If the holiday weekend had been the last weekend in May as usual, the weather would have been quite startlingly unusually lovely. (Bank Holiday weekends are typically cool and wet) The first weekend in June was characterised by rain, wind, rain, more wind, remarkably low temperatures and the nation putting its central heating back on! We also attempted to freeze the Queen and kill off the Duke of Edinburgh, although fortunately we failed in these latter endeavours. Imagine how embarrassing it would have been to have dedded one of them with the inclement weather when we were supposed to be celebrating their longevity!!
But really, the weather could have been foreseen. Bank Holiday weekends are almost always cool and damp. This was a special weekend so it was going to be cooler and damper by some sort of cosmic law. Plus, it kick started the schools' spring half term holiday. This was a triple whammy which meant that someone should have put thermal undies on the Queen and wrapped the duke in a snuggly blanket before they were allowed to leave the palace! Flasks of hot chocolate might have helped too.
In the meantime, however, The Builder and I had quite a good weekend. We went and froze at Bishops' House on Saturday morning where, unsurprisingly, very few visitors came to see us. We watched the boat pageant on the Thames on Sunday from the snuggly warmth of our lounge room (I had put the heating back on. I am not the Queen and couldn't see that I was obliged to freeze while watching the boats). Fortunately the torrential rain didn't reach us inside.
On Monday we left nice and early and trundled down to London. On the grounds that the Queen was likely to be quite busy and might not be entirely delighted if unexpected visitors rocked up for morning tea, we made our way to Freyja's place instead. After a trail of red tape that would bewilder Whitehall, she has finally and circuitously managed to secure a room in a house a ten minute walk across Albert Dock from her halls of residence. She has been carrying her stuff across but we thought we could make it a bit easier by going down and taking the bulkier stuff across in the car. Plus, of course, this gave us an opportunity to have a sticky at her new house and meet some of her housemates. Like the lad making pasta from first principles. And the other boy watching The Big Bang Theory on the telly And the black cat that looks remarkably like Marlo. So we had a nice picnic lunch in her garden, went for a walk along the Thames (no boat pageant on Monday - also no rain!), drove some of her possessions across to the new place, declined the invitation to do any cleaning and came home again, back in good time to sleep in our chairs through the bulk of the Jubilee concert at the Palace.
Tuesday was a weird kind of a day. We had a proper, cooked breakfast. The Queen went to Church at St Paul's Cathedral. Our local churches were ringing their bells. They were singing hymns on Radio 4 at one point. We trundled up to the allotment and did some planting in the greenhouses. We came home and had a mid-afternoon cooked meal. On the whole, we were doing Sunday things, and so was everyone else. It was therefore something of a shock to wake up this morning and to find that it wasn't Monday but Wednesday!
It is also possible that I should have gone to bed before midnight last night. I have been extremely sleepy this afternoon!
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| Click on the photo for the album of Freyja's new place |
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