Female, co-habiting with boyfriend, Living in Bristol, Librarian
Diamond Jubilee weekend, 2nd - 5th June 2012 Saturday
Today was the first Saturday my boyfriend and I were both off work so we were looking forward to a day together. We decided to go for a long walk to get out and about and get some exercise. My boyfriend set an app on his phone which tracked our journey, so we could measure how far we walked. We set off for Clifton village via Whiteladies Road, noticing lots of bunting celebrating the Jubilee, stopped off for a iced coffee and custard tart from Boston Tea Party cafe, which we took up to the Downs near the Suspension Bridge. After eating and drinking, we walked down the zig zag path to Hotwells and walked along through to the riverside. We followed this along to the Arnolfini, where we stopped off, and then on via St Nicholas Market to Broadmead and Cabot Circus. We ate lunch in a cafe there and walked home via Stokes Croft (I didn't see any bunting there, unsurprisingly, as it's renowned for its bohemian and alternative community). We stopped off in the lovely Here Gallery, where I bought a set of postcards, and we also had a chat with a gallery owner showing some work by someone we know from work). No mentions of the Jubilee at all. We had a quiet afternoon pottering at home and I made dinner for us before watching the final of the Voice. Tomorrow we are going to stay with my parents in Somerset for a couple of nights - we wouldn't be able to do this if we didn't have two days off. I have also taken the Wednesday off so it's nice to have a long weekend. SundayI'm not doing anything different to normal really. I went to a gym class as usual and walked home afterwards. I watched a little bit of the French Open tennis on TV and later had a shower, ate lunch etc. My mum called on the phone to have a quick catch up and she asked me if I was watching the Jubilee celebrations on the TV, which I wasn't. We had a brief discussion about the whole event and our feelings about the monarchy. My view is that I am not a royalist by any means but I kind of think that we could have a lot worse. My mum said the Queen does an awful lot for charity and I said she is also supported by the taxpayer so we agreed there are various opinions on the royals! My boyfriend is very anti-monarchy and he thinks they represent all that is wrong with the country, such as keeping the divide between the classes and so on. After the phone call, I did turn over from the tennis to see what was going on (there is a river pageant on the Thames today which is supposed to be very impressive) and I am watching it as I write this. It's not very interesting! The pageant is supposed to start soon and the presenter is filling time with some history and broadcasts from street parties across the country etc. I found it quite interesting that the Thames was twice as broad at the first Diamond Jubilee for Victoria's jubilee and Canaletto's painting of this event is on show at the National Maritime Museum at the moment. Oh there's a big Cornish flag on one of the boats! 1000 vessels will take place in the pageant and it is a shame the weather is a bit rubbish...Just before 5pm, I drove down to pick up my boyfriend from work and we drove to my parents' house, stopping off to fill the car up for petrol (£40!). We were greeted by the smell of roast lamb cooking at my parents'. We had a nice G+T (pretty much only have these at my mum and dad's!) and some crisps and dips, then later dinner (roast lamb with roast potatoes and parsnips, new potatoes and carrots, mint sauce, peas and asparagus) followed by some vanilla ice cream and home made chocolate sauce. I felt very full afterwards. We then sat down to watch the final of the Apprentice, which was enjoyable. It had started late as the river pageant had overrun on BBC1 so it ended a bit later than scheduled. After that we all headed to bed. MondayIt doesn't feel like a Monday today, especially because I don't have to work tomorrow (national holiday because of the jubilee) or Wednesday (I have a lot of flexitime to use up so booked this day off ages ago). I woke at my normal time of about 7.45 and was glad there was no rush to get up. I read in bed for a bit, as did my boyfriend, and then we showered together and got dressed. It was just about warm enough to have breakfast outside so we did. My Dad has been unwell recently with kidney problems and he wasn't feeling too good this morning, so instead of a planned drive to the seaside all together, my Mum, my boyfriend and I drove to a National Trust place, Barrington Court, which wasn't far and had an Antony Gormley exhibition on. My boyfriend set up the satnav, which my Mum and Dad have found difficult to use in the past, and we set off. The satnav took us down some winding country roads and we ended up at Barrington from a sort of back route. We wandered around the gardens and then found the exhibition, which was called Field of the British Isles. Three rooms were filled with 1000 small clay figures, packed in and all looking up at you as you peered into each room. It was quite a mesmerising sight and it wasn't even spoiled by various people spouting their opinions about how the Catholics were to blame for the overpopulation of the world. After sitting down in the restaurant but deciding against ordering (it was a bit pricey and most of the things on the menu were main meals, which we didn't need), we had a quick look in the cafe and decided against that too. I had a bit of a wish for a cream tea but this was not shared by anyone else...! Anyway, we decided to make for home and stop off at a cafe in Langport on the way. We did this (I had a very big bowl of broccoli and stilton soup, which I can still feel full from now) and then came back to find Dad feeling a bit better. We ate a nice slice of marble cake with a cup of earl grey tea and had a chat about all my godparents and what they were up to these days. It turned out to be a really sunny afternoon so my mum pottered in the garden while my boyfriend and I sat in the summerhouse and read for a bit. Later we played croquet in the garden as it was set up - it always feels very English to play croquet! I played a few games with my Dad, which was so lovely as he has been so poorly recently. I really appreciate all the time I can spend with my Dad at the moment because his life has changed so much with his kidney disease. Then my boyfriend joined in and we played a few more games. It was really warm and sunny. After that it was time for a swift G+T before dinner. There was a jubilee concert on TV which my Dad seemed desperate to watch, so we mostly watched that all evening. I kept an eye on Twitter on my iPad and tweeted a few things and had some exchanges with a couple of people about it, mostly to do with guessing the performers' ages with my family and then checking their birthdays on wikipedia! The concert was pretty impressive in terms of scale and who was performing and it was fairly entertaining. The camera kept cutting to the royal box and I didn't recognise many of them. I also thought the Queen was so dour and thought surely she could smile once in a while. My mum thought that the next generation of royals are much more in touch with the people and showing their emotions, so we'll see how things change in future. Apparently, 69% of the British public are in favour of the monarchy, which really surprised me, I thought the figure would be a lot lower. TuesdayWe planned to head home today as my Mum and Dad were going to a village lunch in a marquee up the road at 1pm, followed by visiting my uncle (who has Down's syndrome and lives in a shared house nearby) whose house was having a party. It was absolutely pouring with rain so not sure how the village do went. They planned lots of games outside etc, so I'm sure that couldn't have happened. I helped my Mum and Dad with a few PC problems and we eventually left at about 1pm, dreading the journey home as it was looking pretty busy on the M5 (my boyfriend checked the internet before we left). It was horrible on the motorway, at a standstill in places and very heavy rain. We came off the motorway as planned half way to do a supermarket shop. That done we set off home and got back mid-afternoon. It was raining all day so didn't see any sign of parties or anything locally (although I think there was an event planned nearby which we were invited to via a flyer through the door). We pottered for most of the evening, cooking dinner and watching an episode of Treme before bed. All in all, it was difficult to avoid the Jubilee celebrations - it dominated all the mass media and everyone was talking about it. I think if I hadn't been visiting my parents', I wouldn't have chosen to watch any of the coverage on
TV.
Diamond Jubilee weekend, 2nd - 5th June 2012 Saturday
Today was the first Saturday my boyfriend and I were both off work so we were looking forward to a day together. We decided to go for a long walk to get out and about and get some exercise. My boyfriend set an app on his phone which tracked our journey, so we could measure how far we walked. We set off for Clifton village via Whiteladies Road, noticing lots of bunting celebrating the Jubilee, stopped off for a iced coffee and custard tart from Boston Tea Party cafe, which we took up to the Downs near the Suspension Bridge. After eating and drinking, we walked down the zig zag path to Hotwells and walked along through to the riverside. We followed this along to the Arnolfini, where we stopped off, and then on via St Nicholas Market to Broadmead and Cabot Circus. We ate lunch in a cafe there and walked home via Stokes Croft (I didn't see any bunting there, unsurprisingly, as it's renowned for its bohemian and alternative community). We stopped off in the lovely Here Gallery, where I bought a set of postcards, and we also had a chat with a gallery owner showing some work by someone we know from work). No mentions of the Jubilee at all. We had a quiet afternoon pottering at home and I made dinner for us before watching the final of the Voice. Tomorrow we are going to stay with my parents in Somerset for a couple of nights - we wouldn't be able to do this if we didn't have two days off. I have also taken the Wednesday off so it's nice to have a long weekend. SundayI'm not doing anything different to normal really. I went to a gym class as usual and walked home afterwards. I watched a little bit of the French Open tennis on TV and later had a shower, ate lunch etc. My mum called on the phone to have a quick catch up and she asked me if I was watching the Jubilee celebrations on the TV, which I wasn't. We had a brief discussion about the whole event and our feelings about the monarchy. My view is that I am not a royalist by any means but I kind of think that we could have a lot worse. My mum said the Queen does an awful lot for charity and I said she is also supported by the taxpayer so we agreed there are various opinions on the royals! My boyfriend is very anti-monarchy and he thinks they represent all that is wrong with the country, such as keeping the divide between the classes and so on. After the phone call, I did turn over from the tennis to see what was going on (there is a river pageant on the Thames today which is supposed to be very impressive) and I am watching it as I write this. It's not very interesting! The pageant is supposed to start soon and the presenter is filling time with some history and broadcasts from street parties across the country etc. I found it quite interesting that the Thames was twice as broad at the first Diamond Jubilee for Victoria's jubilee and Canaletto's painting of this event is on show at the National Maritime Museum at the moment. Oh there's a big Cornish flag on one of the boats! 1000 vessels will take place in the pageant and it is a shame the weather is a bit rubbish...Just before 5pm, I drove down to pick up my boyfriend from work and we drove to my parents' house, stopping off to fill the car up for petrol (£40!). We were greeted by the smell of roast lamb cooking at my parents'. We had a nice G+T (pretty much only have these at my mum and dad's!) and some crisps and dips, then later dinner (roast lamb with roast potatoes and parsnips, new potatoes and carrots, mint sauce, peas and asparagus) followed by some vanilla ice cream and home made chocolate sauce. I felt very full afterwards. We then sat down to watch the final of the Apprentice, which was enjoyable. It had started late as the river pageant had overrun on BBC1 so it ended a bit later than scheduled. After that we all headed to bed. MondayIt doesn't feel like a Monday today, especially because I don't have to work tomorrow (national holiday because of the jubilee) or Wednesday (I have a lot of flexitime to use up so booked this day off ages ago). I woke at my normal time of about 7.45 and was glad there was no rush to get up. I read in bed for a bit, as did my boyfriend, and then we showered together and got dressed. It was just about warm enough to have breakfast outside so we did. My Dad has been unwell recently with kidney problems and he wasn't feeling too good this morning, so instead of a planned drive to the seaside all together, my Mum, my boyfriend and I drove to a National Trust place, Barrington Court, which wasn't far and had an Antony Gormley exhibition on. My boyfriend set up the satnav, which my Mum and Dad have found difficult to use in the past, and we set off. The satnav took us down some winding country roads and we ended up at Barrington from a sort of back route. We wandered around the gardens and then found the exhibition, which was called Field of the British Isles. Three rooms were filled with 1000 small clay figures, packed in and all looking up at you as you peered into each room. It was quite a mesmerising sight and it wasn't even spoiled by various people spouting their opinions about how the Catholics were to blame for the overpopulation of the world. After sitting down in the restaurant but deciding against ordering (it was a bit pricey and most of the things on the menu were main meals, which we didn't need), we had a quick look in the cafe and decided against that too. I had a bit of a wish for a cream tea but this was not shared by anyone else...! Anyway, we decided to make for home and stop off at a cafe in Langport on the way. We did this (I had a very big bowl of broccoli and stilton soup, which I can still feel full from now) and then came back to find Dad feeling a bit better. We ate a nice slice of marble cake with a cup of earl grey tea and had a chat about all my godparents and what they were up to these days. It turned out to be a really sunny afternoon so my mum pottered in the garden while my boyfriend and I sat in the summerhouse and read for a bit. Later we played croquet in the garden as it was set up - it always feels very English to play croquet! I played a few games with my Dad, which was so lovely as he has been so poorly recently. I really appreciate all the time I can spend with my Dad at the moment because his life has changed so much with his kidney disease. Then my boyfriend joined in and we played a few more games. It was really warm and sunny. After that it was time for a swift G+T before dinner. There was a jubilee concert on TV which my Dad seemed desperate to watch, so we mostly watched that all evening. I kept an eye on Twitter on my iPad and tweeted a few things and had some exchanges with a couple of people about it, mostly to do with guessing the performers' ages with my family and then checking their birthdays on wikipedia! The concert was pretty impressive in terms of scale and who was performing and it was fairly entertaining. The camera kept cutting to the royal box and I didn't recognise many of them. I also thought the Queen was so dour and thought surely she could smile once in a while. My mum thought that the next generation of royals are much more in touch with the people and showing their emotions, so we'll see how things change in future. Apparently, 69% of the British public are in favour of the monarchy, which really surprised me, I thought the figure would be a lot lower. TuesdayWe planned to head home today as my Mum and Dad were going to a village lunch in a marquee up the road at 1pm, followed by visiting my uncle (who has Down's syndrome and lives in a shared house nearby) whose house was having a party. It was absolutely pouring with rain so not sure how the village do went. They planned lots of games outside etc, so I'm sure that couldn't have happened. I helped my Mum and Dad with a few PC problems and we eventually left at about 1pm, dreading the journey home as it was looking pretty busy on the M5 (my boyfriend checked the internet before we left). It was horrible on the motorway, at a standstill in places and very heavy rain. We came off the motorway as planned half way to do a supermarket shop. That done we set off home and got back mid-afternoon. It was raining all day so didn't see any sign of parties or anything locally (although I think there was an event planned nearby which we were invited to via a flyer through the door). We pottered for most of the evening, cooking dinner and watching an episode of Treme before bed. All in all, it was difficult to avoid the Jubilee celebrations - it dominated all the mass media and everyone was talking about it. I think if I hadn't been visiting my parents', I wouldn't have chosen to watch any of the coverage on
TV.
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