Friday 11 April 2014

..In Which We See the Queen, Nearly Freeze and Mini Turns Seven

It's been a busy old week in the Lazy Girl House.

Of course, the Easter Break started last Friday (hence the quiet on the page here) and it brings two weeks of trying to work out what on earth to do with two fussy Brats when the weather is crap, you are looking for a new house to move to and are skint (or not skint, more saving furiously to pay for aforementioned move).

On Monday, I spotted a thread on a local Gossip group regards Queen Elizabeth and a State Visit. Despite living in Maidenhead for 6 years now, and Windsor being about 10 minutes away, we have never been over during a State Visit or a Changing of the Guard. I've been Charity Shop scouring but that's it.

However, Mini is now an avid reader- including reading over my shoulder when I'm on the PC. This is not good in most cases. Anyone who has written me on Facebook or Twitter knows I like a good curse word like the Celt I am (partly. Cough) and I do subscribe to some quite sarcastic and adult of humor groups on Facebook too.

This time was fine though.

Mini loves the Royals even more than your friendly neighbourhood pensioner, she fell in love the second she saw Kate in her wedding dress and has not stopped since. On seeing that the Queen herself was riding through Windsor, on a day when she was off school well, that could only be seconded by the slim chance of her finding out Harry Styles was in our local Waitrose- she needed to be there.

I was told that the Queen, Charles, Camilla and Phillip (who as an aside, Elder swears blind once gave him a lift to get petrol when he ran out in Windsor Great park one early morning many moons ago) would go past at 11am, so we should definitely get there before 10am to avoid being lost in the crush.

We were all going to go, but as he seems to be doing more of recently, Littlest decided he didn't want to get dressed, get his teeth washed, or do a thing he was told, so Mini and I left at 9.45 to get the train. Cutting it fine but I thought most of it is the atmosphere and I'd either hoist her onto my shoulders or we'd make use of her angelic face to get to the front.

We had to change at Slough, and eventually ran from Windsor station to the High Street at 10.45. I was quite surprised that one side of the road was packed, but the other, on the side of the Castle, was pretty fine for space, so we hopped across the road and took up position between a couple from Maidenhead, and a group of Americans.

By 11am, we were looking around for signs of activity, but there were none. It was also getting pretty overcast too, and we had dresses on- it was boiling in Maidenhead but flipping freezing in Windsor.

At 11.15, I was getting more concerned, Mini was getting bored, and she was shivering. The Maidenhead lady remarked that this was an error she made the first time she had come over to watch the Queen (from the comfort of her stool and her blanket), as its like a wind tunnel. She also said the Queen wasn't late but was passing through at 12.30.

At this point, with Mini getting colder and colder, and thus bored, I thought, as we had over an hour, we'd run across to H&M and grab a pair of jeans and a jumper for her.

Except the Police had closed the barrier. We were trapped.

At about 11.30, we were treated to a marching band, which cheered Mini up a little, but she was o cold bless her.



By the time the Queen went past (twice- once in her car, then in her carriage), Mini was lying on a bench, cold, miserable, tired and having borrowed a blanket from a kind OAP.



Luckily, a lovely Police officer walked past and saw her, asking how long we'd waited, and on hearing what had happened, he opened the barrier for us, giving us an escort into McDonalds for hot chocolate. He told Mini if anyone moaned, as she as pretty, he'd tell them she was a relative of Kate, which cheered her up no end.

With a hot chocolate inside, she was much happier, so we had a wander round the shops, then off home.

Yesterday was her seventh Birthday, which she has been excited about. We have things planned for the weekend so it was spent with us at home, (we're off to London on Sunday), but she did very well.

She was lucky enough to receive a scooter (she outgrew her last one at the end of the summer, and this time we had to buy one for age 9-12 as she's so tall), a RoboPuppy (annoying thing but teaches her maths on the sly) and a Badge It set (instant utter love as she adores crafty things). We went into town and had a coffee shop lemonade, and, after asking what she'd like as a little present, she bought herself a magazine with nil polish in it, and bought a lovely small bunch of flowers.

We had a home made cake (which she helped Ice) and a birthday tea of her fave foods.



A lovely quiet day but she was very happy and snuggled on the sofa in the evening.

I shall report back on our jaunt to London (her first outside of a buggy) and our thoughts on the Museum of Childhood on Monday.

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