Not even the Queen could keep away the bad weather that always seems to come with a bank holiday weekend. While we all had visions of barbecues in the back garden the always unpredictable English weather had other plans. As they said repeatedly on the BBC "the rain could not dampen our spirits". Therefore the planned barbecue we had for Sunday moved to an indoor party at Neil and Nicola's house.
We all dressed in red,white, and blue - even Neil who is known for his Grinch-like tendencies when it comes to dressing up. We drank English cider, ale, and even toasted the Queen with a bottle of English sparkling wine from Kent, which was surprisingly good. While Nic finished preparing the food, all English fare, we watched the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant.
Over 1,000 boats mustered on the River Thames to pay homage to Her Majesty, making it the largest boat procession the Thames has seen in over 300 years. This 1,000 boat flotilla even achieved a new Guinness World Record for the world's largest parade of boats. The procession was led by the Queen on the Royal Barge, which also included Prince Charles, Camilla, Prince Harry, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and of course Prince Philip.
At first as I sat drinking a Crabbies' Ginger Beer at the kitchen table I wished I could be in London, despite all the rain, to witness the event. More specifically I wished I could be on the Royal Barge, my Grandmother has had me practising my curtsey since before I could walk properly. After about an hour of the procession though I began to realise just how many 1,000 boats were.
True it was amazing to see, but I started to feel a bit sorry to the Queen having to stand there and wave for hours on end. There must be so many times in a royal's life when all want to do is just say 'sod it' to the world and stay in bed.
On Monday, I spent the day in Milton Keynes Centre shopping or as I like to call it honouring the Queen by boosting the economy. That evening there was A Concert at Buckingham Palace organised by the BBC. It was supposed to be attended the by Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, and other members of the Royal Family. Unfortunately the DoE was sent to the hospital as a precaution for a bladder infection, probably caused from his hours spent the day before unable to move for hours, he is 90 after all!
I wish I could say I loved the concert, but if you follow me on Twitter, you'll know this was not the case. I would describe the first half as an assault on my eardrums. It started with Robbie Williams screeching 'Let Me Entertain You'. Perhaps it is because I didn't grow up listening to Take That, but I just don't get Robbie's appeal. He appears to be an arrogant tit if I'm honest.
I then suffered through will.i.am, Jessie J, JLS, and Gary Barlow with Cheryl Cole (who is now styling herself as Cheryl). To be fair to Mr. Barlow I actually don't mind him. As a member of Take That I didn't grow up listening to his music, but I look at him differently than Robbie Williams - he writes the music and doesn't come off cocky like ol' Robbie.
It wasn't all bad, in fact there were some genuinely good performances, I shouldn't be so quick to tar the whole thing as bad. For example I loved Lang Lang, Elton John, Kylie Minogue, Madness, and Paul McCartney. I unfortunately missed the performances of the official 'jubilee single' and Tom Jones, both of which I wanted to see.
In retrospect the Jubilee Concert wasn't all bad. I just felt bad for the Queen having to sit through some of which was on, although she didn't have to sit through the worst of it. I think that was the epitome of 'God Save the Queen'.
Over 1,000 boats mustered on the River Thames to pay homage to Her Majesty, making it the largest boat procession the Thames has seen in over 300 years. This 1,000 boat flotilla even achieved a new Guinness World Record for the world's largest parade of boats. The procession was led by the Queen on the Royal Barge, which also included Prince Charles, Camilla, Prince Harry, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and of course Prince Philip.
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At first as I sat drinking a Crabbies' Ginger Beer at the kitchen table I wished I could be in London, despite all the rain, to witness the event. More specifically I wished I could be on the Royal Barge, my Grandmother has had me practising my curtsey since before I could walk properly. After about an hour of the procession though I began to realise just how many 1,000 boats were.
True it was amazing to see, but I started to feel a bit sorry to the Queen having to stand there and wave for hours on end. There must be so many times in a royal's life when all want to do is just say 'sod it' to the world and stay in bed.
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| The Union Jack table at Neil and Nicola's |
On Monday, I spent the day in Milton Keynes Centre shopping or as I like to call it honouring the Queen by boosting the economy. That evening there was A Concert at Buckingham Palace organised by the BBC. It was supposed to be attended the by Queen, the Duke of Edinburgh, and other members of the Royal Family. Unfortunately the DoE was sent to the hospital as a precaution for a bladder infection, probably caused from his hours spent the day before unable to move for hours, he is 90 after all!
I wish I could say I loved the concert, but if you follow me on Twitter, you'll know this was not the case. I would describe the first half as an assault on my eardrums. It started with Robbie Williams screeching 'Let Me Entertain You'. Perhaps it is because I didn't grow up listening to Take That, but I just don't get Robbie's appeal. He appears to be an arrogant tit if I'm honest.
I then suffered through will.i.am, Jessie J, JLS, and Gary Barlow with Cheryl Cole (who is now styling herself as Cheryl). To be fair to Mr. Barlow I actually don't mind him. As a member of Take That I didn't grow up listening to his music, but I look at him differently than Robbie Williams - he writes the music and doesn't come off cocky like ol' Robbie.
It wasn't all bad, in fact there were some genuinely good performances, I shouldn't be so quick to tar the whole thing as bad. For example I loved Lang Lang, Elton John, Kylie Minogue, Madness, and Paul McCartney. I unfortunately missed the performances of the official 'jubilee single' and Tom Jones, both of which I wanted to see.
In retrospect the Jubilee Concert wasn't all bad. I just felt bad for the Queen having to sit through some of which was on, although she didn't have to sit through the worst of it. I think that was the epitome of 'God Save the Queen'.
The Concert ended with Prince Charles paying homage to his mother or "mummy" as he called her at one point and leading the crowd in three cheers for the Queen before she lit the National Beacon. A truly spectacular end!
We just watched the hour program of the making of 'Sing' for the concert on BBC iPlayer - it is an hour long and really moving if you have a chance :) Thank you for linking up :)