Queen Speech Bingo 2013

Download and Print your Bingo Cards here!

Hey guys!

I know it's been a very long time since I made an appearance in the blogging world. The last few months have been busy (in a good way) and I have a lot of wonderful posts and photos to share with you. I just need to make time to do it. I'm currently in the UK having a very British Christmas (yay!) and it's a bit of a whirlwind tour visiting loved ones.

Anyway - this was one of my most popular blog posts of the past year so of course I had to do it again for 2013. I'm sneaking it in late this year, but here goes: Queen Speech Bingo 2013!

How to Play Queen Speech Bingo

The full rules are available here but really it's very simple:

• Print off a few bingo cards
• Watch the Queen's Christmas message
• Argue with your family
• Have fun!

How it Works

I use a list of the most common words from previous Queen Christmas speeches, and throw in a few extras (wildcards) to reflect recent events. Extra words for 2013 include George, information, internet, and independence.

Let me know if you decide to play, and of course, who wins!

Queen's Speech Bingo 2012

It's that time of year again…

Download and print your bingo cards here!

Every year of her reign Queen Elizabeth has delivered her Christmas Message, broadcast to Brits in silly paper crowns on Christmas day.  It's our family tradition to watch the speech far more intently than most viewers, in order to clock up points for Queen's Speech Bingo.

We've been doing this for years, and a couple of years ago we started to share this tradition. We hope you'll join in the fun…

How to play

Give at least one bingo card to each player. Ensure all players are topped up with gin and dubonnet (the Queen's favorite tipple), well-stocked with chocolates, and overstuffed with a good turkey dinner. Position all players on the sofa, tune into the Queen’s speech at 3pm GMT and let the sarcasm, fun and arguments commence.

You may play however you like, but here are some tips:
- decide whether you will include words not spoken by the Queen herself.
- decide whether you will add your own wildcards (you must share these with your group before the speech).
- no spurious attempts to find out the speech beforehand (especially to those who work at/have contacts at the BBC).
- any disputes must be settled unanimously (family arguments are another Christmas tradition of course).
- choose your own prize. Our winners get nothing, but your winner could be treated like Royalty for the duration of Boxing Day, or the loser could perform a forfeit.

If you're not in the UK…

BBC World News America should be broadcasting the Queen's speech at 12.20pm EST (17.20 GMT)

Unfortunately, while the UK will get to enjoy Queenie in 3D for the first time ever, those of use over the pond will only get it in old-fashioned style telly. What a shame.

How it's done

We took the Queen's Speeches from 1982-2011, extracted 90 of her most commonly used words, and added in a few wildcards based on events from 2012 and suggestions from friends.
We then plugged these words into a simple bingo card maker.

If you like, you can also see 2011's Queen Speech Bingo page and cards here.

Feel free to share amongst all your friends, or at least to any quirky Angophiles you might know. Please let me know if you decide to play along, and how well you do!

Du bon, aye.

Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee was my penultimate weekend in the UK, and the perfect opportunity to catch up with friends in Edinburgh and Glasgow before I head off.

Friday Pimm's and midnight baking!

First off was a couple of days with my domestic goddessses, which included late-night impromptu baking. These girls are amazing and can pull off a perfect Victoria sponge at a moment's notice. They have expert cupcake, sewing and even wool-spinning skills. Honestly, it's like a young WI whenever I see them. That's all fine by me, of course, as I'm very good at eating cake…

…and we all did extremely well at that on a trip to Loopy Lorna's for traditional afternoon tea. It's perfectly quirky with mismatched tea-sets, home-knitted tea cosies, and super-tasty dainty cakes. The tea selection is pretty good too, try the Honey Bunny tea.

All-in-all, a wonderfully appropriate way to wave goodbye to my favourite ladies in all Old Blighty.

Next stop was my old stomping ground, Glasgow, for Mexican food and a ubiquitous drink of which the dear old Queen would probably approve:

Gin and Fentiman's Tonic!

Fact: The Queen drinks a gin and Dubonnet every lunchtime, a glorious habit she picked up from her mother.

Another Fact: Dubonnet tastes a bit like another fortified wine which has gained a cult notoriety in the West of Scotland. This amuses me greatly, though I'm not sure I'd want to try such a re-mix of the Queen's drink. Anyone want to give it try and let me know how it goes?

I can't thank all of my brilliant friends enough for their support, and some great memories to boot. I'm almost done with my UK farewell tour, but I'd like to think these are more "see you laters" than real goodbyes. So many folks have promised/threatened to come and stay with me in the New World!