Abdulaziz Lamlum decided it would be a great bucket list item to have a cup of tea with the Queen of England (EP 8).
He Googled the Buckingham Palace mailing address. He wrote a short letter: "My name is Abdulaziz — if you're available, I'd love a cup of tea." He stamped it and posted it.
Months later he received a response on cream Buckingham Palace letterhead. The Queen appreciated the letter but was unavailable.
Abd noticed something: the reply came with a second-class stamp. He discovered that before postal privatisation, the palace had used first-class stamps. The downgrade delighted him — the absurdity of the Queen of England pinching pennies on postage.
The story works on two levels. On the surface, it's funny — a young Libyan writing to the English queen asking for tea and getting a polite no. Underneath, it's about the confidence to ask for things you have no reason to expect, and finding joy in the response regardless of outcome.
It also says something about how Abd occupies Britain: he uses the country's own medium (letters, stamps, royal protocol) with the outsider's amused perspective. He has made himself at home without losing the ability to find the whole thing slightly absurd.