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Tuesday 3 May 2011

The Wedding and Beyond


During a short visit to school Boy 2 did a Royal Wedding Special Edition for Hello
Magazine
Boy 2's mag involved sticking pics in the right order,
he is so going to be headhunted by OK magazine soon


Well, I enjoyed the Wedding. Lots of bling, glamour and good looks, and that was just old Prince Harry.


But I must admit Boys 1 and 2 weren't quite so captivated.  There wasn't much in it for them - no Wii allowed as TV commandeered for Wedding viewing; no sign of any aliens, Ninja turtles, Pokemon, Puffles or Dr Who type monsters, though I did hope the assortment of weird hats might prove an adequate substitute.

And I kept saying the Wrong Thing as a mother, like "OOh, look there's Elton and his husband!"
Boy 1 "What, is he married to a man?"
Mrs B, "Oh yes and they have just had a baby."
Boy 2, " How did they have a baby?"
Boy 1 sniggering, to Boy 2 ".....out of his...giggle, giggle"
Mrs B, " Err, they got a lady to have one for them and..."
Mr Blighty: " That's enough, look at the policemen with machine guns.."
Boy 1: "Are they snipers?"
Mr Blighty: "No, you can't see the snipers but they will be there, on every roof top."
Mrs Blighty: "They will take out any kid who starts wailing in a quiet bit...we had them at our wedding.."
Boys 1 and 2 "Really Mummy?"
Mrs Blighty: " No, only joking. The snipers were there to stop Daddy escaping."

And like:
Mrs Blighty: "Good to see old Tara's snozzle is holding up ok."
Boy 2: "Why? What's wrong with her nose? What did she do to it?"
Mrs Blighty: "She did too much....
Mr Blighty: "Look at the policemen with the machine guns!"

To keep the boys amused we also played a game called Spot the Coachman.  At pre-Boy 1 ante-natal classes I met a girl whose husband was a Royal coachman.They lived in the Royal Mews next to Buckingham Palace.  Baby Boy 1  used to go on "playdates"* there with their new baby. (* mothers drink tea and chat while babies lie dribbling and blowing bubbles).  After that we lost touch, what with Boy 1 being a boy with the boy toddler interests of bashing things, smashing stuff and knocking anything else over, and their baby being a girl who therefore quietly and with the minimum of fuss taught herself to read Proust (in French) and  took up needlepoint, harp, watercolours, quantum mechanics, Ancient Greek and chess..

We concentrated hard on Spot the Coachman, he would have been one of those riding on one of the carriage horses...we never saw him, and I must say, the BBC's coverage of the coaches and horses was really rather poor, the camera kept switching back to that girl in the white lace..

We had house guests, Lovely B's daughter and her husband who are a very cool couple and Boys 1 and 2 adore them and totally want to ditch their boring parents and go live with them instead. So after we had watched the Wedding we dragged Boys 1 and 2 out to a street party in the old part of town. 

It was all very jolly.



This is NOT Grandma Whacker

English people going wild and letting their hair down

At last, a bus





My sentiments exactly

After a bit of mooching about, a chat with some school friends and a refreshing beverage, we returned home and started the important business of discussing the Wedding in detail.. Boys 1 and 2 slunk off, relieved to be released from Wedding duty.

15 comments:

  1. What a fun, fun day. Your boys will remember that day for always.

    I thought the sniper comment was particularly hilarious as was the bit about Elton and his husband.

    We slept through the whole thing....only caught the highlights. But I did watch Diana and Charles back in the day and I remember it well even though I was only a toddler (just kidding, I was 14).

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  2. Adrienne, I was 17 or 18 I think when Diana got married - yikes!

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  3. Blighty - that was hilarious! There were no men within a 10 mile radius of us on Friday (the island is only 7 miles long, so that might just be my usual hyperbole!)

    Mr Blighty sounds so much like Tartarus, it's scary! That's exactly the sort of 'oooh look at the trees' comment he might make rather than suddenly have to discuss the pros and cons of homosexual marriage and same sex parenthood when you just want a quiet drink.

    I love all your photos. I didn't think that sort of England existed any more. How really lovely.

    Ali xxx

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  4. The goings on in the Blighty household during wedding fever sound most interesting. It's easy to get one's self all tied up in knots answering childrens questions.
    Just love the atmosphere of the old town party, I bet you have a few characters around the traps?
    Tara's outfit was terribly blue and I read her hat described as resembling a v....a that pointed right at her shnoz. Now that would have been an interesting conversation with your boyz.
    xx

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  5. I flew into London the night Diana was killed. I remember wandering round by the palace watching the scene unfold as thousands of people started to converge. By mid day, you could hardly walk along a street, as they were covered in flowers. I think this wedding was a release for many after the tragic death.
    Lovely post as usual.

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  6. I was a young mom when Diana and Charles wed..I was mid 20's.

    Your street party looks like quite the festive event...all the banners balloons and streamers...did the recyclers get through?

    Your depiction of Mr Blighty's machine gun comments and the boys curiosity into Elton's new baby's is brilliant and too funny....the wedding is not a guy thing for sure.

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  7. You are hilarious, so so funny! To be a fly on the wall in Blighty HQ... Glad you enjoyed the festivities. Your street party looked grand! XX

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  8. Dear All, thank you for your interesting and funny comments. I did almost forget to put the bins out which serves me right considering my silly jokes about it! Mr B had to do a late night scurry outside for me. Things are getting awkward round here re boy questions..must blog on it!!

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  9. You can tell that that photo of the people in the street having a party is not in Australia. Why? because there are males and females all standing around in the same group. Over here the males huddle round the demi god known as the BBQ.

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  10. There really were secret service men at my parent's wedding, but unfortunately not for such glamorous or exciting reasons!
    Glad the Boys enjoyed the big day too!

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  11. Love Mr Blighty's "machine guns" default way of changing the subject too. My boys would worry about me if I used that one though - mum with a sudden interest in artillery???

    Your pic of the old lady looks like some of my pics - still getting used to new camera and have taken many waist-height snaps accidentally when trying to switch it off. Though obviously your photo was craftily and unobtrusively snapped, so am looking forward to more photos from Mrs Blighty in your new role as head of MI6!

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  12. As a Yankee, this was hilarious! Very fun, thanks. I have 2 boys (who are now young men) and they would have had similar responses to your two. :-)
    Karen

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  13. Great post! Can well imagine weddings not being Up boys' Street .... re. Elton at Abbey, someone Tweeted 'its fair to say he's not yet lost the baby weight' (Zara, perhaps) - I laughed all day!

    Old Town kneesup looks great fun. I was 17 last time, too. Next time we'll be in Gt. Missenden Home for the Demented - hope I get the Zimmer frame next to yours. xxx

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  14. Linda in Chile5 May 2011 at 11:14

    Dear Mrs B, I think that we suffer from an unacceptable lack of Hello magazine and insufficient trips to the dentist to catch up on English celebrity/royal gossip. I had to scurry about to understand who was whom done what. While rebellious subjects of the Crown, we nonetheless dutifully watched the wedding and thought it was lovely. I cried. However, I imagine the Duchess of Wessex was thinking "I told you so" regarding the hats. So many hat looks were quite extraordinary using the Australian meaning of ordinary. I do sympathise regarding the need to deflect questions from one's offspring. I now direct all such questions to their father and then disappear with a total lack of parental solidarity. Very clever to have arranged snipers to ensure Mr B's compliance at the wedding - I wonder whether the same professionals are available to enforce compliance while shopping with wives? lindaxxx

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  15. Hey Blights,
    Love to know more about what Boys 1 and 2 are thinking and asking you about, after the questions about Elton's family arrangements.
    Have there been questions regarding the origins of Boys 1 and 2 yet? Or am I so old I'm out of the loop and they know all this stuff by the time they get to school?

    I must say boy 2's printing is beautiful. And his magazine is so informative, I did not know that Kate is older than Wills. Please compliment him from me.
    Love
    Lou
    xxx

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