Woofstock Jubilee High Tea

This past weekend, the three of us attended High Tea at the King Edward Hotel in Toronto. This event was twofold - to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee and to start the Woofstock festivities in advance of this Saturday's event.

I had never attended a High Tea before, far less with my dog in a dog friendly hotel, so when the opportunity arose for us to attend, we were very excited!  There was a signin process that you had to complete and there was so much demand that the web server crashed!

As mentioned, this year's theme was the Diamond Jubilee and we were encouraged to dress in British regalia.  Being a corgi, I didn't think Gimli needed that much of a costume, (considering too he was the ONLY corgi in attendance - more on this later), but we did make a costume for him.

I took one of my old tank tops, which fit a corgi's body, (this does nothing for my ego whatsoever!) and we stenciled, "God Save The Queen" on the back.  I also put various stickers on it and it was complete.  I had to make his costume because no where - no local shops had any British costumes or shirts or anything like that. The costumes we did find were in the UK and cost a fortune to ship in order to arrive in time.  There were some nice shirts on Cafepress and Zazzle, but the sizing charts were "off" with regard to a corgi's body and we didn't want to risk purchasing a shirt that would be the wrong size.

Tea was to be held at 2 pm and we left home at 12 with the intent of arriving early and settling Gimli. Well, we all know what happens when you make such plans. Life decides to intervene. There was a large accident on the highway and we arrived to Tea late.  Much to our disappointment, by the time we arrived, there were no seats for us, despite our RSVP. The tables and chairs were a bit crammed so it was difficult to scout around to find a seat for me and a place for Mike's wheelchair. We ended up standing at the back for the duration. Whether there was tea and cookies served for humans, we didn't know. I had to grab cookies from the tables to give to Gimli.

I felt this was bad form and there ought to have been a seating chart or more attention paid to ensure people took up tables in their entirety to make room for others.  Not that Gimli or I cared if he got one cookie or 10, it was more principle of the situation.  Don't call for an rsvp, then when I arrive, there's no place for me to sit and not even a bottle of water for me to share with Mike.

But, I digress.

Gimli and I walked the runway to show off his handmade costume.  There were some really well made costumes there - a Dachshund as a Beefeater, a Giant Schnauzer as a General and a Papillon as a double decker bus!  Lord Gimli, who normally turns his head when he sees a camera stopped right in front of the media section and would. not. move!  It's safe to say he only does that behavior with me.

There were prizes for first, second and third place, but we didn't win anything.

After the festivities, Gimli and I were interviewed by Pet Fashion tv with regard to fashion and what we did for the Diamond Jubilee festivities.  We were singled out because we were the only corgi in attendance, but that was about all recognition and connection to the Jubilee that we had. I had to hold Gimli, and while he's lost weight, he was still heavy and squirmy.  It was my first interview on camera (!!!) ever and I'm sure I made a fool of myself.  Rest assured if I make it onto the final cut, I'll post it on the blog.

One of the good points of the day, I was able to get a picture of this portrait:

A reproduction of Pietro Annigoni's 1955 work.