Saw the Queen twice today. About an hour apart.
Today was the ceremonial Queen's opening of Parliament. I'd seen this on CSPAN (or some other channel) one time. Knew there was a lot of pomp to it all. It's something of a let's pretend event. They pretend she's in charge and telling them what she wants her government to do. They let her pretent she's in charge. She recites a list of (prepared by the Prime Minister's office) things she wants the government to do. Then the government debates it, and some things get done -- just like any other gov't.
We knew that there was going to be a big ceremonial ride from Buckingham Palace (where she lives during the week) to Parliament. Great thing about having fast internet in the apartment is that we could get the schedule, her route, and enough other info to decide that this might be fun to do.
We'd actually planned to get there 1/2 hour or more before the event, figuring that there's be big crowds along the parade route. So, when we left the tube station and heard marching in the distance we figured we'd goofed, and started running. Turns out there's just a LOT of ceremony to this. We got there in time. Saw the crown and sceptre ride by in a Rolls Royce, then tons and tons of ceremonial guards on horses, then the Queen and Prince Philip in a carriage. I couldn't help wondering if she felt funny that there weren't big crowds. The police had even expected much bigger (Maxine talked to one of them).
It was odd in that while this was a very serious occasion with lots of security (regular officers with machine guns, for example), the police were willing to talk and to explain what they knew about what was going on.
After the Queen went by on her way TO Parliament, Maxine and I went separate directions. I headed down the street towards Buckingham Palace and then back to the center. Had a bit of an amusing time with a little Italian lady I was standing next to against the barricade. She put up her umbrella when it started to rain and told me that she'd share it with me. Then, a little while later decided she was tired and I'd have to hold it up for us.
After the return march TO Buckingham Palace, I stuck around and video'd a lot of the troops as they dispersed. They were close enough that I could have grabbed one of their hats!
Lunch at home, then out in the early evening. First for beer, then for Philosophy.
Beer at The Harp. Was an after work stop in for a pint sort of place with a pretty good selection. I had Sambrook's Junction, Powerhouse's Porter, and Harvey's Sussex Best Bitter. Didn't talk to anyone -- looked like the sort of place that had quite a few regulars.
Hopped a tube over to the Philosophy lecture I'd signed up for via Meetup. Very interesting. Afterwards we split into groups to discuss. I ended up talking to an East African 26 year old who was studying Philo. Turned out he was having an exam on Rawls the next day. Gave him my email address at the end of the discussion.
Also talked to one of the presenters. He was a psychiatrist with the National Health Service. He said that most mental health care in the UK was talk therapy. In contrast, I've understood it to be that in the US it's mostly pill therapy. Not sure which is better. His argument was that talk was more effective at creating change, so thus more economical in the long run.
Great lecture. And, we saw our 2nd member of Royalty (years ago we'd seen the Dutch Royal family too...)
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