Australia, thieves have made off with a life-size cutout of Prince William and his bride in a midnight heist from a luxury hotel offering special wedding stays.

The cardboard couple had become something of a drawcard since being erected in the lobby of Melbourne’s Hotel Windsor earlier this year, bringing a steady crowd of guests and locals keen for a happy snap.

But the cutout was plundered on an overnight shift this week and despite pleas to guests and staff, has not been put back, said hotel spokesperson Prue Fisher.

Replacement is coming

“It’s probably gone, I would say, in the middle of the night I’m thinking,” Fisher told Agence France-Presse.

“Unfortunately anyone can just come in off the street and probably just get it in the middle of the night. It could have been a guest, but I doubt it,” she added.

The cutout, a replacement for which is now en route from manufacturers in Britain, was an advertisement for the hotel’s “Royal Wedding Package,” offering one night and a champagne breakfast in a “stately” Victorian suite.

Guests also receive a A$2,000 (P90,860) gift certificate at Hardy’s, “the only jeweler in the southern hemisphere to hold the Queen’s Royal Warrant.”

Was it Batman?

Fisher said she’d been surprised at the fervor the cutout had generated.

“I just happened to be in the lobby the other day when four or five people dressed in Batman suits came in and had their photo taken with it, so it caused a bit of interest,” she laughed.

William’s late mother, Diana, was immensely popular in Australia and the young prince was warmly received on two recent visits Down Under.

Once a British penal colony, Australia voted against splitting from the monarchy in a 1999 referendum.—Reports from AP and AFP