yes, Spiros enthusiasts, i know that the one update you want to see from my trip, or if you like sojourn, to London is an account of my adventures with the man. i will get around to sharing the exploits and the pictures here soon, just not now.
a significant part of my duty and responsibility whilst in London was, look you see, to ensure that our friends from America saw as many aspects of the city that were, in my estimation and theirs, of consequence and significance. few, if any, match Fortnum & Mason in this respect, but one would, i suppose, have to suggest that Buckingham Palace would be a quite close(ish) second.
oh yes, dear reader, do be warned - i will feature in a substantial number of these images. not all, however, so don't go rushing off to look at sections of the web which i don't feature in. i'm not so bad, you know, but i suppose i can't argue with the wealth of review which says otherwise.
indeed my family friends did make a quite specific request to visit this most splendid and magnificence of residence. we were, alas, limited to staying outside of the building as such, for no invitation was extended by the lady of the house for us to come in. this is quite a shame as a cup of tea would not have gone amiss, but not to be.
a look at the splendour and magnificence of Buckingham Palace without me in the picture? done.
i am aware of the fact that there are many who believe the Royals signify an opulent indulgence, seeing it all no more that wasteful expenditure on people who have been born and groomed to live a life superior to the fanfare of the common man. to those i say i respect that view, but considering that any safeguarded form of political system must have a Head of State to maintain balance they really should try a life under a Presidential system; see what opulence and wasteful spending is actually like.
having experienced the wasteful excesses of life under a Presidential system first hand, in particular seeing how brutally those who dare speak against it are treated, i will take our monarchy all day, every day, thank you. for me, what a wonder it is to have our Queen represent us to the world, and for this palace to represent all for which we stand to those who visit.
that is indeed me, and some common but not quite riff raff tourists behind me, stood before the main entry gates to Buckingham Palace. yes, i would totally have gates that looked like this at my home, if for some reason our home here required a wall or fence or similar.
whilst we did not, alas, cross through the gates and into the palace, we did, which is to say my party, pay a visit to the Royal Mews, named as such for it is where the predominantly horse driven vehicles and carriages of the Royal Family are, so to speak, parked.
the above image shows two of the boy horses which are bred, trained and commanded to draw the carriage in which members of our Royal Family are transported to, well, wherever they wish to go, i suppose. they are the Royal family, it is not like there would be many who would be prepared to stand up and say "actually, your Highness, no, you are not going there.". well, legend has it that once a conversation like that did happened, but it was in respect of Prince Andrew and his mate Freddie Mercury. i would not wish to share the details as there is no conclusive proof that it ever happened, but if it were true, should Prince Andrew have gone in his naval uniform he would have blended in.
a quick video of the lady horses that draw the carriages? sure.
why do they, which is to say those charged with keeping safe the Royal horses, keep the lady horses and the boy horses apart? it's a good question. alas it is one i have no answer to for you, for i could find no one to ask of this segregation.
as well as the video, did i take a picture of the lady horses? but of course. i know that some of you use devices which do not allow video to be played, so here you go.
these are, by the way, the very same horses which his eminence, Barack Obama, reckoned might look all a whole lot better if cowboy spurs were added to their ankles, or whatever it is that horses have rather than ankles. calves, maybe.
what sort of horses are these? conventional ones, i suppose. thoroughbreds, no doubt. other than them being white, i would imagine they are either Arabian bred, or maybe them fancy Lippizzaner ones.
as for what sort of carriage these horses would with honour pull on behalf or at the behest of members of the Royal family, well of course we went and had a look.
yes, i thought that you may want to look at this one in particular in a way that did not feature a gander at me in the corner, blemishing it all somewhat.
going back to the above point about Royals go where Royals want, you just know that at some stage Prince Harry totes tried to command the guard to take him in one of these, drawn by horses, through a McDonald's drive thru. i would suggest that at one point Prince Andrew would have too, but alas there was no such thing as a "drive thru" in his era of youth. actually, i am not sure there's any sort of drive thru in London, what with space being such a luxury commodity.
we did indeed see a number of the carriages which were commissioned, designed and constructed for the sole purpose of transporting members of the Royal family around at times when a horse drawn carriage would be the only way to go. i took a picture or two of them, but alas not of the information charts which showed one what one particular one was used for. sorry for that; i have every confidence that you could find a book on the subject somewhere if so inclined.
here's one particular carriage that took my fancy and i took a picture of. actually, no, it's just here's the one that i took a picture of that featured me in the picture, and i felt i did not look quite so bad in it, so have elected to include it.
is it the case that the Royal family travel exclusively in horse drawn carriages? no, dear reader, far from it. although i most certainly would ride in such a way all the time if the opportunity presented itself, every now and then the Royal take the carriage of the common man, which is to say the car.
big, fancy and specially modified cars, mind, not the sort you could just get off of any garage.
have i ever fancied being a chauffeur for Her Majesty The Queen or any member of the Royal family? it's not something i've thought of, but i am not against it as a career opportunity. i am not the most ambitious or comfortable of drivers, but if the hours were good, i'd consider the gig.
the hours and, of course, being able to drive in the way that i feel is best. this would involve me smoking as i drive, and of course on the vibes front having some classic early 80s Australian pop on the go. also, i would need to be able to drive with the window down, so that i may with ease express displeasure to my fellow motorists, and also be permitted to drive with one hand over the horn, so that my fellow motorists may know the sound of my displeasure in a reaffirmed way.
well, there you go - something of a traditional touristy blog post for you, the reader who had hoped that i had done some touristy things on my brief travel to London. more to follow quite soon. and yes, i will get to doing tales of Spiros soonest.
be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment