Well I've had an interesting few days, spent Saturday night out with Liz, Phil and the kids. That's Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh, The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, the Earl and Lady Wessex, The Princess Royal and the Duke of York to you lot of course.
Admittedly when I say "I was out with them", there were also 5,000 other people in the Albert Hall with me. Not that exclusive then really. I should explain that this weekend was Remembrance Sunday, which is like ANZAC day but without the slightly poorly hidden anti-British sentiments and politicians making political mileage from other peoples sacrifice. As dad is a loyal member of the British Legion he managed to get tickets to the Festival Of Remembrance at the Albert Hall and I have to say it was fantastic. It's basically a memorial service to all the fallen but it's also a celebration of the survivors and a way to raise money for the poor buggers who are still suffering. There was also rather too much of Russell Watson, Il Divo and Haley Westrena singing but the marching, gun firing and thunder flashes made up for that. And obviously the Queen was there with almost the entire ascendency to the throne (the heir and spare were probably off getting pissed at Fabric or something). It's the first time I've ever seen her in the flesh and it was oddly exciting. I'll rephrase that. It's the first time I've ever seen her in real life and it was pretty cool. I'm obviously never going to be a republican as I can't imagine seeing President Blair or Howard would be quite so special. Don't ask me why, she's just a fairly short, slightly dumpy old lady but there is something special about having a Monarch compared to yet another politician. Even if he is black.
It was pretty obvious that no one knows all the words to the National Anthem. The first verse was ok, but the the amount of page riffling to get to the words of the second verse printed in the programme was hillarious. I wonder how sick to death of God Save The Queen the Queen is? I bet she'd vote to change it to Land of Hope and Glory after hearing it sung, usually badly, at every occasion she's been to for the past 56 years.
There was also the entire upper echelon of British politics present, Gordon Brown trying not to look guilty (especially when the film of the Mum who's 20 year old was killed was shown) and David Cameron trying not to look smug (quite a challenge). This probably explains all the security to get in, I've never been through a metal detector in the street before, it's a bit of a weird experience to be honest.
The best bit was when the Gurkhas marched in and a huge cheer went up. If we'd been a bit closer I would have loved to see the look on the pollies faces. Down right shame I would hope as they are trying to deport retired and ex-Gurkha soldiers from the country after they have served in the British Army. Go sign the petition now as their treatment has been nothing less than shameful. There was a lot of blatant emotional blackmail throughout the evening but it was good to see that the public do still support the armed forces, to the tune of £30 million to the British Legion last year. It is a bit odd for me to be saying this, as I still maintain that anyone who joins the military now is really just asking for trouble, but I think it is important that returning service men and women are supported and as the government seems to be incapable of doing it the public will have to. It's just a pity they are fighting in two places at the moment that they shouldn't be. I still don't support the war in Iraq or Afghanistan and I think it's about time our troops came home. There were some surreal moments during the course of the evening when poems and pieces were read about all those who laid down their lives for freedom while looking around inside and outside the Albert Hall you couldn't move for CCTV cameras and armed policemen. Whose freedom exactly did the poor buggers fight for? I suppose the local councils freedom to film you doing your shopping.
If you saw it on the TV you missed the best bit (and missed me as I was sitting up in the gods) at the beginning when the Massed Bands of the Guards Division treated us to a medley of James Bond themes. What made it even better was the Marines sergeant, in full mess kit, singing Goldfinger! He was brilliant and a definite shoe-in for the next Britain's Got "Talent".
The next morning we went into Whitehall to see the Cenotaph service and the march by of all the old soldiers. Again more metal detectors in the street, but with very polite policemen and women on duty (see I can cope if they are real security personnel, it's just Chubb going through my hand luggage I have trouble with) just to stand in the street. It must be a security nightmare having thousands of tourists and hundreds of old soldiers all crowded round the Head of State and all her ministers standing in the open air, in the street, for 2 hours. No wonder there were so many people on roof tops and plod with machine guns on the streets. I have always wondered if they'd actually open fire with those Heckler and Kochs in the street, or at Heathrow, if there was a perceived threat. I would imagine you'd end up with no dead terrorists and hundreds of dead standers by. I think they just carry them to look hard. Especially on Sunday as I'm pretty sure there were a few SAS hidden in the bushes to deal with any actual eventualities. The service was interesting, not that we could see much, had to watch what was going on on a big screen. If you are ever in London on the Sunday nearest 11th November and want to see the Cenotaph service my advice would be to get there at about 9 am and stand on the Ministry of Defence side of Whitehall west of Downing Street. All we could really see from where we were near Horseguards Parade was all the old soldiers either fainting or swigging out of hip flasks. Not that that wasn't entertaining mind you. The most amazing thing was how absolutely silent it went when Big Ben struck 11am. I've never heard birds twittering in central London before. Quite moving really. And again much loud cheering and clapping for the Gurkhas.
One of the oddest things about the whole weekend was seeing all the military personnel walking around in their uniforms. This is something I never get used to as when I was a kid you never saw military uniforms on the street. Not because the British have any sort of weird standards about dress but because the Irish used to take pot shots at anyone in camouflage or boots and spurs. How times of changed. Now we just have people with exploding backpacks on the Underground.
I would also like to apologise for any freak weather we may be experiencing. It's because both of the above events involved a certain amount of religious fannying about and the fact that I have been to two religious ceremonies in two days may have made hell freeze over.
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