The Queen

I got my hands on this picture of the Queen at the Garden Party I went to. Don't you just love her colourful outfit?

Tea with the Queen...

... and hundreds of other people.

The Canadian High Commission is allotted tickets to the Queen's Garden Parties every year and they give them away by lottery. Any Canadian citizen can apply and then bring a (not necessarily Canadian) guest.

Unfortunately, cameras are not allowed inside, so we had to take this one picture, drop the camera back off at my place, then go into Buckingham Palace. We got to go in through the front entrance and walk through the palace to get to the "backyard" (there must be a more posh name for that). It's funny, because we visited Buckingham Palace as a tourist on one of my first weekends in London. I remember the audio guide talking about how that's the entrance that diplomats and others use to enter the Garden Parties.

Inside the palace grounds, there were lots of people already lined up forming a human hallway for the Queen to walk through to the Royal Tea Tent. Some people had been picked out of the crowd to stand in the "hallway" for the Queen to talk to on the way. It must have taken her about an hour to get through to her tent, and the ominous rainclouds were threatening the whole way but she was prepared with a white umbrella with black trim! (It didn't rain luckily.)

She was dressed in a beautiful light purple suit and matching hat with turquoise trim. Her outfits are always so cheerful, yet classy! Her husband was also there along with Prince Andrew and some members of the Royal Family that I didn't recognise.

Tea was served in the regular tents for us commoners. (There was also a diplomat tent - maybe I'll get to go there next year!) The Queen has a special brew for the Garden Parties, and it was quite good. There were finger sandwiches with the crusts cut off, mini scones with clotted cream and jam, and lots of different mini-desserts. I went back for seconds and thirds of the scones (clotted cream is SO good).

We walked around the big grounds. It's so strange that this palatial oasis is surrounded by city traffic. There was a rose garden, a huge vase statue thing, a garden house to sit in with a croquet set, a tennis court and a small island closed off to us. Maybe the island contains the Queen's secret underground escape hatch!

It was a fun experience - getting so dressed up, seeing the women in their coordinated outfits and the men in top hats, coat and tails, eating delicious tea and treats, and seeing the Queen. If you know you'll be visiting London around this time of the year and you are Canadian, I highly recommend applying for tickets!

A close-up of the last pic so you can see my hat! Hats were mandatory for the women. I splurged and bought one for £35.

Country Walk #4: Gomshall

Sorry, no post about Country Walk #3 because my camera was broken.

It was sunny, warm and the ground was actually dry for this walk (yay! no slippery English mud!).

These shrink-wrapped haystacks look like alien offspring pods.


These country walks are on public footpaths that go right through people's property. We regularly have to go through kissing gates (I'll have to take a pic of that next time) and climb over fences to follow the path, though it's not always obvious where the "path" is! Can you see the little wooden plank that comes out perpendicularly to this fence (under the two horizontal pieces of wood)? That's a step that's used to climb over the fence.

I was scared to go so close to the horses (don't laugh - I'm allergic! ...and maybe slightly paranoid), but I made it through.


I guess they don't look too menacing. I'm just glad they didn't lick me.

We passed through a small town on our walk with this cute British phone booth sort of in the middle of nowhere.

Where's Sam?

Very kitsch, but fun anyway.

Bangs are a big step for me

I finally decided to go for it and get bangs (or a fringe as they call it here) for the first time in over 10 years. I've never liked bangs before, but I LOVE this haircut! Definitely my favourite haircut ever!

If you're ever in London and you have asian hair, you MUST go to this Japanese salon, Moga. My hairdresser was a senior stylist named Yuki and she was great! She suggested the hairstyle after I gave her really basic parameters (need to look professional, but not old, plus I'm hopeless at blowdrying).

It was, of course, expensive (£41), but everything's expensive in Central London. That's the most I've ever paid for a haircut but I sort of saved up after not getting my hair cut for 7 months. Well worth it.