Showing posts with label couple. Show all posts
Showing posts with label couple. Show all posts

Sunday, July 17, 2011

'Magical' jackpot thrills couple

15 July 2011 Last updated at 14:53 GMT Colin and Chris Weir: "We were excited, exhilarated, we couldn't sleep"

A couple from Largs in Ayrshire have been named as the winners of the ?161m Euromillions jackpot.

Chris Weir said she and her husband Colin were "tickled pink" when they realised they had scooped Tuesday's jackpot.

"I even had a glass of white wine which is something I normally only do at Christmas!" laughed Chris.

The prize was Europe's biggest ever and was capped after a series of rollovers.

On the night of the draw Chris was checking their numbers on the BBC's Red Button digital text service about midnight on the television in their bedroom.

"I started circling the numbers I had matched but wasn't doing very well. Then on the fifth line, all the circles seemed to join up."

The telephone line run by Camelot for claims was closed. Chris and husband Colin sat up all night they were so excited.

"When we first realised we had won, it felt like a dream," Colin said. "Everything went into slow motion."

Life changing

When asked at a media conference in Falkirk what they will do with the money, Chris said: "We're not flashy people."

"The next steps are going to be the most difficult... with great wealth comes great responsibility," added Colin.

The Weirs have both had serious health conditions in recent years and have not been able to work.

Colin, 64, had previously worked as a television cameraman and Chris, 55, is a fully-trained psychiatric nurse.

The most exciting aspect of their windfall is the opportunity to travel.

"We have both always wanted to see the Great Wall of China and Colin would love to stand at the foot of Ayres Rock in Australia," said Chris.

"We also love art galleries, so this gives us the chance to visit those in Paris and in Russia. These are all things we thought we would never see."

They have also already decided to buy homes for their two children, Carly and Jamie (both in their 20s).

UK winning streak

Before Tuesday's draw, the largest lottery winner in the UK was the player who claimed ?113m in the Euromillions last October and chose to remain anonymous.

The couple have displaced former postal worker Angela Kelly from East Kilbride, who became Scotland's biggest winner in August 2007 when she scooped ?35,425,411.80 in the Euromillions jackpot.

Britons have banked the Euromillions jackpot more than 14 times in the last two years.

Last year, two anonymous UK winners scooped ?113m and ?84m.

And Nigel and Justine Page, from Gloucestershire, won the ?56m jackpot prize on EuroMillions in February 2010.

National Lottery operator Camelot runs the Euromillions draw in the UK and has also had the same role for the weekly Lotto draw since it was launched in 1994.

The firm says that its draws have created about 2,400 lottery millionaires in the UK in the intervening 17 years.

If the winner of Tuesday's draw had been a single player, he or she would instantly have been placed 430th in this year's Sunday Times Rich List just above Scottish businessman Sir Angus Grossart and Irina Abramovich, the former wife of Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich.

Two other UK-based lottery players won ?1.7m after they successfully matched five numbers and one Lucky Star.


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Thursday, June 23, 2011

First commissioned photo of royal couple released

The Queen and Prince Philip, The Duke of Edinburgh by Thomas Struth

A new portrait photograph of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, the first to be commissioned of the two together, has been released by the National Portrait Gallery, as part of an exhibition to mark next year's Diamond Jubilee called The Queen: Art and Image.

The large-scale portrait, measuring 1.5m by 2m, shows the Queen and Prince Philip seated together in the Green Drawing Room at Windsor Castle.

The photograph was taken on 7 April 2011 and commissioned to mark the Queen's forthcoming Diamond Jubilee, in the year of the Duke's 90th birthday.

"I wanted to leave them both in their royal environment, and of course not try to disguise who they are, but also show them as an elderly couple who are together," artist Thomas Struth told arts editor Will Gompertz.

"I selected what in America you call a love seat, which is a small two-seater sofa which would make them sit together, and yet both in their own aura."

What do you think of the new royal portrait? Get in touch via email , Twitter or Facebook.

This is an attractive portrait. I hear what the photographer is saying about sitting together, each in their own aura, but wouldn't it be nice to see them holding hands? Why not - they are an elderly couple who have spent 60 years together and what a message that would have sent.
Paul Smith, Pluckley, Kent, UK

This image is dull and no charisma about it. If this is end result of the image after probably 50 shots to choose from this guy should change his job. I would be happy to challenge this image using my basic Pentax KX. So to sum it up - too dark, boring, lacks charisma, looks like the photographer was rushing the image.
James , Milton Keynes

I very much like the idea of the portrait but could they not have been shown with a bit of a smile? They may then have looked like happy couple, not just an elderly couple.
Julie Pollard, Lincoln, UK

This is unfortunately a very poor portrait - it is cold and not regal at all... it could just be somebody's Grandparents sat in their (albeit posh) front-room. It actually looks as if they don't know each other!
A Dinnaken, London, UK

An impressive photograph - immaculately composed and a visual metaphor of their public role when together. The slightly forward position of the Queen in conjunction with the reflected light off her dress place her in the 'spotlight'. Whereas the stoic Duke sits slightly to the rear with his face partially in the shade. Top marks to Thomas Struth.
Peter Saltmarsh, Swanwick, Derbyshire

Wonderful.
Vanda Watling, Frinton-on-Sea, Essex

It's a great picture for lighting, colour and composition of the two subjects. I do think, however that the couple are just too far apart. They are married after all. It looks like they are disconnected and not as husband and wife.
Paul Milton-Lyons, Newhaven, Sussex


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