Jubilee madness

The Brits are a funny lot. Most of the time we sit and grumble about how rubbish everything is: the weather, (all) politicians, the state of the roads, you get the idea. And yet the last few days have been what I can only describe as an 'explosion' of patriotism, the extent of which I can't recall seeing before. There was a fair bit of interest around last year's royal wedding, with reasonable numbers of flag wavers, but it was nothing compared to the activity of the past few days. I'm not a revolutionary, nor am I a monarchist, so without particularly strong views either way I've watched it unfold as a casual observer, and found the whole thing utterly fascinating. I was invited round to my neighbour's garden party yesterday, the whole of which was decked out in a riot of red, white and blue with Land of Hope and Glory belting out of the stereo while the guests toasted Queen and country. I managed to dodge the toasts as I was dodging in and out to collect a shopping delivery! So, I was watching from a safe distance as my neighbour nearly set half the garden ablaze with the largest Chinese lantern I've ever seen. It fell back to earth several times, nearly setting fire to a giant parasol and a string of bunting before flying off on its merry way. The day before, my plans had fallen through and I found myself watching the Thames River pageant. I will admit it was a spectacle once all the boats were on the river, but after a while, it got a teeny bit boring - the commentators were clearly running out of things to say - not meaning to be cruel, but my husband and I were half-wishing for the bridge to get stuck (or something equally amusing) to liven it up a bit. Of course it didn't and everything went swimmingly (please excuse the pun!) It will be interesting to see if the Brits continue to fly the flag for Team GB throughout the summer. I suspect it will depend mainly on our athletes delivering the goods. No pressure then!