Day One: 28th
Any ardent royalists amongst you may as well stop reading now as I fear I may will at times offend you.
After months of keeping my head down and trying to avoid the whole thing – the day finally arrived when I could ignore it no longer. Yes, our beloved Wills would marry his “commoner” fiancé, the now beloved Kate.
My wedding saga began the day before the actual event. The kids’ school had planned ye olde games and a wedding picnic to help celebrate the big day. At 2pm they assembled in the school hall all waving hand made union jacks – all except one cheeky 9 year old that is, proudly holding his Aussie flag – and adorned with creative crowns and tiaras. We were treated to a resounding rendition of Land of Hope and Glory, which even I will admit is a great tune. What I really loved was when everyone joined in with God Save the Queen and, like at any Aussie event where the organizers thought it a good idea to proceed beyond the first verse, the children (having been schooled well) kept singing while the parents, one and all, soon began to mumble.
We all then moved outside into what was a glorious spring afternoon for egg and spoon and sack races before separating into family groups for a picnic. All thought of “the wedding” aside, it was a great show of support for the school and it was nice to see some true British patriotism on display (even if it had taken such an antiquated system of royalty by right of birth to produce it!)
Day Two: 29th
Despite only openly admitting my feelings to whoever would listen, even I was curious as to “the dress”. After spending the morning preparing for our afternoon celebratory street party, 11 am saw us encamped in front of the television watching the show (oops, I mean the wedding). Yes, she looked beautiful and I truly do wish them well as a couple…I may leave it there on a positive note!
Following “that kiss” (Ed: I didn’t see the kiss ‘live’ and didn’t realize Paula had snuck inside to watch) it was time to party. All the Close was bedecked with Union Jack paraphernalia and the bunting looked fantastic. We even added the odd Australian flag and interestingly an Australian Flag wind sock as, as Nathan pointed out, our flag is of course a “blinged up” version of the Union Jack anyway. Wearing combinations of red, white and blue and drinking just a few glasses of bubbly we partied into the evening. The kids ran wild and a neighbours creative daughter kindly contributed face painting. Charlotte came out of the closet as a quite capable balloon contortionist. Nathan was ever at hand to provide the English (Scottish and Irish) menfolk with BBQ tips and my pavlova won hands down over the attempt by the resident Irish family – who were they kidding!
Whilst I can take or leave the Royal Family (which may come as a shock for some of you), I am now a huge fan of the British Street Party!
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