I think I did one of these earlier, just some random bits of this and that. From the Queen's Platinum Jubilee celebrations to the visit of my brother and family, then about a month of work and training someone new to take over my position while I was using my free time to get a teaching job, to more family visiting August, and then I had to prepare for the new school year with my new job, feeling like I've had to hit the ground running. Shortly after the school year started, the Queen died, and that seemed to throw things a little off kilter as well. It seemed like I hardly have had time to catch my breath. I'm grateful to have had some free time this weekend for some downtime, despite having some marking to do. My last mini-story catch-up was, it seems, the short trips we had in that month between my brother's visit and our next family's visit, and I did cover our trip to Dover in August.
The Queen's Platinum Jubilee
The jubilee weekend was exciting because we were also lucky enough to get selected in the lottery for tickets to go to the Trooping the Colour event. We had really been looking forward to it, hoping to see the Queen there, but as with many events this year, she was not well enough to participate, and I was able to get photos of then Prince Charles (now King) and Princess Anne on horseback. Apparently Prince William was there, too, but with the bear fur hats they wear, I didn't realise he was out with them--and you could barely recognise King Charles, too, for the same reason. I also was able to get photos of the royal family coming in on carriages. There was so much excitement in the air, and it was fascinating to see military members from a variety of countries in their uniforms and ladies all dressed up with hats and men in morning dress, some with top hats and fancy canes or walking sticks. If you're into pomp and pageantry, these types of events will never disappoint. We really enjoyed the event, and we were excited to learn that as ticket holders, we'd be able to be part of the privileged group that gets ushered to the front of the walk down the Mall to Buckingham Palace for the flyover--and they had built seats in stands for it. But we were unable to take advantage as at the very end of the Trooping evening, I dropped my phone underneath the stands, which, at least they were enclosed and locked, so I didn't have to worry about my phone getting stolen, but it meant having to wait for an official to help get them, and they wanted to wait until the crowd died down...It was a little disappointing. We ended up being with the masses on the street, and while I ended up having a decent view of the balcony for photos of the royal family and to see the flyover, there was no exit strategy for us commoners, and we were walking in every direction trying to find a way out, police officers directing people in all different directions that then got stopped by the next police officer. It was very disorganised. But while we were on the street, we ended up meeting a man from the University of Calgary who was here for a year on sabbatical, and he was really friendly. People were generally congenial, and it was overall quite pleasant.
We didn't participate in most events, but we though it would be worthwhile to see the pageant in person. That was a decision we regretted. The pageant itself was fine, but we ended up being on the wrong side of the street to view it, as we didn't want to see the whole thing, but we weren't allowed to cross the road and were stuck on the block where we were until it was over. Again, no exit plan seems to have been in place. The best part of the pageant for me was the buses with celebrities representing different decades. Most of them were UK celebrities I didn't know, but I did recognise one person, Rylan, because he's all over TV. Apparently the lady with him is from some band and is really famous, I found out after, but I can't even remember her name now. I've rarely been good with pop culture, mostly because I've never really enjoyed it. Anyway, once the weekend was over, it was like the celebration never happened; the BBC evening news didn't even make one mention of it. It was kind of weird, but life just moved on.
Visitors from the US
My brother and his family did a lot of sightseeing on their own, and my sister-in-law has family here too, so we weren't always doing activities together, but we did do some little trips here and there, including Hampton Court Palace and the Natural History Museum. My brother and I had some free time together, so we went to Oxford and saw the History of Science Museum, and then I had my nephews to myself one day, so I took them to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace, followed with a little picnic in St James's Park to see the birds. We spent some quality time together, and I really enjoyed it. I don't get to see them nearly as often as I'd like, mainly due to our post here in the UK, but hopefully once I get back to Canada and start having more regular work and holidays and what not, I'll be able to see them once a year.
That's my hope anyway. I should mention that the changing of the guard is not easy to see. You have to get to Buckingham Palace pretty early, about 2-3 hours in advance of it, to get a spot at the fence to watch it. That's not feasible with young kids in tow, so we arrived about 30 minutes in advance and couldn't see a thing. But we did get to see the guards march in and out and see the mounted police as well, and there was also the guards' band playing, so the kids were just as thrilled to see that, and we did have front row, curb-side views of it, so they were really excited, and as a result, it didn't seem to faze them that they hadn't seen the actual changing of the guard. I was actually quite relieved because I had felt so bad that I couldn't find a spot for them to see it; people tell me that it's not that surprising, given that the marching and the band and the mounted police would have been as exciting and new for the kids and that they wouldn't have realised what they were missing. Thank goodness! My nephew had misplaced his camera, so I lent him my phone to take photos, and he took a lot of videos as well. This is why the perspective is between two sets of people's hips. So cute!
On one occasion, while my sister-in-law and nephews were visiting her sister, my brother and I had the day together, so we decided to take a day trip to Oxford. We went to the History of Science Museum there, which was quite interesting, even for someone like me that favours the humanities in terms of my interests and aptitudes. But ultimately, it's also history, so that makes it fun for me. One thing I liked about the museum is that they include non-Western science as well. Other highlights include a board that used to belong to Einstein as well as a section on pandemics through history, where it demonstrated a long-standing (we're talking hundreds of years here) resistance to measures to reduce or prevent the transmission of illnesses and diseases, even when they were demonstrated to work. I found that to be quite remarkable. Outside the museum is Blackwell's Bookstore, a very old bookstore and also quite large. When I entered the main room of the store, it felt like a Tardis, where the inside is larger than the outside. The store front is quite deceiving. In any case, it's a huge and fantastic book store that I wouldn't mind moving into if someone said I could!
Victoria & Albert Museum, London
We had about a month between my brother's departure and the arrival of more family in August. Some of our activities I've already written about, like our trip to Chester and Liverpool, but we did some activities closer to home as well, and visiting the V & A Museum was one of them.
The museum is a design museum for all things related to furniture design, interior design, and other types like glassware and glass sculpture. The place is in the museum district where you also find the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum, among others. It's free entry, and there is a lot to see. In fact, it's a bit overwhelming. We decided just to focus on items of interest to us rather than look at everything in the the museum. Like many other museums in Europe, a couple of hours just isn't enough, and you could probably spend a couple of days at least, were you to see and read about everything on display. I didn't take a ton of photos there, but just a few of items that were of particular interest to me. My favourite section was the glass works. I'm a huge fan of pretty glass, having first encountered all the beauty it could present at a glass museum in Monterrey, Mexico, when I lived there. Since then, I've been a big fan. It may be that because I lean toward impressionism as a painter, I'm drawn to things that are enhanced by light. I didn't go crazy taking photos in the glass section, but I have a few just to highlight what they have (pun totally intended!).
Visitors from Canada
More family visiting in early August for a couple of weeks. Again, some of our activities, I've already posted about, such as our trip to Dover, but there were a couple of other fun things worth mentioning. We visited Buckingham Palace, though I can't post much from it because you're actually not allowed to take photos inside, so there isn't much to share, visually. But when inside, you go through various rooms that are for public display and see various paintings of royals past and some of the historical information about the rooms. You can get a headset with info about each room as you go, so it's quite convenient. The palace is only open to the public for tours for 2 months of the year, so it was good timing that we were able to see it while family was here because depending on the time of year someone visits, you might not be able to put that on the itinerary of things to do.
Another royal place we visited, though no longer inhabited, was the Tower of London. In all the time we had lived here, we had never actually made it over there yet, so it seemed a good time to go when we had visitors. I didn't find a lot that was photo-worthy there, other than the Tower's famous ravens that live there, but it was nice to read about some of the history of it. I think for me, the most fascinating aspect of the visit was the old Royal Mint and learning that Sir Isaac Newton had actually been appointed as the Warden and then Master of the Royal Mint for over 30 years, from 1696 until his death in 1727. We only ever know of him as one of the western fathers of science, and this was really new and interesting information that I had never heard of before. We didn't end up getting to see the Crown Jewels during our visit. The lineup to see them was really long, probably at least a 1-hour or more long wait, and as it was quite a hot day, no one felt like they'd regret not getting to see them, so we decided against it. We had all watched an interesting BBC documentary on the jewels that allows you to learn about them in greater detail than in person, where you're not allowed to photograph them anyway, so we felt satisfied with our visit despite not having seen what is considered the main reason why many people visit the Tower of London. I've linked the documentary since it's on YouTube, as I've just discovered. I was really surprised to see it there! I don't know how long it will be available for, but if you're interested in watching it, I highly recommend it. It's quite well done and includes post-colonial perspectives on how many of the jewels were acquired.
We also visited the British Museum. For me, it was probably the 3rd time I'd been there, but as I mentioned before, it's another one of those places where you can't see it all even in a couple of visits, and we discovered the Ancient Egypt area and other regions that I didn't even know were there. In fact, I was shocked to learn that the mummy of Cleopatra is there. I haven't taken much interest in Ancient Egypt before; I think I've always felt that it's a bit overdone, and I've been more interested in more obscure or lesser-advertised aspects of ancient history such as ancient Mesopotamia or regions like that. It was quite a fascinating visit for me to have seen a part that I hadn't seen before, much less known about.
Another museum we visited was the Imperial War Museum because they had re-vamped their WWII and Holocaust sections, and it had been launched less than a year ago, so we hadn't seen those sections yet. We also found that to be quite interesting, again including some post-colonial perspectives on Britain's military related to militaries in the colonies and their relationship with WWII and such.
It was a good visit, and we packed a lot in, with also some days just for putzing around so we wouldn't tire ourselves out. It's always hard to see family leave, and just like when my brother visited, I must admit I was a little more than just teary.
The Death of the Queen
I don't really have much for photos or anything, and given that it was expected that at least 3 million people would descend on London for various state funeral activities, we didn't participate much in anything that went on. But it was just interesting to have launched a lot of our summer events with the Platinum Jubilee and have it all come to a close by the death of the Queen herself. And once all the events were done and the 10-day mourning period was over, it was like it all never happened, and life just moved on to the next phase, and that was that. Summer was over.
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