We Had A Late Start To Our Sunday Lunch Today,

as this was a day of days,

 the Queen of Great Britain's 60th year on the throne, so Booie and Mr. Tony joined us to watch the river boat pageant,

 at the Punch & Judy,

 'ah!'

 cocktails to start the evening,

 Booie chose cheese on toast to nibble on as she was famished,

 it looked huge,

 then the pageant began,

 Prince Charles, the Queen and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall,

 the Royal Barge, Gloriana,

 the press release said that there would be 1,000 vessels on the river for the pageant,

 the Queen looked on as the boats sailed past,

at a break in the pproceedings I went to the bathroom, new in the room was a small television over each urinal,

 with advertisements,

 and a few funnies,

 we all had the liver pate for starters, then some Thai food for Diana and Booie, shepard's pie for Mr. Tony,

 beer and steak pie for myself, during the day Steve and Kai in the UK had been sending us a few SMS's on their trip to the River Thames to watch the pageant, just as the meal arrived we received one to say they had arrived,

 the Queen looks on,

 the sign says it all,

 there was also some street theatre,

 Tower Bridge, not yet raised,

 no members of the Royal family travelled in the Royal Barge, the Queen travelled on the Spirit of Chartwell, which was decorated with 10,000 flowers from the royal estates,

 Tower Bridge was open to allow the ship to pass through it,

 unfortunately it started to rain, this announcer clutching an umbrella, at least he was prepared, but the cameraman did not have a tissue to wipe the lens,

 but the rain was not a problem for Her Majesty as she waved to the boats going past,

 more of the flotilla of tugs, steamers, pleasure cruisers, dragon boats and kayaks passes beneath the bridge,

 this is one place that we did not visit when Diana and myself were in the UK, unfortunately for us the day we were near the bridge the walkway was closed, so it is on our 'to do' list for next time,

 then the boat carrying the London Philharmonic Orchestra came into view,

 with the Royal College of Music Chamber Choir,

 they played and sung faultlessly,

they performing a selection of popular works by great British and Commonwealth composers, related either to monarchy, royal events and ceremonial occasions or to familiar landmarks along the Thames, these include Chariots of Fire theme, James Bond theme, Jupiter from Holst’s The Planets, Land of Hope and Glory (Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance March No 1), ‘Nimrod’ from Enigma Variations, the day culminated in a performance of the National Anthem to Her Majesty the Queen at Tower Bridge,

 conductor David Parry at work,

 when it was built, Tower Bridge was the largest and most sophisticated bascule bridge ever completed ("bascule" comes from the French for "see-saw"), as the bascules are lowered a fireworks display started,

 almost closed the fireworks continued,

 nearly closed,

 the Queen makes her way to another viewing platform,

 as the flotilla of boats goes past,

 it was a shame it rained, but it seemed to do nothing to dampen the spirits of all of those celebrating this great day,

after the end of the pageant Mr. Tony and Booie left for home, whilst we continued to watch the BBC till early in the morning, now for some Royal trivia from Great Britain, which King or Queen reigned for the longest time? or which King or Queen reigned for the shortest time? now this is a tricky one, how many British Prime Ministers and US Presidents have there been during the Queen's reign? OK back to an easy one, how many British monarchs have been killed while they were king or queen? for the answers to these any many more questions about our Royal Family have a look here, with that we were off to bed.