Tuesday, 3 May 2011
Thursday, 28 April 2011
A step-by-step guide to a Royal Wedding
Ok, so you've bought your dress and are ready to attend, or in my case sit glued to the BBC all day (Fearne Cotton- my current obsession- is presenting the Beeb's footage, hence my choice of channel!). But what exactly are we watching. This blog contains all of the official details that you need for the running order of the day, courtesy of the BBC website. I hope that you find this useful:
Between 0815 and 0945 - The general congregation will arrive at the Great North Door of Westminster Abbey. That's Joe and Janet Bloggs, Mr and Mrs Normal!
From 0950 - Prime ministers and governors-general of various Commonwealth countries, the diplomatic corps and other guests arrive at the Abbey.
1010 - Prince William and Prince Harry leave Clarence House for Westminster Abbey.
1015 - Prince William and Prince Harry arrive at the Abbey.
1020 - Members of foreign royal families arrive at Westminster Abbey from Buckingham Palace.
1020 - Kate Middleton's mother, Carole, and brother, James, leave the Goring Hotel for Westminster Abbey.
1025 - Minor members of the Royal Family leave Buckingham Palace for Westminster Abbey.
1035 - The Duke of York and his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, leave for Westminster Abbey along with the Earl and Countess of Wessex, the Princess Royal and Vice-Admiral Timothy Laurence.
1038 - The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall leave Clarence House for Westminster Abbey.
1040 - The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh leave Buckingham Palace for Westminster Abbey.
1048 - The bridesmaids and pages leave the Goring Hotel for Westminster Abbey.
1051 - The bride, accompanied by her father Michael, leaves the Goring Hotel for Westminster Abbey.
1100 - The marriage service begins and is relayed by speakers along the route.
1215 - The carriage procession of the bride and bridegroom with a captain's escort of the Household Cavalry, followed by the Queen's procession with a sovereign's escort of the Household Cavalry, leaves Westminster Abbey for Buckingham Palace.
1230 - The bride's carriage procession arrives at Buckingham Palace.
1240 - Members of the Royal Family and members of foreign royal families arrive at Buckingham Palace.
1325 - The Queen and the bride and bridegroom, together with their families, appear on the balcony.
1330 - Fly-past by the Royal Air Force and Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
The day has been planned with military precision, similar to my own wedding day! I bet their wedding planner even has a head-set!
If you're interested, here's the seating plan:
Between 0815 and 0945 - The general congregation will arrive at the Great North Door of Westminster Abbey. That's Joe and Janet Bloggs, Mr and Mrs Normal!
From 0950 - Prime ministers and governors-general of various Commonwealth countries, the diplomatic corps and other guests arrive at the Abbey.
1010 - Prince William and Prince Harry leave Clarence House for Westminster Abbey.
1015 - Prince William and Prince Harry arrive at the Abbey.
1020 - Members of foreign royal families arrive at Westminster Abbey from Buckingham Palace.
1020 - Kate Middleton's mother, Carole, and brother, James, leave the Goring Hotel for Westminster Abbey.
1025 - Minor members of the Royal Family leave Buckingham Palace for Westminster Abbey.
1035 - The Duke of York and his daughters, Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugenie, leave for Westminster Abbey along with the Earl and Countess of Wessex, the Princess Royal and Vice-Admiral Timothy Laurence.
1038 - The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall leave Clarence House for Westminster Abbey.
1040 - The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh leave Buckingham Palace for Westminster Abbey.
1048 - The bridesmaids and pages leave the Goring Hotel for Westminster Abbey.
1051 - The bride, accompanied by her father Michael, leaves the Goring Hotel for Westminster Abbey.
1100 - The marriage service begins and is relayed by speakers along the route.
1215 - The carriage procession of the bride and bridegroom with a captain's escort of the Household Cavalry, followed by the Queen's procession with a sovereign's escort of the Household Cavalry, leaves Westminster Abbey for Buckingham Palace.
1230 - The bride's carriage procession arrives at Buckingham Palace.
1240 - Members of the Royal Family and members of foreign royal families arrive at Buckingham Palace.
1325 - The Queen and the bride and bridegroom, together with their families, appear on the balcony.
1330 - Fly-past by the Royal Air Force and Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
The day has been planned with military precision, similar to my own wedding day! I bet their wedding planner even has a head-set!
If you're interested, here's the seating plan:
A very special day!
It's taken a while but I've finally caught it; wedding fever that is! I am suddenly ridiculously excited for the wedding of the century, which takes place tomorrow. After doing a few lessons on it over the past few days, the excitement has built within me as though it's my own wedding that the country will be celebrating. This is extremely titillating for me, and others of my generation, because we missed the wedding of Charles and Diana and were too young to understand what was going on for most of the other significant Royal Weddings. Of course, there was Prince Charles and Camilla's wedding, but they played it down so it was hard as a nation to be excited about that, whether we wanted be or not.
This is a genuine, British fairytale. It's not everyday that you get to watch a "normal" (more on that later) girl become a Princess. At some point in most of our lives, us females have dreamt of such a thing. Everything about Kate and William's story screams Hollywood fairytale ending. They started out as "just good friends", William noticed Kate when she modelled in a catwalk show (in a rather revealing dress), they fell in love, then came the split, the make up and to end it all, the marriage. How many films have ended like this? Let's face it, tomorrow is really just the start of their long and happy life together. It's what dreams are made of.
Above anything I find it wonderful and exhilarating to see our country standing together as one to celebrate this historic event. Surely, in the age of celebrity endorsements, Kate and William are the faces of the British Monarchy. History is being made. Naturally you find many cynics, who feel that the Monarchy are a waste of time, or that they bring nothing to the country. I've seen or heard people drone on about how the wedding is a farce- I'm sure those people will be going in to work on the additional bank holiday then? Thought not.
My stance on tomorrow is one of whole-hearted support. I look forward to supporting my country and my future King and Queen. The power to pull together through these amazing times, as well as during the bad times, is what makes the United Kingdom so special. Let's make Kate and William proud!
This is a genuine, British fairytale. It's not everyday that you get to watch a "normal" (more on that later) girl become a Princess. At some point in most of our lives, us females have dreamt of such a thing. Everything about Kate and William's story screams Hollywood fairytale ending. They started out as "just good friends", William noticed Kate when she modelled in a catwalk show (in a rather revealing dress), they fell in love, then came the split, the make up and to end it all, the marriage. How many films have ended like this? Let's face it, tomorrow is really just the start of their long and happy life together. It's what dreams are made of.
My stance on tomorrow is one of whole-hearted support. I look forward to supporting my country and my future King and Queen. The power to pull together through these amazing times, as well as during the bad times, is what makes the United Kingdom so special. Let's make Kate and William proud!
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
Poems for us girls!
Savage- by A. Williamson
I bare no scar,
No sign of a bite.
The change is looming,
An unstoppable force.
Soon you won't recognise me,
I'll be transformed.
This is the price I pay
for being me.
Tempers run short.
I hate the world.
Self-pity is my hobby.
I don't bother smiling.
I want to rip you apart,
Savage you with words.
Please, ignore them.
They're lies, each and every one.
All I do is moan,
But how dare anyone tell me to stop?
To hell with you all.
I'm better alone.
The moon is waning,
along with my hatred.
Calm slowly returns to by body,
I'm rational again.
Until the next full moon.
I found this next poem online, and it's quite funny, yet sums up "the time of the month" for me perfectly.
by XLilMissFrostyx
Complaining about everything
Sitting silently in sorrow
Hoping and praying
For a better day tomorrow.
Curled up on my bed
Pitiful thoughts roam
Who are you to say
All I ever do is moan?
If you knew what it felt like
To have to endure this pain
You wouldn't get so offended
When I angrily call your name.
Don't try and turn around my mood
Don't try and make me get dressed
You'd understand why I act this way
If you had to suffer PMS
Found on http://www.poems-and-quotes.com/funny/poems.php?id=896501
I bare no scar,
No sign of a bite.
The change is looming,
An unstoppable force.
Soon you won't recognise me,
I'll be transformed.
This is the price I pay
for being me.
Tempers run short.
I hate the world.
Self-pity is my hobby.
I don't bother smiling.
I want to rip you apart,
Savage you with words.
Please, ignore them.
They're lies, each and every one.
All I do is moan,
But how dare anyone tell me to stop?
To hell with you all.
I'm better alone.
The moon is waning,
along with my hatred.
Calm slowly returns to by body,
I'm rational again.
Until the next full moon.
I found this next poem online, and it's quite funny, yet sums up "the time of the month" for me perfectly.
by XLilMissFrostyx
Complaining about everything
Sitting silently in sorrow
Hoping and praying
For a better day tomorrow.
Curled up on my bed
Pitiful thoughts roam
Who are you to say
All I ever do is moan?
If you knew what it felt like
To have to endure this pain
You wouldn't get so offended
When I angrily call your name.
Don't try and turn around my mood
Don't try and make me get dressed
You'd understand why I act this way
If you had to suffer PMS
Found on http://www.poems-and-quotes.com/funny/poems.php?id=896501
Is it a full moon?
Today is the last day of the wonderful Easter holidays, and doesn't it show? I have been an absolute nightmare, and my innocent husband has had the brunt of my mood thrown right at him. Why is it, that when our hormones are going berserk, and when we turn into monsters that Stephen King would be proud of, we dump all of our crap onto our nearest and dearest and treat them like we hate them? I would like to publicly declare that I do not hate Andy in the slightest, and that I am truly sorry for the way that I treat him sometimes. There are no excuses whatsoever, but I genuinely can't control my anger when I am in a mood like I have been in today.
I'm not a violent person, I would never lay a hand on anyone, nor would I be rude to strangers or people who I barely know. But show me someone I love, someone who I care about more than anything in the world, and I will savage them like a beast until one of us has to admit defeat (and it's rarely me who throws in the towel). What causes, and I am going to generalise profusely here, the most rational of women to act in this way? I have never seen a "bloke" throw a hissy fit, or scream at someone because there is no chocolate in the house, or go on a shopping frenzy, or try their best to alienate their friends when they know they have done nothing wrong. Is it really just what women do? Is it our nature, do hormones really affect us in this way? Or are there darker forces at work? I do not know the answers, but I wish someone would hurry up and find out.
It's a fact that women suffer from depression and severe mood imbalances more than men. Is this all down to our hormones, and our complicated reproductive system that we have to life with and adapt to? Some say that women face more stresses than men. Maybe we just deal with stresses and strains in a more open way, therefore making it look like we're more affected. Apparently one in eight women will be "clinically depressed" at some point in their lives. I look at my group of friends, a gang of eight close-nit girls, and already (before most of us have reached our mid-twenties, and certainly our thirties) I'd say five of us have experienced some form of depression at some stage of our life. Does this prove that depression is more common than medical experts will admit? Possibly. It certainly makes me realise exactly how prone to depression and similar conditions women are susceptible to.
Have my outbursts been a symptom of clinical depression? Not necessarily. They have been more than me simply "being in one". As someone who is "sub-fertile" (infertile is not PC nowadays) my PMT is horrendous, and PCOS doesn't help with this in the slightest. In this respect, men certainly do get it easy. The worrying thing is, and I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking this, that today's episodes are Day 1, and I usually get far worse. Shall I lock myself away for a week, or do what the NHS suggest to do to combat PMS- eat healthily and exercise. I'll see what tomorrow brings me. A day back with kids at work tomorrow will kill me or cure me. I'm hoping that publishing my thoughts in cyber-space, whether they are read or not, will help me to avoid the dark place that I would otherwise sink into for the next five days or so.
One thing I will say, and this is aimed at my amazing husband, family and friends, is that the Ali you know and love may be replaced by a maniac for a short while, but the old one loves you all very much, despite what I may tell you! Next time, I'm coming back as a man!
I'm not a violent person, I would never lay a hand on anyone, nor would I be rude to strangers or people who I barely know. But show me someone I love, someone who I care about more than anything in the world, and I will savage them like a beast until one of us has to admit defeat (and it's rarely me who throws in the towel). What causes, and I am going to generalise profusely here, the most rational of women to act in this way? I have never seen a "bloke" throw a hissy fit, or scream at someone because there is no chocolate in the house, or go on a shopping frenzy, or try their best to alienate their friends when they know they have done nothing wrong. Is it really just what women do? Is it our nature, do hormones really affect us in this way? Or are there darker forces at work? I do not know the answers, but I wish someone would hurry up and find out.
It's a fact that women suffer from depression and severe mood imbalances more than men. Is this all down to our hormones, and our complicated reproductive system that we have to life with and adapt to? Some say that women face more stresses than men. Maybe we just deal with stresses and strains in a more open way, therefore making it look like we're more affected. Apparently one in eight women will be "clinically depressed" at some point in their lives. I look at my group of friends, a gang of eight close-nit girls, and already (before most of us have reached our mid-twenties, and certainly our thirties) I'd say five of us have experienced some form of depression at some stage of our life. Does this prove that depression is more common than medical experts will admit? Possibly. It certainly makes me realise exactly how prone to depression and similar conditions women are susceptible to.
Have my outbursts been a symptom of clinical depression? Not necessarily. They have been more than me simply "being in one". As someone who is "sub-fertile" (infertile is not PC nowadays) my PMT is horrendous, and PCOS doesn't help with this in the slightest. In this respect, men certainly do get it easy. The worrying thing is, and I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking this, that today's episodes are Day 1, and I usually get far worse. Shall I lock myself away for a week, or do what the NHS suggest to do to combat PMS- eat healthily and exercise. I'll see what tomorrow brings me. A day back with kids at work tomorrow will kill me or cure me. I'm hoping that publishing my thoughts in cyber-space, whether they are read or not, will help me to avoid the dark place that I would otherwise sink into for the next five days or so.
One thing I will say, and this is aimed at my amazing husband, family and friends, is that the Ali you know and love may be replaced by a maniac for a short while, but the old one loves you all very much, despite what I may tell you! Next time, I'm coming back as a man!
30 day challenge: Day 2
Day 2: Meaning behind your blog name
There was no science behind the name of this blog. It's my first one, and something about "My first blog" prompted me to think of Ke$ha and "My first kiss". Very simple, borderline stupid really!
There was no science behind the name of this blog. It's my first one, and something about "My first blog" prompted me to think of Ke$ha and "My first kiss". Very simple, borderline stupid really!
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