S4002

I live in cardiff with my husband and cat. I'm 33 and work at a university. I like making things, writing, reading modernist literature, and watching soap operas Saturday 2 June We woke up late, around 10.30. My husband went to the market to buy breakfast as usual. We were both a little hungover after a party the night before. A new gallery opened in town and we caught up with a lot of friends we haven’t seen in a while. Instead of being really productive, we hung around the house. I made a quilted square for a charity blanket and in the evening my husband went to DJ in a local bar. He played a Jubilee (ish) themed half-an-hour during his set, which we discussed during the day. He played some Queen, Prince, etc, etc. We went to be around 2am. Sunday 3 June We woke up late again, around 11am and had breakfast. We planned to go to the beach, but I woke up with a splitting headache. We got as far as hobbycraft (so that I could get some glinty eyes for my quilted cat’s face) which is where we abandoned our trip to the beach. On the way home we talked about the jubilee a little. My husband doesn’t get what we were celebrating. Why we were celebrating. A lot of people see it as a reinforcement of class hierarchies, and the pomp and ceremony do little to dispel that belief. I see it a bit differently. I’m not a royalist, so I don’t exactly care or have any nationalistic feeling towards the jubilee, but I see it as a marker of a generation. To me, the queen represents a dying breed of old lady. The fact she is so active well in her 80s is an inspiration to a generation. I feel she really believes she has sacrificed a lot for the country. And in many ways, she probably has. But I’m not sure I can feel much sympathy or gratitude for someone sacrificing stuff for me from their castle, travelling around in their private jet, etc. I guess as a person, I do admire the queen, but as an institution or a symbol, I don’t really have much feeling either way. After we got home, we went for a walk in the rain and stopped in a tea shop for a drink and a bit of cake. My headache lifted when the rain started. After that, we came home, watched a film, made a birthday card and then watched a little of the jubilee pageant. It looked really wet and cold and miserable. It reminded me of playing hockey in school. We went to bed about 1pm. Monday 4 June We had yet another late start. I had to ring autogalss to fix a chip in the windscreen then went to an out of town designer outlet. We haven’t been there in year’s, but my husband needed new jeans and sandals, and we thought we might get something a bit cheaper there. It is a totally soulless place, but we did get him some shoes. We then went for a walk at Nash Point and spent a bit of time sat in the sun, taking in the sea air. My husband filmed a few things for a project he’s working on. When we got home I started making a cloth book for my niece’s first birthday present. My husband and I wrote a story together, he illustrated it, we got it printed onto fabric and then I had to turn it into a book. We tried to watch a bit of the jubilee concert in the evening, but it was a bit embarrassing and only managed to stomach about half an hour. Went to bed late again after a lot of crafting. Tuesday 5 June We got up and went out for breakfast with one of our friends for his birthday. He spent the weekend camping. The weather was miserable again, so I spent the day doing some more crafting. I spoke to my sister, who lives in London. My parents had been down to visit for the pageant, along with my brother-in-law’s sister and nephew. My mum had turned up with loads of union jacks and flags sticking out of her bad. Apparently she tried to get everyone involved until a pissed skin head started going on about ‘rule Britannia’ at her. I don’t think my mum gets what the union jack can mean to people outside of their little country village, especially to British Indians in their 40s (my brother-in-law and family). They then didn’t get to see much of the pageant because of the crowds and people weren’t allowed on the bridges because of the security risks. My sister wasn’t too impressed with the whole affair, but my mum gets very enthusiastic about these things. Like my husband, my sister found the whole thing strange, celebrating social hierarchies. I mean, it is a strange thing to have two days off for, but I really enjoyed having the extra time out of work. I think, to me, it was just a really nice long weekend.