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Monday, June 04, 2012

A Right Royal Washout



The Jubilee River Pageant

What a shame.  The Queen, the very picture of stoicism, standing for 3 hours during the Thames River Pageant in driving rain - and not even a sit-down or a cup of tea to break the monotony or warm up.   Would you make your 86 year old granny stand, freezing in the rain for 3 hours?  No.  And what of her 90 year old husband?  Is it possible to keep a smile on your face for that long?  Put simply, it's not - but the queen did her level best.  In fact it seems that everybody did heroically under the circumstances (except the BBC who have been slammed for their inane, dreadful commentary during live televised proceedings - and Kate who looked very nice, but has been accused by the Daily Mail of dressing to upstage the Queen) -

I didn't watch the whole thing, but by the time we got to the rain soaked operatic singers at the finale on Sky news - it was hard to watch.  Let's hope the Queen endures the next couple of days of yet more public appearances and official functions without falling sick or needing a day in bed.  Hot toddy anyone?  Best of British with the rest of the celebrations!  (Getting remarkably cold and grey here in Nairobi too - perhaps in sympathy?!)

A stoic looking queen - keen not to let anyone down

and the UK street parties
Meanwhile, whilst thinking of England, I took the kids to the Nairobi national park to meet friends (who have one of those great gas burner thingies) for Sunday brunch.  Unbelievably (and late as usual) we got stuck behind a lion!  It took us by surprise.  I thought it was a large dog or donkey at first - but then I was a little distracted by the discovery that my daughter had spilled hair oil all over the inside of my handbag.  Anyway, we pulled ourselves together and videoed it on my old phone (had forgotten both camera and binoculars - the old phone I'm using just isn't a patch on the iphone that got wet in Lake Naivasha a couple of weeks ago).  I tried to download the video clip here, but it's not working.  Will keep trying.

Also killing time - on Saturday I took the girls to the cinema (in a big city mall) to watch 'The Avengers'.  I was enjoying the film very much - happily munching popcorn, right up until the point that the multiple explosions on screen caused me to wonder whether we might get suddenly bombed by Al Shabaab - and whether I'd ever be able to locate and extract all three children in the dark.  The film passed uneventfully and fortuately by the end of the weekend, even my husband returned from his Rhino Charge 'are you tough enough?' alpha male bush-challenge, unscathed and annoyingly looking pleased with himself.


6 comments:

  1. Hey, I thought it was ideal that the occasion was accompanied by some Great British weather! :-)

    Yes, the commentary was inane.

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  2. Anonymous1:47 am

    My mum told me that Prince Phillip went to the hospital today. :-(
    This was cruel and unusual punishment!

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  3. This blog is fabulous, I think it reads like a book and I'm getting rather addicted I must say...especially when the usual thing about being late is "sorry we got stuck behind a tractor" if you live in the country, or even "...a herd of cows, farmer was moving them" But to get stuck behind a LION!!!! Certainly puts an edge on travelling to a friends house for lunch, or going to the supermarket! Keep the screen door locked, for heavens sake, I thought I had enough trouble with bears!

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  4. Anonymous2:09 pm

    haha, funniest take on the whole thing
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qcs0FN4G1-Y&feature=youtu.be

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  5. Anonymous7:34 pm

    I am told that there are lions walking around Karen.could that be true? anyone seen them? Max

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  6. Yes! lion have been straying out of the park into Langata recently.
    They caught them once, but apparently they are back!

    I gather some dogs and plenty of warthog have been killed by lion in residential areas. They have been spotted and often heard at night. There's a sort of 'neighbourhood watch' for lion going on in the area!

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