Diamond Weekend

It has been a little time since the last post, so figured I would do a little update. It's the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Weekend, 2 - 5 June 2012, in which there will be many festivities, street parties, and the likes! Today is the Derby at Epsom. I don't believe the Queen has a horse in this race this year, but in her 59 years of going, she has had only 10 horses compete. Must be very difficult to get an entry, even if you are Her Royal Majesty!

Tomorrow is the Royal Boat Pageant on the Thames River. This will start at 1.30pm and last about an hour and a half. There are going to be loads of bridges closed and will be a bit of a ball-ache transport-wise to head out to central, so this will be best avoided(IMO!). Here is a mock up of the royal boat:

On Monday, will be the Jubilee Concert at 7.30pm. This will end at 10pm with the Queen lighting a beacon to mark the end of the concert. Paul McCartney, Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Kylie Minogue, JLS, Jessie J, Gary Barlow(who planned the event), Tom Jones and a few more will also be headlining. I made an attempt to get tickets in which only 5,000 pairs were available, but was unlucky(shame). Apparently over 1.3 million people applied for this sought out tickets, two of which were Jassen and I. This is one I plan to watch, just in case there are any surprise guests, etc. Another mock up of the stage and computer generated audience:

On 29 May 2012, Jassen and I were invited to the Queen's annual Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, so here are a few piccies from our day. The food was excellent, by the way...:-) Just passed through security, Bobbies at the gate, who checked both our invites and passports:

Upon entering, we went through some arches into an internal court yard, in which pebbles got stuck at the bottom of my shoes. We were then ushered up some steps, handed in our invites to a gentleman at the doorway, and walked thru the back half of the Palace. The main thing I noticed is that there were plates displayed in cases. We then strolled through a door that opened up to the Palace gardens. We walked to our right, then down a small flight of steps onto the lawn. There were two brass bands playing in different sections of the garden. We spotted the food tents to the left and made a bee line before the crowds became too much. There were a total of 8,000 people invited. And the food - I really should have taken pictures. I had crustless ham sandwiches(with some horseradish), victoria sponge cake, chocolate fudge, which had a chocolate button with the queen's crown(very posh), strawberry tart, and two iced coffees(much better than the take home starbucks bottles). YUMz! On average, people who attend have an average of 14 different types of finger food at the garden party. I definitely had less than that!;-p

We soon had a little wander around, grabbed some water, sat for a few minutes to take in the scene, and wandered back to the front of the lawn to welcome the lady of the afternoon, the Queen. Prince Philip attended the party along with Prince Charles, Camilla, and Catherine(Kate). The National Anthem was briefly played and rows were formed for the royals to make their way through the guests. I really count myself as fortunate to having gone, especially in this Jubilee year. I was about 5-7 feet away from the Queen as she made her rounds, as she spoke with people, mostly pre-arranged. The line-up that Jassen and I found ourselves in was Prince Philips, which was only a few feet away from us, at a point. And Kate, she is super tall and thin of course. This was her first garden party and supposedly she was really nervous about the whole due. This went on for 20-30 minutes and we then decided to wander around the gardens as they are huge and you could lose yourself there. There is an actually small lake on the property and a tennis court. Jassen in the Garden(very handsome):

Jassen and I posing, back of Buckingham Palace in background:

Overall, feeling a bit patriotic at the moment. Bring on the bunting!