IT was a case of keeping it under his hat when former Blackburn man Michael Carbine presented his mother with her belated Christmas present.

Michael, who works for the Foreign Office, presented mum Sylvia Charnley with a hat box containing an elaborate black hat -- but the Christmas cracker that came with it contained a special surprise.

For when Sylvia, of Bradda Road, Blackburn, opened the box she expected to be heading for a family wedding, but instead got a right royal surprise when she found she would be wearing it to Buckingham Palace to meet the Queen for Michael's MBE presentation. Michael, currently on secondment to International Computers Limited (ICL), won the prestigious award for services to industry, after becoming an adviser to European business and an authority on industry issues.

Proud mother Sylvia said she danced round the room with excitement when she found out.

"I popped the hat on and I said to him 'a wedding?' and he said 'no'. 'A holiday?' I said and he said 'no', then he gave me a massive cracker and inside was the invitation to collect his MBE.

"I just couldn't believe it. It was so brilliant. It is all my dreams in one cracker. I think it is absolutely wonderful and I still can't believe it. I keep expecting someone to ring me up and say what a good laugh they've had, but now the joke's over."

Father-of-two Michael, 45, will be sharing the special day with Sylvia and his father, John Carbine, although no date has yet been set.

Sylvia said her eldest son, who now lives in Buckinghamshire, had always had a determination to succeed and had been posted around the world with his job, from Bulgaria to Khartoum and Hungary. "It is such an accolade," she said. "We are just ordinary people who work hard and try our best in life. Michael has always done well

"He has always had something about him that he was going to do well. He is just beautiful. "

His sister, Julie Carbine, said her mother was over the moon about the award. "Michael gave her a hat and she thought she was going to a wedding, but she couldn't believe it when she found out. She was so pleased."

Despite the excitement it caused, the hat itself will not be making its way to Buckingham Palace, as Sylvia intends to buy a new one, because black is not her colour!