1) Daily mutterings about the inconveniences caused when someone wedges themselves into a Tube door and there is a delay of an extra 1 minute.
2) Bad coffee - chain store, vending machine and even served by a trained barista.
3) The glow of national pride when there is a royal wedding.
And over the last two weeks, we have been swept up in the latter.
Royal Wedding Madness
Two nights ago we were caught up in royal wedding madness, heading out on a semi-cold London night to trace the wedding carriage route from Westminster Abbey to Buckingham Palace.
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| Outside the Abbey |
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| Buckingham Palace |
As both of us had yet to find gainful employment, there was no need for us to take advantage of the double bank holidays and escape to another country like most of our expat friends. Instead we decided to hold fort in Central London and see what all the wedding fuss was about.
Part of the reason behind our night-time expedition was to scout out a viewing location for the big day - the options included parking ourselves at Hyde Park on a picnic blanket or finding a pub to hang out with some locals and watch it all on big screen. And although we are not fanatical enough to be stalking members of the royal family, we were thoroughly excited when our double decker bus passed by the hotel that Kate Middleton was staying at. There were police barricades and about 50 photographers snapping away at two people walking up the steps to the front door - perhaps our first-hand glimpse of one half of the royal couple.
Getting into the Spirit
Getting into the Royal Wedding spirit included buying some memorabilia. We bought a small flag printed with the famous engagement photo; a hat with union jack colours and an official souvenir booklet (to be eventually given to Mei's sister-in-law).
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| Merchandise for sale |
It was easy to jump onto the Britannia bandwagon when most of the city seemed to be caught up as well - from people camping along the Mall to secure good viewing spots, to the flags hanging on Regent Street. London was bringing out its party side and showing itself off for the estimated global TV audience of 2 billion people.
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| Flags of our city (Courtesy of bbc.co.uk) |
The prime-time television schedule was also dominated with royal documentaries. There were features on Kate Middleton's home, her family and even interviews with the family butcher and a psychologist who probed the question regarding Prince William's view of marriage and whether it would be tainted based on what his mother went through. Was it possible to actually get sick from royal wedding fever?
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| The media box outside Buckingham Palace |
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| Cat Deeley (So You Think You Can Dance TV host) |
A Late Night Party
When we arrived at The Mall, we realised that we were not alone and there was an unwritten London tradition of celebrating royal weddings - 11pm and everyone was hanging around Buckingham Palace. People were rugged up in tents, talking to the world's media and just enjoying the night out. All the prime real estate along the route had been claimed many nights before with the flags of South Africa, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the USA dominating alongside the Union Jack.
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| A fellow Aussie in the crowd |
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| Outside the Abbey - the night before the Wedding |
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| Westminster Abbey roundabout |
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| Seeing the locals dress up for the occasion |
The Mayor of London had put on two big public parties - Hyde Park and Trafalgar Square with big screens and more importantly - portable toilets. The previous night we had trekked to both sites and it soon became apparent that Hyde Park would win out, due to its size, and Trafalgar Square was already densely populated with squatters.
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| Hyde Park - finding the best viewing spot |
The morning of the big day, at 6:30am we caught the bus to Marble Arch and with bags full of snacks and garbage bags (to line the ground in case of rain) - our monarchist-supporting personalities came out and we waved the flag, put on our party hats and felt genuinely excited about the whole event. We arrived at Hyde Park right on 7am where we noticed that close to 500 people were already there. Key areas of grassy real-estate near the three big screens had already been taken so we had to settle for a bit further out. We laid down our blankets and met up with another expat friend, Wai.
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| Mei with Wai |
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| Royal wedding group get together |
Breakfast was catered by the McDonalds on the other side of the road. Supplies were restocked at 8am when the closest supermarket allowed the purchase of alcohol. We were joined by Mei's uncle Collin and soon our collective arsenal of beverages included 2 bottles of wine, 4 bottles of Bulmers cider, 6 cans of beer, 2 cans of Pims with lemonade. Drinking commenced just before 9am as we watched the royal guests arrive at Westminster's Abbey via the BBC telecast.
The rest of the day was spent following the ceremony, with a big cheer for the Queen when the screens showed her leaving Buckingham Palace. There was a resoundingly big sigh from the female members of the crowd in admiration of 'the dress' when it was revealed. With the official program on sale at Hyde Park, the ceremony and hymns were quite easy to follow. The crowd gave a rousing performance of "Jerusalem" and "God Saved the Queen".
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| The dress |
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| The ceremony |
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| The kiss |
The After Party
After the ceremony was over, Hyde Park turned into one big music festival with a live band playing to entertain the ~ 120,000 people. The next broadcast event was the balcony kiss, which was eagerly anticipated by the crowd. As the park is located relatively close to Buckingham Palace, the jet planes doing the fly over came over Hyde Park in spectacular fashion. |
| The flyover - Battle of Britain planes |
As the afternoon progressed, the park got messier as the alcohol kicked in. But one thing we did notice, was that most people picked up their rubbish and organised it neatly into little piles for the public cleaners to pick up the next day - another thing that you do once you become a London local.
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| A human pyramid gets the party started |
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