The other day I was in a shop and saw a man with 'Rentokil' embroidered on his T shirt. It was done by machine, not by the man himself painstakingly cross stitching the name of his company. Well, he could have been very good at embroidery and I don't want to assume he didn't do it himself.. anyway! Where was I? Sainsbury's cafe at Hedge End. I know, I know, not Bitterne AGAIN. Well, this man and his friend behind me in the queue very kindly turned the hot water dispenser on (and off) to fill up my hot chocolate. It would have been a cruel person, not a Rentokil employee, who just turned the tap on for a stranger with a keen 3 year old carrying the tray and her hands full. I turned to say thank you, and exclaimed that he worked for Rentokil, the subject of my blog. He was not as excited as I was by this information. But, you see, the beauty of having an embroidered shirt is that everyone knows where you come from and the level of service to expect from you. I hope soon to be blessed by a Canon Hygiene Personnel in uniform with some similar random act of kindness.

I am informed by my mother in law (she is very clever and does lots of quizzes) that the queen does take back royal warrants on products. So if she were to slip from her Addis stool, or her Brown and Polson cornflour made the sauce too lumpy she could strip them of their crest as quickly as Henry VIII chopped off ladies' heads. I imagine if she were angry but not incapacitated she could go to every shop in the kingdom tippexing out the royal coat or arms on the sides of the offending product. Or maybe send knights or ladies in waiting to do it for her.

Although if Tippex is not a holder of a Royal warrant ( I doubt it is, I think it was invented in one of the former colonies over the other side of the Atlantic ocean) I guess she is not allowed to use it. Maybe shoe polish or a paste made from cornflour and water would do the job. Maybe she is ONLY allowed to use things that have the Royal stamp of approval. An interesting diet so far, from my research.