Royal housemaid, lighthouse keeper and other life adventures with Annabel Tellis Tunley

Annabel Tellis Tunley lives life large!

She shares inside knowledge of the British Royals and her adventures of travel and trying her hand at many different jobs gathering memories, stories, friends and fascinating insights along the way!

 Duration:  50 minutes

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·      Sincere thanks to Jay (Justin) Hill for his expert sound mastering and patience! Jay, together with the incredible Eva Chye, have inspired me through their passion project If Innovation Could Talk – a YouTube vlog also promoted through LinkedIn. If you have your own ideas for a podcast or video, feel free to reach out to them through the LinkedIn page.

·      Thank you to all my generous guests for their time in sharing their expertise and experiences around My Warm Table.

·      Music: ‘Sweet Soweto’ by Cast Of Characters. Copyright licence for use via soundstripe.com  

Transcript

Sonia Nolan: 0:05

Today on My Warm Table, I'd like to introduce you to Annabel Tellis Tunley. She's the poster girl for living life to the fullest. She was a royal housemaid a lighthouse tour guide, chef at a gourmet restaurant, author, a performance poet having written and toured with a Shane Warne tribute some years ago. And now she's a teacher sharing her love of literature with vibrance and energy. Among this eclectic life, she's found the secret to happiness, which she'll share with us today as she takes us behind the doors of Balmoral Castle, across the Trans Siberian Railway, cycling around New Zealand, and her many brushes with fame. Strap yourself in for a whirlwind ride and fun feast around the table today, which might just whet your appetite to jump back on a plane and start travelling again. She's an absolute delight with a generous and infectious laugh. We got started a moment before the recording kicked in. So we pick up here mid laughter and hearty conversation. I'm Sonia Nolan, and you are so very welcome to join Annabel and I around My Warm Table. She says Well, look everything from Royal Housemaid to lighthouse keeper to author to chef in a five star restaurant and to oh my goodness, teacher, teacher now yes, there's so many things that you you just have made your life the fullest possible.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 1:35

Thank you. It's so nice that you acknowledged all of that.

Sonia Nolan: 1:38

I think it's fantastic. And in fact, on the show Annabel a couple of episodes back we talked with a career transition coach and Lois shared with us that you know, really we need to be reinventing ourselves as time goes on and, and our life changes and our needs change. And we all want to do different things based on where we're at in our own lives at that time. So I just think that you are the poster girl for that.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 2:00

Thank you so much. I have kind of just gone off in different directions, like as the wind blows, and I've really enjoyed doing that.

Sonia Nolan: 2:08

Oh, it's fantastic. Well, look, tell us some of those stories. Can we start with the royal household?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 2:14

Yes.

Sonia Nolan: 2:15

What are you allowed to tell?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 2:17

Well, I did sign the Official Secrets Act. But I can tell you quite a bit. Yes, because I'm sure that the tabloids have told us I'm already actually you know, everything already. The funny thing was the way I found that job and I was staying in while I was living in Canterbury in Kent, and I was doing my degree, and a girl who was on my floor just happened to mention in passing that her ex boyfriend had worked at the royal household for the Balmoral season, and that they just took on temporary members of staff. And so I decided to write to the Controller of the household just to like a personal letter and say, Can I have some more information about working for the Queen? And I heard back and I went for an interview and got a job and actually that's how people in those days would get jobs it would be the people who were interested and and that's how they vetted them they they put my parents through Interpol because I was still only 19, 20 and they checked me out makes made sure I wasn't a member of terrorist group. And in those days, there was the security was really lax and went into Buckingham Palace for my interview. I just knocked on a door and they opened it and I walked it wouldn't be like that anymore. I did have to go past some policemen. But the policemen who work for the royal household are often the ones who have just given up the job on the beat and just want to have a quiet life.

Sonia Nolan: 3:39

Oh my goodness, I don't think it's quite that way anymore

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 3:41

Oh no it's 100 per cent not like that anymore

Sonia Nolan: 3:43

So you were working at Balmoral? Yes. So what was your role?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 3:48

So I went in I was a kind of a kitchen assistant dining room assistant and I have to say I was the lowest of the low but I also have my own maid. So you take your own Yeah, so together we were the lowest of the low the reason I say that was because I had to provide her with her meals and she cleaned my room but no one provided me with my meals and no one cleaned her room.

Sonia Nolan: 4:12

Oh wow. Okay or how interesting for the the real hierarchy Oh

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 4:16

yeah, so there were five dining rooms there was a royal dining room there was the VIPs dining room and then there's the stewards and officials and then there was the chefs and then there was the dining room for people like the under Butlers the butlers actually know most of the older Butlers and the more senior Butlers would have been in the stewards and officials dining room. So I looked after the chauffeurs and these are all the under chauffeurs the under Butlers the house maids and the people who were sort of on the level just above me, but also I did get to look into the other dining rooms because first thing in the morning I pushed porridge down a long dark corridor and decanted it into increased or decreasingly beautiful terrines. Starting with the one in the royal dining room and going all the way down to the others, and finishing off in the staff dining room. Oh,

Sonia Nolan: 5:07

so just let me just try and process all of this. So you were a maid to some of the other staff members that were in the royal household.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 5:17

But I was kind of a general maid. So you did get overlaps into all the different hierarchical places. But my station was well and truly in the lowest of the dining rooms, there was quite a party atmosphere in there. It was just great fun. And there was a lot of dancing and a lot of singing in that dining room.

Sonia Nolan: 5:38

Oh, I bet you led some of that.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 5:40

It was actually so much fun. We had a lot of fun and and in the evenings, we had this social club, because the Queen got given loads of whiskey single malt whiskey, and she didn't drink a lot of whiskey. You probably all know that. She's more of a DuBone Bone person. And so she didn't drink whiskey. And she got given it as gifts left, right and centre from all the local distilleries. So there was a line of whiskey or which was sort of four bottles high and it covered the whole wall of the bar, which was really long. And so there any 10 pence a shot because the Queen was given them for free, and she just donated. And so I had probably about two hours sleep every night. working there, and we would catch up on a nap in the afternoon between shifts but so much fun.

Sonia Nolan: 6:33

Oh, wow. So how long were you there Annabel?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 6:36

So I was there from from about the end of July through to the end of October.

Sonia Nolan: 6:42

So that's what you called the Balmoral season. Yeah. So what does that actually mean?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 6:46

So that's when the royal family are sort of put out to grass and they base themselves up from the glorious sorry, from Oh, what's it called? The glorious 11 is it called? I can't remember no 12th Glorious 12th which is the beginning of the grouse shooting season. And so they go and then camp decamp from London and spend all of August September October in their holiday home which is Balmoral Castle, which is in Scotland, which is in Scotland near Aberdeen, which is over a massive, massive acreage of which includes mountains. Heather, beautiful, Glen Glen's of Heather, and just the most stunning, stunning scenery. And so Aberdeen was really our closest city. And then Balata was the nearest town, there were always people standing outside the gates to get a photograph of Princess Diana mainly when we ever left when we left and they always really disappointed if it was us. And so a very, very long, the hugely long driveway and and at the end of it, this absolutely stunning Castle, which we all lived in. So the staff will live within the castle and the Queen. So Queen Victoria built it. And so it's a very big Victorian castle. It's really beautifully built. And there's Victorian Albert monograms, all around the castle, sort of testament to Victoria's love for Albert is everywhere. And so it's actually quite there's a bit of sadness, actually, because of that, because it was such a short lived marriage, and she was so in love, and then she was mourning for the rest of her life. So there's Albert's care that we would walk to and there were statues of Albert, in places where you didn't expect to see a statue. We were just sort of immersed in living history. It was amazing. Actually, my grandpa decided to come up and visit me. He was about 75 and he had a Golf GTI and he was kind of a very snappy dresser you know quite the ladies man Dare I say he he met the policeman on the very very front gate and said I'm I'm here to see Annabel and so he said I'm her grandpa. And so and he's sort of such a Livewire talked himself in and he went right in and they said oh yeah, just go and knock on the door meaning come the very back door of the very back part of the castle. Anyway went right up to the front door on the front door of far more castle and you know one of the Queen's Own Butler's answered the door. And I'm a fan. Of course it's head round the

Sonia Nolan: 9:26

wrong door. Did you actually have any interactions with members of the royal family?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 9:31

Yes, because there's only 70 staff there and the royal family they integrated with us and we had a an evening which is called the Gillies Ball. We were warned about this when we had our interviews in London. And so we had to take ballgown up we got to dance with all the royal family. And it was a really spectacularly beautiful night. And it was just incredible to be in quite a small ballroom with every member of the royal family and dancing and sixens and eightsens with them. I can remember at one point I was dancing in a sixen with Charles and Diana and Sarah and Andrew. And then three washer uppers and me.

Sonia Nolan: 10:10

Normal pairing

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 10:11

and I could see the Queen because she was directly opposite me just sitting on the chair with Princess Margaret next to her and the Queen Mother, I can see myself in the mirror that was above the queen. And I've just really tried to take it in. Because here's the most famous family in the world really. And I was dancing with them. I did go in as quite a sceptic of the royal family, would you believe I don't sound like it now. But when I was in there, I just realised what a hard life they have. And and then came out really loving my freedom and being so grateful that I wasn't a member of the royal family. So I see them in a in a different light to a lot of people I would say, I've seen them and how hard they work, how much their lives belong to everybody else. And I think for them just to stay sane through that is a miracle.

Sonia Nolan: 11:03

You went to Scotland but so where did you come from to go to Scotland because I can hear an accent. Yes,

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 11:08

I've got a Midland accent. So my mum's from Manchester, my dad was from London. And they decided to settle between the two in Leicestershire. And I had a very idyllic childhood in a place called tiny village called Sweptstone, which is it only had about maximum 60 to 70 people living in it. And my dad was the local GP, I was raised just going to local state school. And then I went to university in Canterbury and in Loughborough got qualified to be a teacher. And then but really just saw it as a ticket to travelling and having great little great long holidays, and also having a very fun job. So I did that. But I took time off teaching to go travelling, I travelled overland as far as possible to New Zealand, starting in London, and that was just before I met my husband and he decided to come with me. He wasn't my husband. Of course, at that point, he was just this Australian guy,

Sonia Nolan: 12:10

this tall Australian man who was hanging on.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 12:14

So we went on the Trans Siberian Railway to down to Beijing and then travelled surface as far as we possibly could to New Zealand, and then cycled around New Zealand. And then came flew, we actually did fly back all the way to London via America, I have a nut allergy. And in New Zealand, I had a nut incident. And eventually that that cut the whole round the world trip short. Yeah, so I had to eventually come home because of the health care in America was so poor.

Sonia Nolan: 12:50

It's interesting that not every country understands nut allergies.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 12:53

Yes, I'm still here. My near death experiences with with regard to nuts might be the reason why, to have a bit of a crazy life. Because, you know, nuts are everywhere. And I've managed to dodge it so far. Gosh,

Sonia Nolan: 13:10

tell us more about those travels, those travelled off the Trans Siberian Railway and Beijing. So

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 13:17

I realised kind of that I was on a on a short timeframe before I had children. And I just knew that there's travel you can do with children, and there's travel that you can't do with children. And I knew that the sort of travel that I wanted to do was definitely without children. And so when I was about 27, I decided to plan a trip on public transport as far as possible to my cousin's wedding in Auckland, because I had time because I was a teacher, you can take a term off, I was working in London, and I had the money to buy the ticket. And I thought, well, if I've got the time, I might as well next, spread it out and go as far as possible Overland. So my husband and I had known him for three months when we weren't because I was already going when I met him. And he said he'd like to come along. And we said, oh, well, we don't get on. We'll go our separate ways. I think my parents breathed a sigh of relief. I was actually going with somebody else. Yeah. And but bizarrely, there were quite a lot of people who were doing what I was doing. And so I would have teamed up with people from all over Europe. We met on the on the Trans Siberian. And they were they were doing a similar thing. So I would have been safe. There was a kind of a crowd travelling at sort of the same pace. We spent quite a lot of time in China really loved the Chinese interesting way of life. Yes. It was like being on the moon in some ways. Everybody was on bikes and those days not so now

Sonia Nolan: 14:40

So when we were talking about? The 1990s?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 14:43

1996, going into 97 came home in 97. Very quickly got married, had the first baby and then just now coming out of that whole family thing, because my life changed. Yeah, because my son is nearly 16 And suddenly getting this sense of freedom, which is so lovely.

Sonia Nolan: 15:04

So you've got more adventures planned then for this next phase of life and everything

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 15:08

Yeah, I want to go to Northern Ireland want to go and do the Camino and add some more travel we have travelled with our children for a year as well we went round Europe, we went to 13 European countries in the caravan. But when you travelling with children, it's quite different and, and the one thing we remember is just 1000s and 1000s of games, you know,

Sonia Nolan: 15:34

a lifesaver

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 15:36

and we all knew what each other had in our hand by the back of the cars

Sonia Nolan: 15:39

knew them so well. Now you've got lots of other standout memories. I have been doing a little bit of homework on you Annabel, because you intrigued me and I know that you've had a brush with lots of interesting characters in our world and in our history. So not just the Queen and the royal family. But also Nelson Mandela,

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 16:03

Nelson Mandela. How unbelievable was that?

Sonia Nolan: 16:07

Tell me because it's just crazy.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 16:09

It's so crazy. Just before we got married, I was wearing this lovely Karen Millen suit I don't know whether you know Karen Millen amazing designer based in London, because it was my going away outfits, my wedding but I bought it out to go to our friend's 30th birthday party the week before our wedding. And you know how it is before you get married. You've your eyebrows look amazing. Legs are amazing.

Sonia Nolan: 16:31

Oh best stage of life. Exactly.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 16:34

My hair was like long, black and glossy. And my dad lost about three stone. Sorry, sorry to laugh so loud. And so I'm looked amazing. And I was standing on the street corner in Islington waiting for Martin, my husband to turn up for us to go to Louis's birthday party, and policeman rode up to me on his bike, and I thought, What have I done. And he was on his motorbike. And he said, and he took his helmet off. And he's come as came right up to me and said, if you go and stand outside that cinema, Nelson Mandela is going to get out of a car, and you can shake his hand.

Sonia Nolan: 17:11

Oh, how crazy.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 17:13

It was so crazy. And the craziest thing of all was that the policeman would never have known that I did. I part of my degree was African literature. And so I knew so much about Nelson Mandela, and I've been campaigning for his release on the day that it was announced that he was going to get released. And I spent the whole day crying and and was part of this massive party for his release. And we're all singing free Nelson Mandela and that university. And so for me to actually meet him. Oh, no, it was not lost on me.

Sonia Nolan: 17:43

Yes, absolutely. So were you able to speak to him are you just were allowed to shake his hand?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 17:48

Yes, just to say Welcome to London and shake. His visit was so hush hush. It was a state. It wasn't a state visit. It was kind of a private visit. And it was a film about the apartheid that he was going to see in a private viewing in Islington. And so no one knew who was going apart from right there. And then let's, let's get some people to greet him as he walks in. And he got out of his car

Sonia Nolan: 18:15

and what an honour for you, especially because of your commitment to his cause. I mean, my goodness, you could never have planned that if you tried.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 18:23

It was like the law of attraction in action. Yeah, definitely. It's amazing. Wow. Yeah. Mrs. Thatcher came to Balmoral when I was there. And George Michael,

Sonia Nolan: 18:34

George Michael, my oh my god, I was such a Wham! fan when I was young. Oh, my goodness.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 18:39

And the funny thing was that had a similar thing happened with Mrs. Thatcher, one of the people in our village said Mrs. Thatcher is coming to Meeshan, which is the nearby village which is bigger. And she's on her battle bus trying to drum up the votes for the Conservative Party. And my dad was a staunch communist.

Sonia Nolan: 18:58

Not to put a finer point on how he was

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 19:00

really as like, he was a socialist doctor, and he really believed in the power of the people and power of the patient. And so this family friend took me to see Mrs. Thatcher get off a bus. And then he took me over to her and I took my autographed book with me. He was having a day off. So I happened to be at home on this particular day. So I was the only child seeing off the bus. And so I was taken to meet her and I've got her autograph. And went home of course and told my dad who I met and he was absolutely livid.

Sonia Nolan: 19:30

Oh, he's not impressed with that autograph. You didn't get to sign it to your father's name, did you? That would have been a you know, bridge too far.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 19:38

No. And then did you hear about Boris Johnson when I met him?

Sonia Nolan: 19:41

I did tell me the Boris Johnson story.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 19:44

Martin my husband was working on in Paris for this particular New Year's Eve and he's working through the through the night so there was no party and my daughters were only two and four and so they were crawling the walls because they had been snowing outside and they just wanted to go out in the snow. We've been out in the snow but of course it all settled at this point. And so it was nine o'clock at night. And I could just see from the hotel window that the trampolines with their floodlights were on in Paris. And so we walked over to the Tweelery Gardens where this trampoline park was. And we were the only people because it's New Year's Eve, but it was still open. And so my girls were bouncing on these trampolines. And I was sitting there in the, in the falling snow. And then this man came and sat next to me. And to cut a long story short, we were talking for about half an hour and I thought, this is the poshest man I've ever met

Sonia Nolan: 20:37

What did you talk about?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 20:39

So at the time, we were talking about Paris, talking about the reason that he walked out of his flat with his four children. So he wasn't staying. He said, I'm staying in the Telegraph flat. I didn't know what that was. Well, I didn't realise he meant the British newspaper, The Telegraph flat. So just said, I'm staying in the Telegraph. And driving out here and my four children because my wife has thrown me out. And he said, have you got a happy marriage?

Sonia Nolan: 21:07

Interesting question, though.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 21:08

What are you doing here on New Year's Eve with two girls? Two little girls on on New Year's Eve falling snow night. And so I explained that my husband was working, and I do

Sonia Nolan: 21:20

a very happily married. Thank you very much!

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 21:21

Yeah. But I had to reiterate that several times. So I'll leave that there. Apart from he did stand up. He took his hat off. Because he had a big hat on so you know, covered most of his face and his hair when he took his hat off and said, "Oh, no, it's you!" Because I knew him because he was an MP. He was quite he was quite a force for public transport actually cycling in London. And he he did change the way London operates as a town as a city with public transport. So we after that, we left that behind and we talked about public transport.

Sonia Nolan: 21:56

Good idea, much safer topic.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 21:59

But again, that was so funny, when actually a bit cruel because people say to me, I met someone famous, you know, I met maybe someone like Lance Franklin.

Sonia Nolan: 22:10

You can one up them a 100 times over!

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 22:13

So talk about famous people because you're not gonna shut me up.

Sonia Nolan: 22:20

I'd like to go back to George Michael, because now that is now that that that is someone famous, yes. And was much loved and adored, and an incredible performer. So tell me about meeting George Michael,

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 22:32

sadly in that, in that. On that occasion, I didn't get to see him. I just got to see him from afar. Because all the butler's were very

Sonia Nolan: 22:41

excited that his was there

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 22:45

Because they all knew something we didn't know. And all the girls are going wild and it was going to be completely useless. Of course, in those days, when I came back from Balmoral, I said to my friends, they said, do you have any gossip, and I said, Well, George Michael's gay and Charles and Diana don't sleep together. No one believed me. And that's how different it was. In those days. No one believed me. So I stopped telling people, because they just thought I was spreading vicious rumours.

Sonia Nolan: 23:08

And there you go you knew it all.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 23:10

I know, Diana was really lovely. She would come and sit on the on the chest freezer in the kitchen, in the sweet kitchen, which was this tiny kitchen with two chefs who just made these most beautiful little chocolate eclaires and tiny biscuits and tiny brandy snaps for the Queen. And she's very close friends with one of those. So you'd walk into that kitchen to go and get something. And Diana would just be sitting there on the on the freezer talking to Robert.

Sonia Nolan: 23:35

Were you about the same age at that time?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 23:37

Yes, she was. She's the same age, my sister. And I to think oh my goodness, we're poles apart. You know, I'm between universities because I was about to go and do my teacher training. And here she is, like with this full on role as a princess as a working princess with two children. And like we couldn't have been different really? and yet our ages were quite similar.

Sonia Nolan: 23:57

Yeah, that's right. So tell us about the working Royals that what what is the typical day for the Royals?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 24:03

I only worked there when when William was he was about nine and Harry was about seven. And so there will be often just trailing behind their mom, which was so nice. And they also had their nanny was there as well at the time. Sarah Ferguson was there too. And Beatrice was one and her hair was amazing. And I remember the footman telling me beforehand, they said when you see her hair, and they were right at the television and the cameras don't capture it, as well as it is in real life. It was this incredible colour. And in little Beatrice was was have the same girl hair and she was just one and she was one. I think she turned one when I was there. So she had a little birthday, but she had her own. This sounds really funny. She had her own chef.

Sonia Nolan: 24:46

Oh, Beatrice had her own chef. S

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 24:48

And the chef's wouldn't let me bring home any of the menus or any of the like planning sheets that we all had for what everyone was eating, that were always lying around. I said can I take them home as a souvenir and they said no but they gave me princess Beatrice's menu

Sonia Nolan: 25:05

what was on the menu for a one year old?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 25:08

everything that you would normally give me a one year old but it just written down so it was porridge and apricot like little tiny egg sandwiches for lunch and you know beans on toast or little tiny spaghetti bolognese for dinner was written down and with choices in in Victoria still have in my mum's house I left because we left Victoria quite quickly in 2020 That's why I'm here now. And so my mum has a lot of my special things but I did chance that my some of my memories will come with me and I've bought something to show you here which is my my dance card from a night that we got to dance with the royal family for showing me

Sonia Nolan: 25:52

Oh, you've got it frame so what I'm yeah, I'm looking at a framed piece of paper beautiful, beautiful font and yes, it's definitely the royal family the ER crest on it, dance programme. So you've got one eight some real to Paul Jones three gay Gordon's four, South American five dashing white Sergeant six grand March 8, some real seven the Quickstep then eight, the St. Bernard waltz, and nine strip the willow. Wow, that sounds exciting. And this is dated Saturday, the second of September 1989. So they're all the dances that you did that night.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 26:29

And we got to train with soldiers who are in the one of the regiments that was it.

Sonia Nolan: 26:33

You were taught how to dance? This ball. Yeah. Wow.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 26:36

So that was the ball that I was telling you about dancing with the royal family.

Sonia Nolan: 26:40

And yes, I guess you'd have to know how to dance.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 26:43

Yes, if you're going to dance, you had to know how to dance. You couldn't just go up and start dancing.

Sonia Nolan: 26:47

Right? You'd have to just sort of shuffle a bit. No, no, no. You had no. So you were training with military?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 26:53

Yeah. Personnel. And they were all there in their kilts? Yeah. And I'll tell you who's a real trooper was the Queen Mother, she would go and get the she was the first person to stand up and go and get one of that burly soldiers and start that start. Start the dance in the big circle.

Sonia Nolan: 27:09

What a sight that would have been!

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 27:10

I know. And actually, I was warned beforehand by the footman that that's what would happen. And she did do that. She was incredible. And they would they're great big boots. And I remember reading in the newspapers that she'd given up dancing when she was about 97. Because she kept getting kept getting her toes stepped on by great big boat boots.

Sonia Nolan: 27:27

And what else have you got here, you've got another frame to show.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 27:31

This was just a little collection of memories that I put into a frame. When we had the guest house I had this on the wall to show anybody who came to stay. Because we had our own little product plate business in the in the ways, which we had great fun when the kids were quite small. And so I had this on the wall. It's a framed glass, sort of presentation with the picture of Balmoral Castle in it, that I talk and it has Buckingham Palace cheque to me, from the Bank of England for 226 pounds, that was a week's worth of work.

Sonia Nolan: 28:08

So you obviously didn't cash that in.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 28:09

No that's a photocopy.

Sonia Nolan: 28:11

You did cash it in a pretty penny for you.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 28:14

And my friend Carol who was trained to be a accountant, she says she was gonna keep hers, because she probably didn't need the money down the track. So she's gonna keep the whole thing as a souvenir. And then there's a picture of me with all the royal chefs down at the bottom, and one of the washer uppers. And that's just before we left, we all had our photo taken together. And then as you can see, there's just a little temporary Pass, which is a piece of card with my signature on and that was all I had to prove who I was. And then the Queen has a fancy dress party for the staff which she and her entourage came down to judge so they came through me telling you about the room where all the whiskey was. Yeah, so So the royal family came down there to judge the royal fancy dress parade. And those the prizes were quite good. And so everyone made a real effort, but you could only make your outfit out of things that were on the estate. So my friend Carol and I made this Highland cow

Sonia Nolan: 29:15

it's hilarious.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 29:17

I'm the front end

Sonia Nolan: 29:19

okay, so I'm going to have to try and describe this so it is a what I can see four legs so two people clearly with with lovely legs and it's like a carton. I don't know what did you make that out of?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 29:34

So that's a big box from the post office because there's a post office on in the castle and because the Queen has so much mail she has her own little post office of course yeah. And so post office gave me a box and I bought some post office paper which we then cut into strips and curled to make fur and then we've got a mop because we were using the mop

Sonia Nolan: 29:53

Yes that's a mop on the head

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 29:54

and branches from a tree to make the horns

Sonia Nolan: 29:56

beautiful.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 29:57

And then we had Sarah Ferguson's sponge from have a bathroom which Carol managed to get to get because she was cleaning the bathrooms. And then when I was at primary school we had a girl came and taught us how to make papier mache using balloons. So that's what I made the head out of papier mache

Sonia Nolan: 30:13

extremely well done extremely well, I'll take a photograph of this and we'll put it on our my community, the My Warm Table Community page on Facebook. Hopefully people are able to see what we're talking about.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 30:24

Yeah. And so we got third prize. Oh, no. But that is another weird story. So my mum is a magistrate. And she was the Chair of the Youth Court, juvenile court and England magistrates all do it from for the love of it, they don't get paid. They get little perks, and one of them was that my mum got invited to Royal Garden Party. And at the time, she could take unmarried daughters. And this was the year after I was lowest of the low in the royal household. And so then, of course, I was suddenly elevated. I was a guest of the Queen because of being my mum's daughter. So turned up of course knew all the footman and everybody who was there in the in the Buckingham Palace Garden Party. So I was chatting away to a footman, and then some equois came over to us and said, We need a family to present to the Queen. And so they picked out my sister and me because we looked so alike, and my mum and dad and we were all in this queue to meet the Queen on the way there and my mum had said to me, if we meet the Queen, which we were never going to do, because 8000 people at the garden party, yes, she'd said, you'd be able to tell her that you were the front end of the Highland cow in the fancy dress parade.

Sonia Nolan: 31:32

That's your claim to fame

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 31:34

So the amazing, the incredible thing was we're standing in a queue to meet the Queen and we were behind Burnum Burnum who is an Aboriginal Australian, indigenous Australian man who was Victorian and who was the one who went and put the Aboriginal flag in the White Cliffs of Dover and he was incredible man was standing behind him and he had to wear top hat and tails in those days everyone had to, and he had this beautiful long flowing grey hair. And he by he wore plimsolls like trainers. And he had drawn all Aboriginal symbols on the trainers and, and we've been very nervous because we're meeting the Queen couldn't take my eyes off his trainers with all these Aboriginal symbols on and he was with the Queen for quite a long time before we got to meet her. I did say to the Queen, the first thing I came out with was you might remember me I was a front end of the Highland cow last year in the fancy dress and she remembered I remember you very well and it was neck and neck as to who was going to win. Princess Alexandra said you were robbed!

Sonia Nolan: 32:36

We do want to inch closer to Australia but we've still got some stories to tell you mentioned just by chance that you are running this paddock to plate

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 32:43

Yeah, in a way with that. So this was in the Otways This was at a very beautiful spot on the Great Ocean Road where where you kind of leave the sea and go towards inland tiny bit. Well, this beautiful beach called Castle Cove. And we're very close to that and that was Burnum Burnum's spiritual home.

Sonia Nolan: 33:03

Was it really?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 33:04

yeah, um, so we looked over Castle Cove. The house was a very old farmstead with the big verandas all going round and it was a nine bedroom house.

Sonia Nolan: 33:13

Beautiful. This is Victoria. Yeah, we're in

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 33:16

So what happened was, I had very bad Australia now. asthma in London. My nut allergies have triggered really awful asthma attacks. And then one asthma attack. I just couldn't shake it off. And so we that was really our reason to leave because in London, the petrol fumes were so bad, and they never went no Fremantle doctor comes in. So and also with the mist, my lungs were in a really bad way. And I was taken, I've taken so many steroids, they couldn't do anything for me. So we had to leave. So we thought Where's cleanest air in all of Australia. And so we chose the air that's coming off the Antarctic. And we bought this guest house and sold our London house and just thought, Wait, let's see where it leads. I had got all this experience of cooking, and I got a job in a ski resort, cooking every night for 17 people I got very interested in where our food comes from, particularly with my asthma. Just thought, How amazing would it be if you had a restaurant where you had an acre of garden and most of the food came out of the garden? So that's what we did. And it became bigger than Ben Hur, and we sold it.

Sonia Nolan: 34:27

How long did you do that for?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 34:29

So that was for seven years. But we couldn't really ever take your mind off the business really. And it taught us so much about life so much about how to be happy actually. Yeah.

Sonia Nolan: 34:38

So tell us some life happy skills,

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 34:40

happy skills. Your happiness is not based on how much you have or what you have or how much money is in the bank. Your happiness is really your choice to be happy. And so the happiest people were the people that had chosen to be happy. Yeah, it's really that simple. Was that and we met some really happy people. I met some really sad people.

Sonia Nolan: 34:59

That's Another little vignette. Yes. I've heard that you also were a lighthouse keeper.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 35:06

Yes. So after we saw the guest house, we went travelling for a year with our kids. And then we came back to that area. And I got a job at the Cape Otway Lightstation as the guide at the top of the lighthouse, which was just amazing. So we had to do little, we had to record the weather. We had to do little things with regard to looking after Lighthouse cleaning the lens and things like that. And so how

Sonia Nolan: 35:27

do you clean the lens because the lens is outside?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 35:30

Now the lenses inside the lenses inside, right? Although the the actual working light is outside now. So it's automated. So we had visitors, visitors came to the top of the lighthouse. So I speak I speak French, so I was able to speak French to the visitors. I would sing sometimes sing a few sea shanties. And I just loved it. I love being around people and people on the move actually. And and then unfortunately, along came the virus. I was also working as a youth worker in the town, and the children's author because I had a book published

Sonia Nolan: 36:05

Yes. Now your book, it's called 'If my dad were a dog'.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 36:08

Yeah. So I had a book published and it went around the world with Scholastic.

Sonia Nolan: 36:11

Fantastic.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 36:12

I've met so many Chinese people when I was working in the Lighthouse as well.

Sonia Nolan: 36:15

Oh right, because they were so tourists coming.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 36:17

Yeah. And so I tested 'If my dad were a dog' in Chinese on them as well, and I've brought you a Chinese copy.

Sonia Nolan: 36:25

Fantastic. Thank you!

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 36:27

So it went well. And then I went to China. And I went to Shanghai just before COVID here and went to Shanghai Book Fair to measure what we know what was the chances of getting a book published in China, not so much China, but definitely Hong Kong, and Taiwan and all the Chinese speaking countries, because my book is called 'If my dad were a dog', the young Chinese don't mind comparing that to a dog. You know, the way that the English would use dog in a kind of humorous way that the oldest Chinese think it's really disrespectful.

Sonia Nolan: 36:56

Yes. Understand, you've got to be careful of those cultural sensitivities. So what is it? What does it translate to in China?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 37:03

(speaking Chinese)

Sonia Nolan: 37:05

And what does that mean?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 37:06

So is the same: if my dad were a dog,

Sonia Nolan: 37:08

Oh so you've kept it the same?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 37:09

Because I've had all the I've got all the original illustrations and the book is so bright and cheerful. I had, I've had 1000 copies made in Chinese just to send to Chinese book shops around the world. And it's all got all my details in just in case. So it's just really, it's kind of a gamble. Yeah, I've taken had had it made into a Chinese book. But it's sold 40, over 40,000 copies in the UK. And then it's also sold through Scholastic in the US. And over here as well in Australia, it's sold really well. But it's been my one hit wonder. And I've still got picture books, I'd really like to invest a bit of time in.

Sonia Nolan: 37:49

So you are an author. So we're just going to tick off some of these wonderful work experiences that you've brought into your world. So author illustrator, light housekeeper, Chef and host of a paddock to plate. Airbnb, type of restaurant. Amazing. You also have been a royal house maid, worked a ski season. Oh, my gosh,

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 38:23

performance poet haven't even touched on

Sonia Nolan: 38:25

Oh, tell me about performance poetry.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 38:28

So I write a lot of poetry. And I had a notion that what would it be like to write to write a poem about Shane Warne.

Sonia Nolan: 38:39

Yes. And we're getting very Austarlian now.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 38:42

Yeah, yeah. So I wrote this poem, where it came from read it out to my husband when we're in the guest house. And he said, you should write a whole series of them. They're hilarious. And they said, that will be hilarious. So then I set out to write a collection of funny poems about Shane Warne n as if he and I were in this sort of domestic relationship that was really kind of bland.

Sonia Nolan: 39:09

So just going back a couple of steps here. Were you did obsessed with Shane Warne. Was he an idol of yours?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 39:15

No. But at the time, we hadn't been that long living in Australia. And I was quite taken by the whole larrikin Aussie type person,

Sonia Nolan: 39:23

is there quite a different persona for you don't

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 39:26

that that exact kind of person doesn't exist in England in the same way. And then the fact he is on such a pedestal. I was very taken by him. I've been taken by him and his the way he plays cricket for years. I absolutely love cricket. And I just kind of thought, Well, it'd be amazing to be in a relationship with somebody like that, who you just simply could never control and you were trying to live this domesticated life. And they were still like being who they are.

Sonia Nolan: 39:54

Oh, hilarious. So are you able to tell it you know, share one of the poems I can see a little bit Yeah, green booklet

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 40:01

This is for you too by the way

Sonia Nolan: 40:01

as well, thank you so many gifts!

Unknown: 40:04

What happened was that I wrote 40 little Shane Warne poems. And then I went on to the internet, which was quite young in those days, and found that there was a comedy competition in Victoria. And they were coming up right there. And then, and it was called Rural comedy. It's it's a nationwide stand up comedy competition. So I thought, well, I'll turn this into a comedy act. So I did that. And I got through to the state finals as Shane Warne's poet,

Sonia Nolan: 40:35

Did Shane also know about this?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 40:37

I think he did because I sent his agent a copy. I sent Liz Hurley's agent a copy. And, and people at the time people were talking about it quite a bit. And then came at then at the same time when I was doing this out came Shane Warne The Opera as well.

Sonia Nolan: 40:52

Yeah, I remember that. Yeah. You must have been really quite devastated when he did pass away.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 40:58

I was devastated from the point of view that he was so young, and his kids were the same age as my kids. And I'd had so much fun talking about Shane Warne and, and his name is mentioned in every single poem, really, because I did I did the act in quite a lot of places. And I'd say to people Shane Warne Shane Warne, I can't stop saying it. His name lends itself really well to poetry and I was lying in bed one morning and my husband knocked on the door and said, I've got some really bad news. And I was really gutted. But that was over that's that part of my life is over.

Sonia Nolan: 41:33

Annabel, there's another project that I'd really love to talk to you about. And it's the Facebook project.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 41:40

Oh, my goodness.

Sonia Nolan: 41:40

Yeah. Tell me about the Facebook project. 365 friends 365 days?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 41:46

Yes. I only got it to 63 Did you know?

Sonia Nolan: 41:49

No, no, no, tell me more.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 41:50

So I was raised in a household where the phone was ringing all day. So there was a phone in my parents bedroom, there's a phone in the television room. And there was a phone in the kitchen. The one the kitchen had a really loud ring. It was on the wall. It was one of those old fashioned phones on the wall. And my very first word was Hello. If you answer the phone, yeah, my head, my highchair was under the phone. And so my mum was answering the phone all the time, because my dad was a local doctor, everything would stop when the phone rang. Like we all had to be really quiet. When there was a patient on the phone or another doctor or specialists there was always when I say the phone was ringing 30 times a day. That's what it was doing. And then suddenly, social media was invented, and the phone stopped ringing. And for me, it It's interesting, the idea about ringing a home phone because I was huge, because it was like, suddenly became like a museum piece. My childhood and my upbringing was not the phones have stopped ringing. And so I decided to start a little blog. have this theory now that it's actually a really sad passing of And I decided to contact all my Facebook friends by the phone because the phones have been not ringing for so long. And I've relationships with extended members of the family because I thought I'm gonna ring them up. I haven't spoken to some of them for 40 years. And they're only a phone call away. So I was remember ringing my my friends when we were young and their blogging, each phone call, my dad had passed away. And I really kind of wanted to have some sort of memorials for him parents would answer so you'd have a little conversation with that was ongoing at the time. And so I call it now that the phones have stopped ringing. And I found people I also mentioned the parents or a brother or a sister or whoever was answering my dad a few times to them and that most people knew my dad. The third reason was that the blog itself was really for the phone so you'd have seen start building a little people who had a home phone, and I wanted to ring their home phone with my home phone. So it was home phone to home phone, relationship with them over the phone and even sort of early in because that was the phone that wasn't ringing anymore. And so, as well as things coming up, and people sort of being sad to me my marriage here you know we had still the home phone and so on the phone, and then I couldn't share people's maybe marriages hadn't worked or, you know, they'd lost somebody close you'd be incidentally talking to your in laws or your brothers in and, you know, that oh actually became a bit much for me not being a trained counsellor. And, and then there weren't any phones anymore. There were no more phones. law sisters in law or whoever you were you know ringing again who was passing by and answering the phone now you go direct to direct you aren't you know you to ring somebody's mobile phone and you're no longer having those side conversation. and building those, those incidental relationships with other members of your family. And I personally find that really sad. The incidental conversation is it's just lost now. And I feel actually quite sad about the loss of that there was there's there's been this sad loss relating to that. And some of my blog posts about it really tore at the heartstrings, because my dad had died as well, I didn't want to be have those tugged on so hard. Actually, there were a couple, because I haven't mentioned it already. But I did lose two friends who were close to me. One when I was 11, and one when I was 16. And I'd say that that's a big, that's been a big driving force behind me living the lives that I want to lead, because of knowing that it's not going to go on forever. So I had a few weeks off, and then I didn't go back. And part of me would love to go back and ring my friends. But no one has a phone and it was getting to that stage by the 64th person anyway, that I was really struggling to find anybody with a home phone. So it sort of came to a natural end. But maybe, what do you think? Do you think I should get it going again over the mobile?

Sonia Nolan: 46:14

Well, potentially, because one of the things you did find through that project Annabel was that what you see on social media and what people are posting is really just scratching the surface of what was really going on in their lives and texting doesn't quite cut it these days does it that you might have it, you know, you might have a few paragraphs of text with someone that you're in a bit of a conversation with. But it's always done while you're watching telly or while you're cooking dinner or you know, there isn't that that eye contact and that relationship when you're together. Whereas a conversation on the telephone. It's just deeper and it uncovers a lot more than then the type of of communication channels that we're using these days to connect with friends.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 46:55

So it's true. Wouldn't that be amazing? If I started that again? Why not?

Sonia Nolan: 46:59

Because it's human connection, isn't it? It's human connection. And it takes me back to what you were saying earlier about your author, youth worker. And I also read that you were the conductor of a community choir.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 47:10

Yeah. And I started doing that again.

Sonia Nolan: 47:11

Yeah, that human connection which is just this this constant thread through your life Annabel, you are a connector.

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 47:18

Oh, that's so nice that you say that. I like to make people laugh actually in community choir leading. It's very funny

Sonia Nolan: 47:26

is it? you tell me why?

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 47:28

It's hilarious. Well, the sorts of music I do, I've got this amazing arranger in the UK who I know called Patria Partington. And she just does this really uplifting, very easy music to teach, which has a really huge impact. So it's minimum effort, maximum impact music. And so I take you know, a crowd of people and teach them to sing in four parts pretty quickly. They start because her music is so easy. And we sing some incredible things. I've just started two choirs at the school that I'm at now. Middle School choir and a senior school choir.

Sonia Nolan: 48:04

What a life Annabel Tellis Tunley. Thank you so much for joining My Warm Table today. You've been an absolute delight. And as I said, you know, we only get one life and you may as well

Annabel Tellis Tunley: 48:15

Exactly, do what you want to do. There's live it big. always a way, just do it. And it's not about saving for the next biggest house or waiting for a rainy day to come along when you actually just live - live now.

Sonia Nolan: 48:32

You've been listening to My Warm Table with Sonia Nolan in Italian a tavola calda is a warm and welcoming table where you can share big ideas, friendship, laughter and life. So much happens around the kitchen table. And I wanted to amplify it here in this podcast. My aim is to feed your mind and soul through smart conversations with heart. No topic is off limits. But good table manners rule. I hope you'll join us each week as we set the table for my extraordinary guests who will let you feast on their deep knowledge, life experiences and wise insights. Let's keep the conversation flowing. Please subscribe to the My Warm Table podcast and share it with your friends and networks. Perhaps if they're new to podcasting, take a moment to show them how to download and subscribe so they don't miss an episode either. I'd also love you to join our community on Facebook. You'll find the group at My Warm Table Podcast. Your support is very much appreciated. So that together we can eat, think and be merry