I'm ready to be British now!

 

Well, I was to start with, but anyway...

I feel like I checked off another box in the list of possible things to prove my dedication to the UK yesterday.  I saw the Queen and Prince Phillip in person!  Just a few feet from me! 

Ha ha, I know I am an incredible tourist for being excited about it.  And I know that most Brits don't really care that much about the royal family.  But I have this wierd soft spot for "Her Maj", as my husband calls her, because she looks *exactly* like my grandmother.  So I was pretty pleased!

And I know that most Brits don't really care that much about the royal family.

I don't think that's true.  My DH and in-laws don't always say the nicest things about Princes Charles and Philip, but they certainly care about them.  And they are all very fond of the Queen, even if they don't admit to it.  DH saw Charles and Camilla at the Bath and West this year, and he was very excited about it.  He'd be over the moon if he met the Queen.

That's so exciting!! I don't have a royal family sighting myself yet, but my husband's paternal grandparents got a card signed by the queen (with her picture on the front...I thought that was a bit odd though!) on the occasion of their 60th wedding anniversary! They were tickled pink!!

That should be worth a few points. 

I dare say most British subjects would be excited if they got that close to the Queen. After all she is royalty of the highest order. Perhaps the most famous of all blue bloods. She has been on the throne through 11 Prime Ministers and 11 presidential terms. So she's got 'fans' spanning many generations.

Now I can't see too many Brits getting excited about Phillip. Well Nick Griffins might be one.

What, you're not going to tell us the story?!

You saw Her Maj in Tesco's? Down the pub? Shared a taxi? Behind her in line for fish and chips?

My husband went to Cambridge (Christ's) and the Queen came for the 500 year anniversary. He says he had the perfect view from his hall window!

That should be worth a few points. 

I dare say most British subjects would be excited if they got that close to the Queen. After all she is royalty of the highest order. Perhaps the most famous of all blue bloods. She has been on the throne through 11 Prime Ministers and 11 presidential terms. So she's got 'fans' spanning many generations.

Now I can't see too many Brits getting excited about Phillip. Well Nick Griffins might be one.

Count me out and most people I know and my family. When we were kids my mum and dad attended a few garden parties at Buckingham palace...back when he was a diplomat.  I think mum snuck a sandwich into her hand bag because we begged her too... now that was exciting....but I've grown up alot since then.

The day of the revolution I'll be right there in front of the palace gates  

ObSecondHandRoyalStory:

A former colleague of my father's was a teacher and was one of the teachers taking a group of pupils on a hillwalk by Lochnagar (my family are from Aberdeen). He had just bought a new pair of walking boots which were hurting badly and when they stopped for lunch he wanted to refresh his feet, so took his boots and socks off and paddled in a small burn. While he was there, he was approached by a smartly dressed man who, it turned out, was an equerry. He explained that the Queen was out walking herself and would come over for a brief chat. He felt it would be rude to decline, so he had his "meeting the Queen moment" standing barefoot in a burn with his trousers rolled up...

I don't know much about Prince Phillip, but my DH tells me he is known for saying inappropriate things. I love old men who say random and inappropriate things, it cracks me up and reminds me of my grandpa. Therefore, I think I should like to meet him!

I would be thrilled to meet the Queen, or any royalty. Growing up, and watching the Di and Prince Charles wedding as a kid really made me wish we had royalty in America. I loved the fact that there was a real Princess in England and I had a paper doll set of her with lots of different outfits (all very 80's, of course!) 

I don't know much about Prince Phillip, but my DH tells me he is known for saying inappropriate things. I love old men who say random and inappropriate things, it cracks me up and reminds me of my grandpa. Therefore, I think I should like to meet him!

PP is and can be a source of amusement to some and I dare say an embarassment to others. Definitely not the most PCest person around and perhaps even racist at times. Hence my remark about Nick Griffins would probably get excited meeting him.

He once said to a group of British students in China that if they stayed there much longer they'd get slitty-eyed.  Yes this is the queen's husband.

Yeah, I think saying Prince Philip says 'inappropriate things' is a massive understatement.  He says some pretty blatantly racist things. 

He once said to a group of British students in China that if they stayed there much longer they'd get slitty-eyed.  Yes this is the queen's husband.

Whoa! I guess that goes beyond the typical old man inappropriateness I was on about. 

Whoa! I guess that goes beyond the typical old man inappropriateness I was on about. 

I'm not defending or excusing, but I think he just doesn't think to censor some of the things he says that are generational and now quite UN-PC (my FIL is like that and my grandfather used to be the same way - its what they were raised with as appropriate mind-set and terminology).     He definitely ain't no Lily Allen and doesn't go out of the way to offend or mock people, its just little comments he makes here or there that get blown up in the media often just to create drama and issue.

I kind of wish I'd been close enough to Prince Phillip to hear whether or not he said anything outrageous.  He kind of reminds me of my grandfather in that respect--he's about the same age, and has a sort of deep-seated "casual" racism.  By that I mean, in his mind he means no disrespect to an individual person, but he still thinks in those broad stereotypical categories that were normal when he was younger, and still finds racist jokes funny.  I don't mean that as a defense of racism, but I can kind of see where he is coming from.

Anyway my royal encounter wasn't all that exciting.  They came to do a little walk around town, visit a local school, apparently have lunch with Princess Eugenie or whatever her name is (at Newcastle Uni), and do the opening ceremonies at the new city library and the new Great North Museum.  I just went and stood with the crowd for the "walkabout" segment.

I did find it funny that the limo had a large-print road atlas of the UK in the back seat, however.  I can just imagine them saying "now left here, then the first right..."