Hold Your Horses

Photo by Magnus D

I can't let the Royal wedding pass without mentioning it on the blog. I was surprised that the children were more excited about it than me. Daughter number two had to work in the morning so she cleared the Sky box and had the recorder set to record every second of the wedding coverage. The son who must not be named took advantage of the day off school to spend some time with his girlfriend, he should really have been revising for his exams, but it wasn't that sort of day. I listened on the radio, I didn't think I was that interested, but curiosity got the better of me because I wanted to see the bridesmaids, so I kept the radio coverage and watched online with the sound muted. The bridesmaids and the page boys looked lovely and behaved perfectly. 


It was after the wedding that I started to get more interested. Winston Churchill once said "There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man". Watching all the horses involved in the ceremonial procession back to Buckingham Palace was the best bit for me. Suddenly my full attention was on the screen when I spotted what I thought was a person struggling with a horse at the side of the parade. It was such a brief glimpse that I couldn't really be sure what I had seen. Then a loose horse was mentioned in the commentary and we saw the horse break away from the other horses and thunder past the coach carrying Prince William and his new wife. It wasn't possible to see the horse after that, but the commentary suggested that the horse had rejoined the parade.


I was worried about the horse (and the rider) and I really wanted to know what had happened to them. I checked online throughout the day and eventually it was reported that the rider was unhurt and the horse had made it's own way back to the stables at Horse Guards' Barracks. So now I just have one unanswered question, how did the horse lose it's stirrup irons and stirrup leathers, did they come off when the rider fell?
There are some good pictures of the riderless horse here.    


I couldn't think of anything worse than having to go to a street party, but the girls went to one and apparently they had a really good time. The star of the day for me  (apart from the horse) Samantha Cameron. She looked lovely, very smart but not dressed to upstage anyone and she was brave enough not to wear a hat. I have a deep dislike of hats and there were some truly hideous examples at the wedding yesterday. During the service I noticed a woman in a huge black tilted creation that totally obscured the view of the people sitting behind her - totally selfish! Apparently some people are saying that Samantha Cameron was disrespectful for not wearing a hat. I don't think so. As far as I am concerned the outfit worn by another politician's spouse was far more disrespectful with a plunging neckline, and another wore a white dress with black dots that proved see through and showed her underwear. Why did that make the story of the Emperors New clothes come to mind? Maybe because her husbands policies are no more substantial than that dress!

Regrets, I Have A Few ..........................

Today would have been my Silver Wedding Anniversary, but sadly Eric and I only clocked up 17 years before his life was cut short by cancer. My life is very different now Robbie and I are together and the children are grown up and busy with their own lives. How am I supposed to feel? I really don't know. I can't help feeling pangs of regret for the life that we might have had and the pain of watching my children grow up without their dad and knowing that he has missed out on so much is something that I can not begin to put into words. People often say that life goes on, that's true, life goes on like it or not and you have to make the best of it. More to the point that is exactly what Eric would have wanted us to do. When I look at the children I see him in so many different ways, a smile, an expression, a mannerism and even in a particular way of walking. He would be so proud of of all their achievements and the confident and independent young people they have become. I often wonder what he would think about me and Robbie, I know that he would want me to be happy and to get on with the rest of my life, I think he would find it amusing that I had chosen someone so very different, but he would have been pleased that the children had the love and support of a caring step father. So perhaps more than anything today has reminded me not to dwell for too long on the what if's. Instead I will treasure the memories the life we had, and I will live my life to the full and value all the people who mean so much to me.