What a Weekend!


Only a week ago most of the UK was relishing the hot sunshine and looking forward to a long Bank Holiday weekend full of fun and frolics to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee. Not too much to ask after 60 years of waiting,  but the English weather took over and the only thing we didn't have was a plague of locusts.
The rain may have poured on street parties, picnics, sightseers, watchers and cheerers along the various procession, but it did nothing to dampen  the enthusiasm of England for the Queen's 60th anniversary.
Actually the only people who seemed depressed were the small groups of Rupublicans and anti-Monarchists that met in a metaphorical telephone box next to the Thames on Sunday and again near St Paul's on Tuesday. They were quickly shouted down, not with anger, but with good-humoured renderings of "God Save The Queen!"..
HM was at her best. She smiled when she wanted to, not because it was expected of her. She gave no speeches, but rather left that side of things to the younger generation - all 64 years of him. For an 86 year-old granny she proved to have more energy and stamina than people half her age.
Charles was perfect, both as the man in the wings during Sunday's pageant, and as the man for the Queen to depend on after his father was taken to hospital.
Nobody does spectacle like the British, but nobody puts on a concert like us either.  I can understand that on a fixed stage with each act doing one or two songs each groupd like the Stones, The Who or Pink Floyd would have taken an age to move on and off. At the Live 8 concert they had  a revolving stage allowing one act to prepare while the previous act was playing. No such chance last night and as a result all the stars, with the exception of the wonderful Madness were solo singers. That's not to criticise them in any way, or sir Gary Barlow who put in 2 years of his time to prepare the whole project and bring together such a galaxy of stars. Having said that, I can't imagine any of them took much persuading.
The fireworks were superb and if the BBC had just put a couple of cameras on them for the 4 minutes and let us enjoy them that would have been great. Instead they decided to give us arty shots, superimposed shots, shots half-masked by an artistically placed guardsman, and shots taken at weird angles.
Overall it was a spectacle to be proud of in honour of a lady to be proud of.

Oh, and could someone let the ranting Republicans out of their telephone box, please!!!!