Long May She Reign

Saturday 2^nd June

Distance: 3:01 mile
Time: 39:50 min
Avg Speed: 4:53 mph                            
Avg Pace: 13:14min/mile
Calories Burned: 408

Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat where have you been? I’ve been up to London to visit the Queen… so goes the old Nursery Rhyme and like the aforementioned Pussy Cat I too, along with my Raison D’etre am vising my queen. My Queen this week celebrates 60 years as our Sovereign Monarch and I personally think the woman is a bloody marvel. For 60 years she has devoted her life to the service of her country and never faltered from her duty. When did she ever cancel an engagement? When did she ever not turn up and smile, shake hands, pass pleasantries, receive the bouquets from little girls in their best dresses? There must have been days when she wanted to ‘throw a sickie’ and phone into the office put on her best poorly voice and claim to have an upset stomach or feign a pathetic cough as she told the whopper ‘I have the flu won’t be in till Thursday! (She came to the concert having left The DOE in hospital how many of us would turn up to work on the day our husband/wife was taken into hospital I wonder?) Yet turn up she has to countless openings, previews, premieres, tours of factories, hospitals, institutions, schools; you name it she has visited it. Hat on head and handbag over a gloved hand, eyes sparkling and smile fixed. Those gloved hands have shook the like of great and small, have cut ribbons, smashed bottles, dug in trees, laid foundation stones, pulled cords to reveal plaques, held swords to invest, pinned medals of honour and valour, laid wreaths to remember, signed issues of state and of course waved. Even if you are not a royalist one has to admire the fortitude of an octogenarian who still does the same job she did at 25 and with the same vigour. Yes I know she has had the best of everything from food to medical care and that there are long gaps spent at one of the many palaces or estates but even so the crown is never truly put away, our queen’s life belongs to us, she is ours as we are hers and for me that relationship is one of huge admiration, respect and love. I could not bear to lose our royal family, imagine a Britain with a president be it President Millibland or President Cameron or God forbid the return of ‘The Blair’ the thought is unthinkable. The money that comes into our country through tourism is huge and as the tourists come, primarily to London, statistics also show that a great number of them will also venture to Scotland, Wales, Ireland and even up to us in T’North so we all benefit from the tourist £ spent in our shops, restaurants, transport, and service industries. Would those people still come were it not for the pomp and pageantry? The Trooping? The Ceremonial? The State Occasions?  These occasions of state that we do so well, I doubt as many would come.

I have come. So this morning I went for a jaunt round the local, not knowing the streets of where I am stopping very well, I simply ran to the nearest park and jogged around it 3 times then back. I covered 3 miles which was enough today as my legs were a little leaden and I am tired as the last week at school has been very busy. We had a Jubilee week culminating in a Fayre on Friday. The children had a great week and did some fabulous work on time lines, biographies, geography, British history and some very creative art work. The week ended with a procession of kings and queens, a picnic lunch and a Fayre. A jolly good time was had by all. The children who come from many different countries of origin, learned about the importance of history be it family, social, cultural or national. We celebrated where they came from and how; now as British citizens they have a rich history to be part of and to add to. They stood and sang the national Anthem with pride and I was touched by their commitment. Our multicultural society works best when we value our traditions and respect our differences.

After my run for the rest of the day we ventured into central London to scope out the best place and easiest route for the pageant tomorrow. My Raison D’etre had declared, last year, that after I had such a great time at the royal wedding, that he too wanted to be part of one of our nations great events. So we checked out a route that was accessible for him and decided where we would aim for. Come the day we were turned back as ‘that way is for invited guests only’ we had been given duff information, but undeterred we went on and found our way to the riverside and managed to get an excellent front row pitch. From our viewpoint we, along with 1.2million others saw The Royal Barge bedecked in its finery with our good Queen atop it. That marvellous woman stood for 4 hours and believe you me it was bloody wet and a tad chilly and exciting though it was, boats tend to move a little slowly. After 500 I found myself thinking ‘Ooh look another boat’ but we stood it out till the last as we felt that the last should be supported as well as the first. I felt an incredible sense of history there. All the crowd there were very aware that we were seeing history in the making and that we will never see the like again in our lifetime or in a great number to come.

We were wet through; we ached from standing for 7 hours. My Raison D’etre did so well I kept checking on him as did the crowd around us who were very caring of him, offering support. We had a wonderful day and my British pride was overflowing. We may try for the procession on Tuesday but we are already fulfilled.

Never forgetting why I write these missives is to bring awareness to the cause of Muscular Dystrophy and if any of you good blog readers out there want to sponsor me in my endeavours you can follow my link to the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign its work, outreach, campaigns and research just log on to www.muscular-dystrophy.org and see why I am doing this. If you feel you want to support me then please log onto my ‘Just Giving’ account and make a donation www.justgiving.com/Team-LewisMDC. A huge thanks you to all of you who have donated already.



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