Pomp, Pageantry & Pissing It Down!!! We celebrated the Diamond Jubilee 2012!!

We have waited for what feels like a REALLY long time for today; to be fair it may have only been a couple of months, but the UK has gradually become red, white and blue and anyone who knows us knows we LOVE a reason to dress up and celebrate! So today we celebrated the Diamond Jubilee in red, white and blue (oh and pink!)

Arriving at today had been somewhat of a roller coaster journey. You may have seen that our flat is on the river, so we thought we would have front row seats to see the Jubilee flotilla without leaving our flat - but NOPE, the procession was set to start just 2 bridges further up! Gutted!

We came to terms with that and decided that we should then head to Battersea Park to celebrate. We set about getting a group together, but once we had our group we found out that tickets were SOLD OUT! Gutted again!

So, left with no definite plans and no flotilla coming past our flat we were had to contemplate heading to join the masses at Tower Bridge and hope that we could get there early enough to get a space. After all, it was the largest flotilla on the river for centuries and only the second Diamond Jubilee EVER, so it's not like we'll get another Jubilee in our life times!

Funny how life is sometimes though. If you read our post 'The end of world as we know it', you'll know we had the worst week recently, finding out that we couldn't work together anymore, but after a weekend of sadness we faced the disappointment head on and went on to have the BEST FREAKING DAY EVER! As part of that day, we won tickets to the Jubilee Party at Battersea Park and today's plans were suddenly made!!!

We also read that the mustering was taking place on our part of the river and the day looked set!

We actually ended up meeting one of Laura's friends from the USA by Tower Bridge and seeing the Avenue of Sails set up and ready last night, but when we woke at 10am to find the river outside our window bustling with boats it was time to get EXCITED! The sea cadets were busy setting up and the barges were turning round, the crowd was gathering on the path below and we couldn't resist standing outside in our dressing gowns to take in the growing excitement. In doing so we got told by one of the boat watchers on the path below that 'we weren't getting the full experience unless we were getting wet' hahaha! After the boats practicing their musical numbers had passed by, we thought we should get ready to go out. Sarah was so excited she cried - yes, really - exclaiming 'I have NO idea how I got soooooooo lucky!' Someone was very excited haha!

When we were 'union-jacked' and as waterproofed as we could be, we headed out to join the crowds. Our usually quiet part of the Thames was BUSY - so many people had put up bunting and almost everyone was carrying a flag. It really was red, white and blue everywhere you looked. As we crossed Wandsworth Bridge, Sarah's excitement was at its peak - we were hanging over the bridge literally talking to the rowers!

The walk to Battersea Park disappeared quickly as the crowds grew and we were waved in with our wristbands - picked up from the River Pageant's office earlier in the week (Sarah had to recite her poem and pose for a photo in the office before getting them!) and we made our way straight to the river, through muddy paths and trees - gotta love Battersea Park!!!

The crowds were already 5 or 6 deep along the bank, but Laura spotted a gap and by the time the boats arrived we were 2 people back and had a great view (avoiding the flags) - it was AMAZING!!! According to the news, 1.25million people watched the flotilla! As the bells chimed on the belfry at the start and the first few boats approached the crowd went mad - but when the Glorianna boat was spotted, the volume went up a notch and excitement grew - it even had Steve Redgrave (the UK's most successful rowing Olympian with 5 gold medals!!!) and Matthew Pinscent (another Olympic medal winner) rowing! That was the boat that had appeared in ALL the papers and it was all so real, we were watching the JUBILEE FLOTILLA - how many people can say 'I was there!' - we can!!!

After 15 minutes, the whispers started that the Queen was in view and the crowd had flags at the ready....Laura had her camera and Sarah had her video camera and we were set! The river isn't that wide and as the Spirit of Chartwell appeared, complete with it's 10,000 blooms, it was obvious where the Queen was! There are certain moments in life where you can say you are proud to be British, and today was one of them. Royalist or not, there are few occasions where you stand with people focused purely on supporting your country and with all the flags waving and the cheers as the Royal family sailed past, you couldn't feel anything but patriotic!

From start to finish, the different types of boats, the music blasting out and the pomp and pageantry entertained us. Even the rain couldn't clear the crowds, umbrellas at the ready we stayed until the end and saw all 1100 boats pass, a whole 75 minutes from start to finish. Once it had ended we headed back into the park for a bizarre and funny set of experiences.

First stop was a reggae rave in front of an old double decker bus - umbrellas bobbing up and down and music blaring, NO-ONE was ready to head home. From there we came across the world's tallest cake judging - who knows who won, but the guy compering was hilarious and everyone left with cake! There were vans serving tea & biscuits, we got HobNobs and met plenty of people who had gone ALL out on outfits! Next stop was the Vintage village and we snaked in and out of the tents, saw girls getting 50's makeup and hairstyles, knitted goods, soooooooo many cakes, clothes through the eras and arts & crafts to take part in!

Eating our share of the giant cake!

Passing Carters Steam Fair, we decided to give the rides a miss as we were SOAKED and headed to the Classic Car Boot sale via Cath Kitson's touring van, as we approached, camera at the ready, the rain decided to step it up and with it washed away our last bit of British perseverance - it was home time!

One devoted fan left... that or she doesn't have a TV at home.

If we hadn't won the tickets I'm sure it would have been a good day, but thanks to some 'cheesy' poetry, a bit of luck and Twitter (thanks again @riverpageant) our day was definitely one to remember for all the right reasons! We wouldn't have minded staying dry though! :)

Braving the weather!

The long walk home was a happy one - we came, we saw and we can say WE WERE THERE! We even got to see the boats head home at the end of the night - blowing their horns as they passed. We hope the Queen had a great day too!!!

Please watch our video on our experience at the River Pageant!

What did you do to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee??

Love always,

Sarah & Laura xo