Scenes From a Wedding Day

Well, it's all over. The wedding was held, they marched through the city, they kissed, now they party. Hopefully. They probably can't go too crazy or get too drunk, which is unfortunate. I tried to make my way to the palace part way through the ceremony. Since the good stuff happened in the first 5 minutes of the ceremony it then got a tad bit boring for my taste, so I decided to make my way over to try and see some good stuff.

I stopped in Starbucks first (I know, but it's the only coffee place between my apartment and the palace, so it was all I could get). The guy ahead of me in line asked about the sizes. He inquired about what they all meant, and whether "tall" was the smallest drink size. I don't know about you, but I figured that at this point in the history of civilization and Starbucks that EVERYONE who lives in a developed country (especially in a city such as London where there are probably 4 Starbucks in any 1-mile radius) would know about the quirky sizes. I guess not this guy. Go figure.

Oh, there were also 2 women in Starbucks, sort of trashy looking if you ask me (trashy looking women in London? Who would have thunk it.) They asked for directions to Buckingham Palace, and said they had been in Hyde Park but got lost. So basically they were with the crowds of people watching the screens broadcasting the wedding, then managed to walk the OPPOSITE way from the palace, away from the masses of crowds walking TOWARDS the palace, and found themselves in Belgravia. Idiots.

So I walked over to Hyde Park Corner and at that point my adventure ended. They had the entrance to Green Park closed and no one could get anywhere close to Buckingham Palace. So we all, myself included, just sort of stood around for a while, looking at nothing. Well, we were looking in the general direction of the palace, but there was no way in hell anyone would able to see anything even remotely royal from there.

See? This is how far I got. This is looking down Constitution Hill towards the palace, way way way off in the distance.

People all bunched up, not going anywhere, not looking at anything, not getting close to the palace or the procession.

More people.

And more people. There were a ton of people around, just wandering.

So I ended up leaving and going to King's Road to do a few things. They were having a viewing party in Duke of York Square. 

They had a screen set up, and I heard them announcing a 2 o'clock fashion show (I didn't stay to see that). They also had little kids screaming messages to William and Kate and one said "happy Easter." Um, yeah, I think that kid has missed the point of today.

Duke of York bunting. I should have invested in a bunting company 7 months ago, I would be rich now. OK, maybe not.

Baby buggy bunting. See? Bunting everywhere. I would be rich.

OH MY GOD! There they are! I managed to catch them in the carriage making their way to Buckingham Palace. Oh, no, those are just random people taking a carriage ride down King's Road. Because why wouldn't you do that?

So those are my scenes from a wedding day. Pretty uneventful for me. I didn't get close, I didn't see anything, I watched it all on TV. And now I am off to Berlin! Auf wiedersehen!

It's the Day Before the Big Day! Otherwise Known as Thursday.

Today is not a big day in and of itself, but tomorrow is the big day, so the day before should be a little bit of a big day. Right?

Today, all Riley wanted to do was to walk by Buckingham Palace to see the wedding activity. I could see it in her sad, pleading puppy dog eyes, in the way she sat so mournfully on the bed, refusing to eat and in the way she kept barking urgently, telling me she wanted to go somewhere. Oh wait, she does those things everyday. I guess I was the one who wanted to see the hoopla so I dragged her along with me. We walked over to the palace, which takes about 30 minutes from our apartment (good to know so I can time my exit tomorrow accordingly), and watched the news people and the tourists and the people gawking and the people taking pictures, and basically all those people doing exactly what I was doing. Riley couldn't have been less interested in the wedding set up. She was more focused on the ground, as apparently royal wedding lookiloos drop a lot of food on the ground. After walking Riley near the palace I have come to the conclusion that she does not have it in her to be a royal dog. I am sure that the Queen's corgis sit, come and stay on command. I also do not think the Queen puts up with leash tugging or darting into the path of bicyclists, both of which Riley excels at. Riley also has a tendency to try and eat trash she finds on the ground. Most definitely NOT a trait of royalty (at least I don't think so, but I don't know any royals so maybe...)

Here are the pictures I took. They aren't very good as I took them quickly. I didn't want to be one of THOSE people, you know the weirdos who take pictures of people taking pictures, or of people with TV cameras, or of people who look like they may have some official reason to be there. So I tried to be inconspicuous, which means my art suffered. Although I was trying to tell myself that it was all in the name of service to you, my readers, to fully educate you on the royal wedding fever currently gripping London. You are welcome.

Here are the security barriers they put up in the area. I'm not sure about these. I think if I were getting married I would have requested more elegant looking barriers. Maybe pink ones, with streamers and flowers. But perhaps that's not their style.

OMG! It's the Today Show booth. They chose not to be in the Wimbledon-style media barracks and are on their own, off to the side. Sort of prissy if you ask me. I happened to walk by right when Matt and Meredith (the anchors) were leaving the booth. The heads shown in the picture belong to a group of women who were screaming "we love you Meredith. We're American!" Dorks.

Riley completely uninterested. And my shoe.

The aforementioned media barracks. When I got home I put BBC on and realized that they were broadcasting from one of the bunkers. If I had known I would have stood behind them waving like a lunatic. Riley's cute, she could have gotten on camera. Bummer. (I just realized the woman in the lower right corner sort of has Camilla's hair. Why, I don't know. But it's a Camilla look-alike! From afar at least.)

Riley not cooperating while I was trying to take a picture of her with the palace behind her. 

Riley even more uninterested. 

People selling flags along the route. NO, I did not buy one. Maybe tomorrow.

Riley playing hide-and-seek with a dog also out for a royal wedding walk. This was the most excited she got the whole walk.

I started writing this post after I got home from the walk, and since then I have things to add. So - update! First of all, William was out and about mingling with the crowd and I missed him! If only I had known I could have stood around for 4 hours waiting for him. Second, I am amazed how many people are camping out tonight. Are they crazy? It could rain tonight. And add to that they're camping out in the hopes they see the processional go by, which will last all of about 5 minutes. So - a night in the rain, in the cold, with porta-potties and no showers, with other people from crazy town? Yeah, not fun. But maybe that's the American in me.

Ok, that's all for now. Stay tuned for the update from WEDDING DAY! T-minus...12.5 hours. I hope I can sleep!

Oh, last thing, I swear. We're off to Berlin tomorrow night (after the wedding, don't worry) and Riley's dog walker just picked her up for the weekend. Poor doggie is going to miss out on the wedding. Her walker said they're going to the woods, far, far away from the hoopla. I hope Riley isn't too upset she won't be able to watch the proceedings. She does fancy William.

Awww...

My new favorite picture of my doggie. If you catch her when she's in a good mood she can be very photogenic.

Flowers? Flags? Signage? Easter Miracle? Check

Yesterday I made Dave walk around Green Park and Buckingham Palace so I could see the setup for the little wedding that's taking place soon. One huge part of Green Park is cordoned off for all of the press that will be covering the wedding. There are tons of tents up, a few satellite dishes, and a really large green structure that we assume will be where the cameras and perhaps news people are stationed. The structure is sort of tacky, which is too bad since a royal wedding should be nothing but classy in my opinion. They also have signs up, all along the fence separating the media area from the park. I love that they felt the need to alert people to the fact a wedding is taking place. Do you honestly think anyone in London (or for that matter many parts of the world) doesn't know about it yet? If so, I would really, really like to meet that person.

 Not only that, they have another sign telling people how to enjoy the wedding. How thoughtful.

They have a ton of flowers planted, all very pretty, but they are tulips and in bloom. I have a sneaking suspicion that in two weeks time, when the wedding takes place, the tulips will be dead. Sort of curious. Did they intend to have dead tulips for the wedding? Maybe they're going for a goth look? Or perhaps there's a plan B involving fake flowers, you know, to ensure a lasting bloom.

See the pretty flowers? Soon to be dead. And the huge green bandstand-like thing? Dave said it looks like Wimbledon. I think it's sort of cute they're combining two iconic British events in one.

More pretty flowers. And flags. Lots of flags.

Here's The Mall being setup. They were also in the process of getting ready for the marathon. So handy to have all these events together. That Will and Kate, they had their thinking caps on! Oops, I mean Catherine.

Here's the Palace. I was actually trying to get a picture of the orange cone, but the Palace somehow got in the way.

After walking around the Palace we walked through St. James' park to get to the Tube. I love St. James' park, and lately it has had really pretty flowers growing. Tulips also, so probably dead by the wedding but that's neither here nor there.

And more...

We also walked by the pond...

And it was there that we saw the Easter miracle!

Behold! A duck/goose/waterfowl thing WALKING ON WATER! Can you believe it? Notice the other waterfowl swimming by in the distance, in awe of their brethren. There were quite a few people gathered around watching this amazing event. It was spectacular!

And then we went home. We'd had enough for the day.

Riley Went to the London Marathon - She Deserves a Medal for Her Effort

Today was the London marathon. Riley walked over and enjoyed watching the spectators and runners. Actually, she got kind of annoyed that she was just sitting around and not walking. Riley doesn't wait for anybody. If Riley wants to walk, she walks. It was a really nice day today, both sunny AND warm, a very rare occurrence in London. The finish line was just past Buckingham Palace, on The Mall, and the area in front of the Palace was full of people cheering on the runners.

Can you see me running? No? I decided last week I wanted to run the marathon so I did. My time was pretty good, but I don't want to brag or anything. You really don't see me running? Guess you'll just have to take my word for it.

Riley at the race. She was so tired after her walk to and from the marathon you would have thought SHE ran 26 miles. Lazy.

Here's a picture of the men's winner. He's hard to see. He's to the right of the man on the course wearing red, behind the hand holding a camera, and he's wearing green. The winner, from Kenya, had a course record of 2:04:40, which was also the 5th fastest marathon time ever. I was pretty close behind him.

Later in the day we walked around the 'hood and walked through the garden next to St. Luke's church. (Don't worry, Riley stayed at home resting her poor tired paws.) The flowers in the park are gorgeous, and I let Dave try out his photography skills. I won't include the unflattering photo he took of me from behind. Nice one Dave!

We're off again this week and I hear the weather in London is supposed to be nice and hot. Isn't it just our luck we're going to be gone during another warm spell. Probably the last one too!

Guilty!

I'll probably have multiple posts about this, as my dog sure likes to get into stuff. She has also perfected the "what, me?" look. She may appear innocent, but she's all drama and danger.

This Whole Horse on Our Street Thing Is Getting Out of Hand

About thirty minutes ago I heard the familiar clip-clop of horses and knew some were in the vicinity. Being nosy, I ran to get my camera (which makes me nosy and weird), so I could document just how many horses ride on our street (since I know no one believes me. Or cares for that matter...). Lo and behold, we had the granddaddy of horse carriages on our street, the Harrods buggy. I don't think there is a fancier buggy, unless the Queen herself were to ride by. But I am not holding my breath for that to happen. And knowing my luck if she did decide to ride down our little street I wouldn't be here or I would be shoving food in my mouth and therefore unable to take a picture. Food always takes precedence.

I think my Mom might have asked about a Harrods horse carriage and I told her it existed and I had seen it out and about. Well, FINALLY I have proof that it does in fact ride around London and it even goes down our street. Et voila!

By the way, is it sad that this was the most exciting thing that happened to me today? Buying laundry detergent is pretty darn stimulating and all, but not quite as thrilling as horses in the 'hood.

My Favorite Tree In All of London*

I love this tree. It's a blend of two different blossoming trees, grafted together. I noticed it last year, it's on the bus routes I used to always take from our last apartment. Since we moved I hardly ever go by the tree anymore, but I remembered the blossoms and kept my eye on it, going by a couple times in the weeks before our trip to San Francisco to see if it was blooming. Wouldn't you know that while we were gone London had a spurt of warm weather and the tree blossomed, while I was away! I finally went by yesterday and sadly, the tree is almost blossomed out, so I couldn't get the full impact of the pink and white blossoms. There are quite a few green leaves poking through, so the effect is lessened slightly, but still pretty. Take a look:

And soon all of the blossoms will be gone and I will have to wait until next year to see it in pink and white. So sad.

* Obviously I can't say with certainty that this is my favorite tree in ALL of London, as I haven't seen all of them. Duh. So take that statement with a grain of salt. Thank you!

Riley's Immigration Status - Update

Yesterday Riley went to the vet so she can stay in the country. She had to get a rabies shot and some other vaccine. Is it bad I have no idea what else they shot into my dog? They said she needed it so I said ok. For all I know it was a tetanus shot. She was sooo nervous, and basically a huge embarrassment to me. I made her wait outside on the street until we were called so she wouldn't whine and jump on the waiting room furniture. While waiting outside some Westie owner leaving the vet asked if she was a Labradoodle. Um, no, she most certainly isn't. He based his assumption on her haircut, saying "oh, it's a wheaten with a REALLY short trim." Has he never seen a Wheaten with a summer cut? I mean come on dude. I'm telling you, I am getting a doggie shirt made that says "I am a Wheaten Terrier." Once in the exam room it took about 5 minutes to get her to stand still on the floor scale. I have no idea if she thought the scale would perform some weird procedure on her or bite her, but whatever it was she wasn't having it. Then when it came time to give her the 2 shots she took them like a champ. Being weighed? Riley doesn't do that. Two shots? Bring 'em sucker. When we finally got home after the oh so traumatic experience this is what I was confronted with:

Yeah, that's a talk to the back if I've ever seen one. You can probably tell she's not looking at anything. She's just sitting there, staring at the fireplace and giving me attitude.

So now that Riley has her rabies shot she can in theory travel. But really she can't because I didn't know to bring her passport with me to the vet. More importantly, I have no idea where her passport even is. Oops. So she can't leave the UK. I don't think she has any plans to, but for all I know she and her dog walker escape to the French countryside when Dave and I are out of town. Maybe she starts responding to "assie, reste, ici and laisse." Maybe Riley is multi-lingual! Or perhaps they go to Wales, where she answers to "trig, eistedd, dyfod or cyrchu." Luckily she can freely go to Wales, as it is part of the UK, so I won't have to worry about her getting to and fro in that case, or being detained for having an expired passport.

In case you were worried, Riley didn't stay angry for long. She got over her vet trauma once I gave her about 37 treats. That usually does the trick.

Do You Have Enough Gas to Get Home?

Today is Mother's Day in the UK. Or as they sometimes say, Mothering Sunday. I saw "Mothering Sunday" used much more frequently last year, but this year it is all about Mother's Day. I think Mothering Sunday is the funniest term. It makes me think we should be walking around telling complete strangers "you look skinny. Eat, eat!" or "don't you dare go outside wearing that. Put some clothes on!" Or perhaps "put a hat on or you'll catch your death." Mothering makes it sounds as though mothers should be hard at work, you know, mothering, on the day meant to celebrate them. Mother's day makes the meaning more obvious. It is the one day a year when we show appreciation to our moms because one day is obviously enough. Just kidding Mom!

This year I happen to be with my Mom in California, so lucky her, she gets TWO days this year, the UK Mother's Day AND the US version. I hope she can handle it!

Friday Funday - Riley Gets Dizzy

We're off to California, so in honor of our vacation and visit home, I am showing a video of Riley enjoying my parents' backyard. Unfortunately, Riley will be stuck in London while we gallivant around San Francisco, and eat our way through the Bay Area. I'm sure she'll be having fun with her dog walker (at least I tell myself that!) but we'll be sad to be back where she spent the first 2+ years of her doggie life without her in tow. We'll definitely be reminiscing about taking her to Crissy Field, the dog park, my parents' house where she liked to spin, and walking her along the SF streets. I'm sure the good Mexican food will help us to forget about how lonely she must be without us (yeah, as if she misses us).

Without further ado, here is Riley in all her spinning glory. Notice how young she looks!

I need to get some recent spins on video. Two days ago she spun 3 times in one direction, reversed, and did 6 spins in the other direction. Being out in the rain will do that to her. Prissy dog.