With the Jubilee festivities well and truely over and the sun shining back over London; flags, umbrellas and shoes thoroughly dried out, The Duke of Edinburgh out of hospital and the Queen tucked up in Buck Pal I'll fill you in with what I got up to over the famous weekend...
If you remember, the weekend before was probably the hottest that we've had this year, blazing sunshine, ice cream & socks with sandels parading thoroughout London, all excitedly looking forward to what was going to be a momentous weekend ahead.
We packed up our desks on Friday evening, and trundled off for what was going to be a splendid 4 day break of Britishness.
First job for a rather bleak looking Saturday... rendevouz with the Northern bestie... Sophie. She came down all the way from up north... to sample to the Jubilee in true London style. Obviously it was necessary to start the weekend with a bit of a bang, so to Infernos we go (of course).
Luckily Chaz & Hazza turned out with their best pal Biebs to kick off the weekend in style.
This little excursion probably made our disappointment a little bit worse when we woke on Sunday morning, heads hurting, to see the pouring down rain. To be fair we wanted a British weekend, and what weather would be more appropriate?
So layered up, we, and the rest of the country headed towards Embankment to brave the weather and the crowds to get that sort after glimpse of Queenie.
We had originally planned to meet up with another one of the uni crowd, Kate, at Embankment station... obviously the most sensible plan (not). As a bit of advanced warning for the Olympics... NEVER agree to meet at a tube station... especially if Westminster Town Council are going to decide to turn the whole of London into some weird pedestrian one way system. Granted it all seemed very 'safe' but my god was it annoying. We never found Kate, so the poor girl had to wait and then watch the boats all on her lonesome. We wont be doing that again!
Soph and I couldnt get down to near the river, so we took a new vantage point... Waterloo bridge. Luckily we'd had this idea just in time to get to the front of the crowds (why no one had already gone there I will never know), but it allowed us to secure an optimum viewing spot whilst battling it out with some crazy French woman determined to maintain a foot of space all around her... I know we're British but we don't do personal space or queuing when the Queens about!
Anyway, spot sorted and the wait begins... for an hour and a half... in the cold... luckily we had our flag to keep us warm
After watching the clock for blimmin ages, (I reckon they positioned Big Ben there just to rub it in your face when you're stuck waiting on Waterloo bridge, the time moves S L O W) the boats finally started to rock up, at which point the people in the posh seats decided to stand up... helpful.
Obviously the rest of the crowd were not going to stand for that, they'd come from all over to see this, so promptly started jeering for the 'people in the posh seats to let the poor people see'. Initially I thought we may have another riot on our hands, but no no, the Jubilee draws a much nicer crowd & it just turned out to be a little bit funny.
Despite our best attempts only a couple of people sat down, so these are my best efforts at catching a glipse of the boats...
And then off we trundled to take on the masses awaiting public transport... Well us lot do love a good queue in the pissing rain
Luckily, being residents, we were going the opposite way to most people, so time to sack off the street parties that were being cancelled left right and centre and head to Kates for a decent cuppa and to decide on the festivities for the evening... yup you guessed it, Infernos.
Luckily the rest of Clapham had the same idea, so we dreamt of warmer pastures at an ironic 'Hawaiian night'
Watch Sophie go...
Monday was finally street party day! We headed to Shoreditch to join the cool kids at the Water Poet pub for a Royal Variety Show and a couple of ciders. Finally I got my photo that I had been after all weekend...
If you remember, the weekend before was probably the hottest that we've had this year, blazing sunshine, ice cream & socks with sandels parading thoroughout London, all excitedly looking forward to what was going to be a momentous weekend ahead.
We packed up our desks on Friday evening, and trundled off for what was going to be a splendid 4 day break of Britishness.
First job for a rather bleak looking Saturday... rendevouz with the Northern bestie... Sophie. She came down all the way from up north... to sample to the Jubilee in true London style. Obviously it was necessary to start the weekend with a bit of a bang, so to Infernos we go (of course).
Luckily Chaz & Hazza turned out with their best pal Biebs to kick off the weekend in style.
This little excursion probably made our disappointment a little bit worse when we woke on Sunday morning, heads hurting, to see the pouring down rain. To be fair we wanted a British weekend, and what weather would be more appropriate?
So layered up, we, and the rest of the country headed towards Embankment to brave the weather and the crowds to get that sort after glimpse of Queenie.
We had originally planned to meet up with another one of the uni crowd, Kate, at Embankment station... obviously the most sensible plan (not). As a bit of advanced warning for the Olympics... NEVER agree to meet at a tube station... especially if Westminster Town Council are going to decide to turn the whole of London into some weird pedestrian one way system. Granted it all seemed very 'safe' but my god was it annoying. We never found Kate, so the poor girl had to wait and then watch the boats all on her lonesome. We wont be doing that again!
Soph and I couldnt get down to near the river, so we took a new vantage point... Waterloo bridge. Luckily we'd had this idea just in time to get to the front of the crowds (why no one had already gone there I will never know), but it allowed us to secure an optimum viewing spot whilst battling it out with some crazy French woman determined to maintain a foot of space all around her... I know we're British but we don't do personal space or queuing when the Queens about!
Anyway, spot sorted and the wait begins... for an hour and a half... in the cold... luckily we had our flag to keep us warm
After watching the clock for blimmin ages, (I reckon they positioned Big Ben there just to rub it in your face when you're stuck waiting on Waterloo bridge, the time moves S L O W) the boats finally started to rock up, at which point the people in the posh seats decided to stand up... helpful.
Obviously the rest of the crowd were not going to stand for that, they'd come from all over to see this, so promptly started jeering for the 'people in the posh seats to let the poor people see'. Initially I thought we may have another riot on our hands, but no no, the Jubilee draws a much nicer crowd & it just turned out to be a little bit funny.
Despite our best attempts only a couple of people sat down, so these are my best efforts at catching a glipse of the boats...
And then off we trundled to take on the masses awaiting public transport... Well us lot do love a good queue in the pissing rain
Luckily, being residents, we were going the opposite way to most people, so time to sack off the street parties that were being cancelled left right and centre and head to Kates for a decent cuppa and to decide on the festivities for the evening... yup you guessed it, Infernos.
Luckily the rest of Clapham had the same idea, so we dreamt of warmer pastures at an ironic 'Hawaiian night'
Watch Sophie go...
Monday was finally street party day! We headed to Shoreditch to join the cool kids at the Water Poet pub for a Royal Variety Show and a couple of ciders. Finally I got my photo that I had been after all weekend...
Bunting *check*
Union Jacks *check*
Red Double Decker Bus *check*
Balloons *check*
And of course the fun didn't stop there, we were off to St James park to watch the concert, why would you not want to go half way across London to watch Chezza strangle the cat? Tbf most of it was pretty good, but Chezza, as much as I love you, never sing with Gazza, he's only going to show you up (you still looked bufftang though).
We made it in, got our spot and Hans tum started a rumbling. The lovely girlie that she is sent her on a mission out in search of food... and then the stupid police men wouldn't let her in. Another lesson learned, NEVER separate on a Jubilee weekend. We lost her, and she missed the concert :( Luckily we were reunited in time to head shoreditch bound again, but gutted that we were a man down, espesh when she's rocking such a wonderful head dress.
So that was our Jubilee weekend... and it was definitely a good one, despite the rain, we're British so soildered on and did Queenie proud. Thank God we only had a 3 day week to get through after all that!
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