Happy Not Really Your Birthday To You

There are many good things about being Queen. Big house, servants available to do your bidding any time of the day or night, cool horse drawn carriages to drive around in, the ability to banish your husband (after all, he is ONLY a duke) if he gets a little too lippy at the breakfast table. But I think I have accidentally stumbled across a not so good thing about being the queen -- you don't really get your own birthday. Queen Elizabeth was born in April some 80 or so years ago (c'mon let the gal have a little bit of mystery). But she also has an official birthday in June in which she is obligated to preside over quite a bit of hoopla, parades, troop reviews, air force flybys etc.

Now don't get me wrong, there could be some benefits to having 2 birthdays - double presents, more cake, 2 times for waiters to sing embarrassing birthday songs at Wagamamas. Although I suspect having 2 birthdays is not all it is cracked up to be. I bet people start saying things like "this one present covers both of your birthdays" or "I will bring your present at your NEXT birthday" or even worse, "it's not like it is your REAL birthday or anything". Also, the "official" birthday is either the first, second or third weekend in June depending - not sure depending on what. It is hard for a queen to make plans when you don't know when your official birthday will be.

One duty the Queen has on her official birthday is Trooping of the Colour. It is a parade of all the regiments of the British Army. The Queen inspects the troop, there are bands, and all of the Royal Family attends (Hey you tell the Queen you have better things to do). It is full of pomp and ceremony and, like quite a few traditions in England, has been done for hundreds of years. After happening upon a rehearsal a few weeks earlier when I was down in the Queen's 'hood, I decided I would go to the real deal on June 14. So after unsuccessfully trying to rally my teenagers to go (they both had last day of school parties sleep-ins planned), I took myself.

When I got to Green Park, the park outside of Buckingham Palace, you could feel the excitement buzz in the air. I could tell something was up by some of the preparations they made - like this trash can. They had "closed off" all of the trash cans in Park. I think initially this was done in the IRA era but it has lingered on in the Terrorist era as well. By the time I walked through the park, the crowds were in place, 4-6 deep in some areas. I decided not to go to where she was looking at the troops or down the mall area but thought my best chance to see something would be at Buckingham Palace itself. I wandered all the way over to the right of the side of the Victoria Memorial right in front of Buckingham Palace, not sure what I would be able to see. I found an area of the crowd that was only about 2 deep and I joined them. I started talking with a man and his two sons who had gone to every Trooping of the Colour for the past 15 years. He told me that it has become less and less British, meaning that few British people go, mostly tourists and "foreigners". He wasn't complaining, just stating fact. He clearly knew the schedule, "in 15 minutes the Queen will leave the parade grounds in her carriage with the Duke of Edinburgh (Prince Phillip)" "her carriage will be preceeded by Princes Harry & William" There was great discussion about where Camilla would be, would she be in a carriage with some of the lesser royal, or by herself, or with William & Harry. No one seemed to know or remember where she sat last year.

I was not disappointed, I got a full view of quite a few things although it was difficult to take decent pictures in the crowd. When the parade gets to the end of the mall, they have to commit to make either a left or right turn. If a left turn is made, I don't see anything. If they make a right, I have a shot. We were really lucky, it seemed all the carriages turned right. I couldn't believe how close the carriages came. You be the judge, here are some of the photos. Don't you think the Queen and I are sharing "a moment" in the first photo??



That is Prince Phillip next to her wearing the huge hat. That thing has to weigh a ton, I think there had to be some small palace courtier hunched over in the carriage proping the hat or Prince Phillip up.







This is a photo of the younger Princes and Camilla. She and Prince William have their backs to the camera, she is wearing the white hat/headpiece thing and Harry is facing the camera sort of.

After the Royal Family goes in the Palace, they open up the round about area in front of Buckingham Palace for the crowds to go right up to the gates of the Palace. I was able to get really close and then you wait for the Royal Family to come to The Balcony. We have all seen the balcony on TV, the one where Charles & Diana kissed for the crowd. The queen comes out and is
soon followed by the rest of the family.











The crowd serenades the Queen with "Happy Birthday" but really it should have been "Happy-Official-Birthday-but-not-your-real-birthday
-because-it-is-in-April-to-you" but it is hard to stay together on that. Then the
Royal Air Force puts on a show, many, many fly bys. The Queen seemed to enjoy the fly bys quite a bit. I was able to get quite a few photos. There were two college girls in front of me, who absolutely lost it when the 2 Princes came out. They kept shouting "Zoom, Zoom" referring to their cameras. It was quite funny.

Afterwards, it all kind of breaks up and people wander off. I am glad I got to see it. I have to admit a bit of a chill went up my spine at seeing the Queen and the members of the Royal Family. Oh and for those of you wondering, yes Prince Charles was there and no, he did not try to kill me (as he has before, see here and here.) Not that he didn't think about it for sure - crowds too big - too many witnesses. He had better hurry!!