God save the Queen!

We are so lucky to have such an awesome queen. I bet most of you reading this blog don't even have a queen. I don't know how you have any pride. It was her birthday recently, and she was so kind to invite us all to her birthday bash at Buckingham Palace. Well. We weren't actually allowed inside the palace. And we weren't really permitted to stand in front of the palace either. Oh, and there were guards watching us with guns and SWORDS to make sure we behaved! We were just standing there with our little cameras and water bottles. I didn't even see one torch or pitchfork!

Anyway. All the townspeople gathered around and even got there early to stake out a good spot. Then the pomp and circumstances began. There was a parade, horses, a band, yadda yadda yadda... it was slow and boring. Lots of frills—brass piccolos, feathers and buckles. I couldn't help but think how this would never happen in America. And only the oldies would be entertained by it. We need our food and entertainment to be fast, or it's not worth our effort and we get distracted. But looking around, the peasants never seemed to tire of it or get impatient. They cheered and loved every second.

The "show" drug out as long as possible. After the forever parade, the queen rolled by in a carriage to her palace, waving all the while. Eventually she came out onto the balcony and waved some more. She is so good to us.
The lulls between events would lead you to believe that the party was over, and as the crowd started drifting away, they would carry on with another round of fun. Next, they fired 80 canons for her 80 years of life. What joy. Can you imagine how fun it is to listen to a canon fire 80 times in a row? But the pleasure didn't end there. Then they let some horses run through a field and had group after group of planes fly overhead in fancy formations. I must admit, the fly-over was actually really impressive.

After considering how many planes there were, and all the fuel required, and all the silver buttons on all the red velvet uniforms, I started to see how expensive this whole production must have been. How gracious of the queen to spend our tax pounds on all of it for us, and then invite us to watch.

I never felt like such a commoner. Not that I have a job or pay taxes... but IF I did, I can imagine that's how I would feel. I hope I don't get beheaded for this post.

By the way, here's the Queens address if you need it:

Her Majesty The Queen
Buckingham Palace
London SW1A 1AA