I am sorry to say that we have not watched a very great deal of the national celebrations, much as would have liked to, because of having been at work.
One of the problems of working in a tourist area at times like this is that all of the visitors are there because they have no particular interest in joining the party. If they were street-partily minded they would have stayed in their street and had one, unless their local council thought it might be too dangerous.
We have watched things whenever the chance has arisen, and were excited to learn that one of the aeroplanes flown in the formation of the number 70 was being piloted by a fellow Gordonstoun parent, we do get around, you know, there was even one of us on the balcony of Buckingham Palace.
She had had tea with Paddington Bear first. I thought this was an absolutely and utterly splendid way to celebrate a Jubilee, and in fact it turned out much like having any event which has got Rosie and Roger Poopy in it.
I have watched it several times.
I think my favourite bit is the Queen tapping her teaspoon on the side of her cup to the opening bars of We Will Rock You. Somehow I had never imagined her as a fan.
I am a fan. I think Brian May is possibly one of the most astonishing people in the whole world, with his home-made guitar and degrees in astrophysics and international rock stardom. He is somebody who can jolly well tell you everything about filling the unforgiving minute.
We watched a bit of them playing on YouTube. They were wonderful, but in the end we turned it off because the chap pretending to be Freddie Mercury just couldn’t do it. He did a jolly good job but lacked a certain reckless extravagance, and it made me feel just a little bit sad.
It looked to be an utterly magnificent evening, with the crowds dancing all the way down the Mall, and we would have liked to be there, except our experiences of these events tend to be that there are troubling difficulties with bathrooms, and nowhere to put your sleeping bag, and in any case we had got to go to work.
It was a busy night, and I am pleased to announce that somehow we managed to meet our Necessary Cash Target. I had not expected to, but I am very happy to announce that we can now pay the water bill, the electricity bill, and the diesel to get us to Scotland. We have got enough money to be liberally sloshed into the mortgage, the school fees, and the phone bill.
There can be no happier feeling in the world.
We set off for school at just after five in the morning, although we didn’t get far beyond Carlisle before we started to doze, and had to find a quiet lane to park for the night. The sun was rising as we set off, and it is now almost eleven at night, and we have just watched it sinking into the sea beyond Gordonstoun.
We are going to go to the top of the mountain pass and sleep there for the night, and so I am going to cut this short. If I leave it any longer I will not have enough access to the cyber-universe to send this out to you.
I will tell you more tomorrow. We have walked on the beach and splashed in the sea, and retrieved Rosie from smelly rock pools, and we need to sleep.
It has been an absolutely splendid Jubilee. I hope she lasts another ten years and we can have another one.
Hurrah for the Queen.
