Skyfall (50 Years of James Bond)

2012 has been a momentous year in England. First we had the Queen's Diamond Jubilee in June, followed by the Summer Olympic Games in London, but perhaps most importantly we celebrate 50 years of James Bond!

Queen Elizabeth II and James Bond at London 2012 Olympic Games

I do not think anyone in 1962 could have predicted that fifty years later not only would the Bond films continue to be so popular but they would also still be in production! Skyfall is the 23rd installment of the James Bond franchise and upon viewing it is safe to say that Bond will not be leaving our screens anytime soon!  

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Casino Royale (2006) was supposed to be the rebirth of the Bond franchise, but Skyfall in my opinion is the true rebirth. To tell the truth, I was not that impressed with Casino Royale or Quantum of Solace (2008). I thought they were too violent and were not what James Bond was about. The books are considerably grittier than the earlier films and Daniel Craig's Bond was supposed to be returning to this. However, I missed the wit found in the films from the earlier days. Skyfall sees the return of the witty side of Bond while still keeping it realistic.

What did you expect, an exploding pen? - Q (Ben Whishaw)

This is the first time in the series' history, a James Bond film is being directed by an Academy Award winner in the form of Sam Mendes. The difference this has made to the film is substantial. With Mendes at the helm the producers were able to assemble an impressive cast and crew with 35 have Academy Award nominations and 5 wins between them. With those credentials it really is no wonder that Skyfall is being heralded as the best Bond film ever!

There are so many things to love about this film that it is hard to pick a favourite. The storyline is fantastic, don't worry I won't spoil it for you. Raoul Silva, played by Javier Bardem, is by far the best Bond villain ever! The cinematography is exquisite, perhaps owing a large part to the wide variety of amazing locations including; Turkey, China, Scotland, and London! This was my first time seeing a Bond film in the cinema, but if there was ever a film worthy of seeing in the cinema it is Skyfall.

Bond is well and truly back!

James Bond Car Chase Montage

Q:Who is your favourite James Bond actor? 

Erin x

ANSWERS: How well do you know the Queen?

Last week I shared with you the quiz I took at my work's Diamond Jubilee celebration. If you haven't completed it yet, then stop reading now and go take the quiz. And as promised here are your answers. I hope you did well, and found out something you didn't know about our reigning monarch of 60 years.

My score was 8/12, but how did you do? What did you learn? Let me know on Quintessentially English's brand new Facebook Page or tweet to me @essentialerin!

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1. Which month of the year did the Queen accede to the throne?
     February

2. Where was the Queen when she first heard the news that she had become Queen?
     Tree Tops - Kenya

3. How many dogs does the Queen currently own?
    Six - 3 Corgis and 3 Dorgis (a cross between a Dachshund and the Corgi)


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4. Who played the guitar on the roof of Buckingham Palace to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee?
    Brian May

5. What colour does the Queen traditionally wear when visiting the Vatican?
     Black

6. Who designed the Queen's dress for her wedding and coronation?
     Norman Hartnell

7. Where are the Crown Jewels kept?
     Tower of London

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8. Which of following historic events has NOT taken place during the Queen's reign?
     a. The end of food rationing in the UK
     b. The moon landing
     c. the building of the Berlin wall
    d. The Festival of Britain

9. The Queen's coronation was the most watched event on television at the time, even though only 5.5 million households in the UK (about one third of the population) had televisions. How many households have TV today?
     a. 1 Million
     b. 13 Million
    c. 26 Million
     d. 50 Million

10. How many miles of motorway did the UK have in 1952?
      0 - The first motorway in the UK opened in 1958.

11. The position of women in the workforce of the UK has changed since 1952. Today approximately half the workforce is female. What % of those employed in 1952 were female?
      a. 0%
      b. 10%
      c. 24%
     d. 33%

12. Which iconic musician said the following at the 1963 Royal Variety Performance in the presence of the Queen? "For our last number I'd like your help. Would you people in the cheaper seats clap your hands and for the rest of you just rattle your jewellery."
   a. Paul McCartney
  b. John Lennon
   c. Brian May
   d. Bob Dylan

Erin x

QUIZ: How well do you know the Queen?

I mentioned in my post Diamond Jubilee Celebrations (Part 1) that we had taken a quiz at work in honour of HM Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee. I had a few comments and emails requesting that I share it with you lovely people, so here it is as promised! 

I'm sure you can beat my score - 8/12 but don't cheat and use Google like so many of my colleagues did! 

 All rights reserved by The British Monarchy

1. Which month of the year did the Queen accede to the throne?

2. Where was the Queen when she first heard the news that she had become Queen?

3. How many dogs does the Queen currently own?

4. Who played the guitar on the roof of Buckingham Palace to mark the Queen's Golden Jubilee?

5. What colour does the Queen traditionally wear when visiting the Vatican?

6. Who designed the Queen's dress for her wedding and coronation?

7. Where are the Crown Jewels kept?

8. Which of following historic events has NOT taken place during the Queen's reign?

              a. The end of food rationing in the UK

              b. The moon landing

              c. the building of the Berlin wall

              d. The Festival of Britain

9. The Queen's coronation was the most watched event on television at the time, even though only 5.5 million households in the UK (about one third of the population) had televisions. How many households have TV today?

              a. 1 Million

              b. 13 Million

              c. 26 Million

              d. 50 Million

10. How many miles of motorway did the UK have in 1952?

11. The position of women in the workforce of the UK has changed since 1952. Today approximately half the workforce is female. What % of those employed in 1952 were female?

              a. 0%

              b. 10%

              c. 24%

              d. 33%

12. Which iconic musician said the following at the 1963 Royal Variety Performance in the presence of the Queen? "For our last number I'd like your help. Would you people in the cheaper seats clap your hands and for the rest of you just rattle your jewellery."

              a. Paul McCartney

              b. John Lennon

              c. Brian May

              d. Bob Dylan

UPDATE: For the answers please click here.

Erin x

Diamond Jubilee Celebrations (Part 2)

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.

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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.

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!

Erin x

Diamond Jubilee Celebrations (Part 1)

HM Queen Elizabeth II is celebrating her 60 year reign this June. This is only the second time a monarch has reached this landmark with Queen Victoria celebrating this achievement in 1897. Events have been taking place throughout the year reaching their peak this weekend with official events all over London and a street party in every corner of the United Kingdom (and globe).

Celebrations kicked off for me on Friday at my company's Diamond Jubilee street party. We were given a dress down day (as long as we maintained the patriotic colours) to mark the occasion. Our usual boring canteen was bedecked in Union Jack bunting, a table full of traditional British fare, and a CD on loop of British fan fare (i.e. 'Rule Britannia').

Our longest reigning employees.

Our longest "reigning" employee was named 'queen of the day' meaning she had to wear a Queen Elizabeth II paper mask, while our Managing Director acted as the Duke of Edinburgh. There was a raffle draw but the closest I got to winning by misreading one of my numbers and taking a tin of shortbread, which I had to quickly pass on to the rightful owner. There was also a quiz on the Queen, which I scored 8 out of 12 on, the highest score achieved not using Google might I add! One of my better, if not best, days at work.

On Saturday, Luke and I drove up to Southam to celebrate with his family. First we attended Southam's street party (see I told you there were a lot of street parties planned). It appeared the whole town, and several others, had turned up for Southam's street party, or perhaps the population was larger than I imagined. I spent my time dodging prams and trying to find a token seller as I was instructed that was the only way I could ride the mechanical bull or play any games.

Stilt walker at the Southam street party

Unfortunately, we never did find the elusive token sellers and so I had to appease myself with 2 books from the charity shop and having a piggy back from Luke all the way from town centre to his mum's house. After Luke had a breather we went to Pam and Mick's house for Jubilee barbecue. With our little cousins, Sam and Isaac, around we would need all the energy we could muster as the first words Isaac uttered were "you hide, I'll seek".

St. James' Church on a walk back from town centre

After an hour of playing hide and seek, we moved the party inside where Isaac used the Union Jack table cloths to wrap me up as giant British present. We would later use these same table cloths to create a "boys and Erin den" as Sam put it which the boys (and nearly us) fell asleep in as the night came to a close.

The Jubilee festivities didn't end on Saturday, we've had two more days full and one more day to go, so stay tuned and God save the Queen!

Erin x

An Email from the Queen

Note: I did not write this, I received it in an email and found it too funny not to share. I would like to give credit where credit is due though, so if you know where this is originally from please let me know.

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To the citizens of the United States of America from Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II

In light of your immediate failure to financially manage yourselves and also in recent years your tendency to elect incompetent Presidents of the USA and therefore not able to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective immediately. (You should look up 'revocation' in the Oxford English Dictionary.)

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths, and territories (except Kansas, which she does not fancy).

Your new Prime Minister, David Cameron, will appoint a Governor for America without the need for further elections.

Congress and the Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated sometime next year to determine whether any of you noticed.

To aid in the transition to a British Crown dependency, the following rules are introduced with immediate effect:

1. The letter 'U' will be reinstated in words such as 'colour,' 'favour,' 'labour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the suffix '-ize' will be replaced by the suffix '-ise.' Generally, you will be expected to raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up 'vocabulary').

2. Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such as ''like' and 'you know' is an unacceptable and inefficient form of communication. There is no such thing as U.S. English. We will let Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be adjusted to take into account the reinstated letter 'u'' and the elimination of '-ize.'

3. July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.

4. You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers, or therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists shows that you're not quite ready to be independent. Guns should only be used for shooting grouse. If you can't sort things out without suing someone or speaking to a therapist, then you're not ready to shoot grouse.

5. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. Although a permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in public.

6. All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will start driving on the left side with immediate effect. At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication will help you understand the British sense of humour.

7. The former USA will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling gasoline) of roughly $10/US gallon. Get used to it.

8. You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in animal fat, and dressed not with catsup but with vinegar.

9. The cold, tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will be referred to as Lager. New Zealand beer is also acceptable, as New Zealand is pound for pound the greatest sporting nation on earth and it can only be due to the beer. They are also part of the British Commonwealth - see what it did for them. American brands will be referred to as Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of further confusion.

10. Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play English characters. Watching Andie Macdowell attempt English dialogue in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's ears removed with a cheese grater.

11. You will cease playing American football. There are only two kinds of proper football; one you call soccer, and rugby (dominated by the New Zealanders). Those of you brave enough will, in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of nancies).

12. Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host an event called the World Series for a game which is not played outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware there is a world beyond your borders, your error is understandable. You will learn cricket, and we will let you face the Australians (World dominators) first to take the sting out of their deliveries.

13. You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad.

14. An internal revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies due (backdated to 1776).

15. Daily Tea Time begins promptly at 4 p.m. with proper cups, with saucers, and never mugs, with high quality biscuits (cookies) and cakes; plus strawberries (with cream) when in season.

God Save the Queen!

Erin x