Lunch With Joy

So there I was, minding my own business, on my way to a ceremony at the embassy when the bloody Queen nearly runs me over.

Not a sentence I can genuinely use every day but here are Brenda and Stavros looking as miserable as sin on their way home to the Parasite House after the Queen's Speech to Parliament yesterday.

Anyhoo …
I was wending my merry way across St.James's Park on my way to the Philippines Embassy (off Trafalgar Square) for Joy's dual nationality ceremony and found I couldn't get across The Mall.
A bunch of Horseguards with fixed bayonets and some very cold and glum looking armed police were blocking my route.

Luckily I'd left the office half an hour early so I could wander and take some photos but in the end I only just made it in time.
I got to hear the Band of the Horse Guards having a good old blast, though.
Which was nice.
These are the guys who were playing Elgar's Nimrod in that Remembrance Sunday video I posted.
Bloody good they were, too.

So … Next thing I know, clattering up The Mall comes the jolly Household Cavalry, which can only mean one of two things:
(a) It was the annual Queen's Speech to Parliament and the mad German bint was on her way back to the Parasite House, or
(b) Her Maj had cottoned on to the fact that it was Joy's ceremony today and laid on a parade in her honour.

It turned out to be the latter, as you'll see in a minute.

Here's one for the laydees. Check out these chaps' chaps. All very splendid and jangly.

After a few phalanxes of Household Cavalry cantered past along came a couple of old duffers dressed for hunting.
Nice horses, though. Very handsome.

And here comes Queenie! Here you go, Lynn. Some Queenie-porn just for you.
I do hope you're standing up while you look at this … OW!

Brenda and Stavros, sharing a cab. Brenda's looking as grumpy and frumpy as she does on banknotes and stamps. But then she has just had to sit and look at the government for the past hour so it's little wonder she's none too giggly.

"Mai husband and aye … are bloody cold. I say! One of you horsy cheps run orn ahead and put the kettle orn."

No Chazza today, but the only royal I have any respect for did put in an appearance. Here's Princess Anne (of Blue Peter fame) wearing a rather fetching silly hat.

And looky! There's our Joy chatting away to her. How spiffing!

There were many other carriages full of glum-looking people but I'm not posting them all so this one will have to suffice.

Once they'd gone I managed to grab a policeman and tell him I was due at the Philippines Embassy in fifteen minutes so he kindly let me across the road between yet more clattering groups of cavalry.

And I just made it. That's my rickshaw parked outside (I wish)!

Princess Anne had kindly dropped Joy off at the front door so she was already in there. The ceremony was lovely and the Philippines consul lady very polite and helpful.
Joy is so lucky to have dual nationality at last. She has her full British passport and can now apply for a full Philippines one too, so when she flies to Manila for Christmas she can go through London customs using her British passport (and avoid all the queues) and go through Manila customs on her Philippines one (again, avoiding all the queues).
Cool, huh?
There are all sorts of other advantages, like property, pension and residence rights in both countries and visa exemptions for EU countries and Asian ones.

One disadvantage is that Joy had to be thumb-printed. Icky!

We celebrated with (of course) lunch in Green Park.
Joy had promised me she'd bring some sunshine to London and she is a woman of her word. It was glorious in the park and we enjoyed lots of sushi and miso soup and green tea from Yoshino.
We also got mugged by Stumpy the tail-less squirrel but I was too busy fighting it off to take a photo.

So there you have it. A typical lunch hour for Old Dive.