Buckingham Palace

Today we woke up nice & early, got showered, dressed, had breakfast & Amy dropped us off to Sutton station to catch the 9.52am train to London Victoria, we had pre-booked tickets for a Buckingham Palace tour. The Queen goes on holiday’s 6 weeks of the year & we were lucky enough to be over at the right time. We jumped on a train straight away, 5 minutes into the ride we noticed we were sitting in the first class part of the train, which was quite odd we don’t have that in Australia as far as I know. I never catch trains, so what do I know!

Unfortunately, I’m having a fair bit of pain with my lower back and hip at the moment so from word go I wasn’t having a very good day. Nathan was so excited for it so I tried to put on a brave face, but he can see right through me.

As soon as we got to the train station I could smell pasties from about 100 meters away, I knew that’s exactly what I’d be eating for lunch and I wouldn’t settle for anything less. Although nothing beats a North Devon cornish pasty from Croyde.

Buckingham Palace was about a 7 minute walk away, so we pushed through crowds and I was getting upset at people barging me out the way. I slipped several times on some mud on the walk there, lucky at that point I was using my sore leg for balance or I’d be flat on my face.
I sat down whilst Nathan lined up & got our tickets for us, we got in fairly quick. I had to be pat down by security because I refused to walk without the crutches. It was full on airport style security!
We were waved through, given some head phones with an audio tour and off we went. Everyone was really lovely, they kept saying if I needed to use an elevator to let them know, they even offered me a fold out seat to carry around but I didn’t want to make Nathan carry it. There was one part where I had to get an elevator they gave up bright yellow stickers to show we were special, they had to take our names to, I clearly said my name was Naomi, but he still wrote down Mary. I’m not sure how you get Mary from Naomi but it happens quite often!!
The Palace was absolutely stunning, even though I was in a foul mood it was indescribable, the paintings were so well done, decorations were stunning, satin sofas, little clothes from royalty kids. Unfortunately there was no filming or photography inside, which is understandable but I was gutted.
There was a toy car section, where the kids had small models of expensive cars to drive around in. There was even a mini caravan with little seats and cupboards inside! A video was playing in the back ground of one of the kids driving around in the toy car, he crashed it into a wall, jumped up & walked away. Very cute.
My uncle Mick was saying to us at dinner last night that they take out all the carpets and put down a cheap one just for the 6 weeks that it’s open to the public, just as well I thought to myself, I still had mud on my crutches which was being smeared all over the carpet. Oops! Apparently they also take down all the original paintings and replace them too.

We sat down in one of the rooms and listened to the audio for a bit, my hands were so swollen by this point and my back was throbbing, I don’t know why it was so bad all of a sudden I was starting to worry.

It took us around two hours to do the tour, it was definitely worth the visit. I don’t know how someone could live there though, everything is so delicate and valuable, but then again not everyone is as clumsy as me.
We finished the tour by walking out the back of the Palace to a beautiful garden. The grass was so green it was a stunning walk to the back gate. We stopped off at the gift shop, which as sad as it is I always get excited about.

Nathan & I were talking about the price to get inside, tickets were 20 quid each, & apparently around 75,000 people visit a year. That’s around 1.5 million pounds, 3 million dollars and thats only for 6 weeks of the year, just imagine. Then on top of that all the money from the gift shop, I’ve been collecting key rings from all the visits we do and a little gold crown key ring was 6 pounds! Ripoff but worth it.

We were walking down the side to find the front of Buckingham Palace to get some photos out front, I asked Nathan what his favorite part of England had been. So far we’d done Hampton Court, Buckingham Palace, he’d met the family, we’d been on some lovely dinners, we’ve had a lot of fun and his response was: “Driving”
“Driving?! But you can do that at home!” was my response.
“Yeah, but it’s different.”
Weirdo.
We sat down by the fountain in front of the Palace to have a rest & Nathan gave me one of my pain killers, which I hadn’t had in a while. I like to feel the pain so I know my limits, but needed one today. It immediately made me feel like I was in a bubble, I was so dizzy. We needed to get some food. We sat & people watched for a while, discussing our next holiday plans & were not even half way through this one!

We stopped off at a few gift shops on the walk back, saw some horrible post cards of fish & chips, cut out of the Queens head, of Princess Diana, the corgis, some terribly photoshopped ones of London, so Nathan brought 6...
Inside it got worse, there was bobble head dolls of the Queen, giant pens you’d never use, terrible soccer (football) jerseys and many, many more desirably undesirable things.

You know those moments in life, when something amazing happens and you just want to sit in that moment for as long as possible? I had that today, sitting on a step in London out the front of a restaurant eating a delicious, warm, scrumptious Cornish pasty. I was in heaven. Oh and with a warm Pepsi. ergh. I noticed today that some places don’t use fridges, assuming because it gets so cold in England that you don’t usually need them!

We got back from London & I almost immediately passed out from the pain killers whilst Nathan watched a movie. Several times I woke up and intended to help Amy cook dinner but I somehow ended up falling back to sleep. Several hours later I went down stairs to help but Amy was just finishing up, perfect timing!
I sat & painted, frustrated at my immobility & stupidity for injuring myself. Painting is always a great way for me to calm myself & focus.

Ella came home after work it was so good to see her, so much to catch up on. She’d just gotten back from a trip down to Cornwall, an hour away from my home town. Bad timing, Nathan & I are heading down there next week!
We sat & had a few beers whilst Steve finished up dinner, we had a delicious roast with yorkshire puddings! My favorite. I attempted to eat the burnt ones but they were sadly to far gone. They did not get to R.I.B (Rest In Belly)
Jen had also popped over with her two little puppies, Harry & Leila who are so adorable! You just want to cuddle them all day. Leila is very cheeky, she runs up and paws at you for food at the dinner table. Ella had the misfortune of finding Leila’s poop after dinner, she had put her finger in it not knowing what it was at the time. Brilliant!
I went to bed shortly after I was in to much pain needed to lie down, and next thing I know it was tomorrow.