Follow the yellow brick road

The things I do for Brownies. Dressing up in jeans and check on the Friday and being in black and white, then on Saturday and Sunday we became our characters.

Celebrating my hero, Shackleton

I'm getting used to twitter now and the biggest benefit so far has been knowing about the free tickets to attend the Shackleton centenary event at Westminster Abbey. The dresscode was posh and all I kept thinking when I went through the doors was of William and Catherine's wedding. Westminster Abbey is amazing. I sat at the front next to a gentleman who is currently saving to ski to the pole.

Princess Anne arrived and the VIP's walked through to the choir behind the screen. The service was fantastic and gave me goosebumps. I kept thinking of the Shackleton walk and how I did that on a full tummy, well rested and with the right clothing.

The bango playing a song from Kildare was a lovely touch.

The Bishop did a phenomenal speech and said something I will always remember a quote. "Scott for scientific method, Amundsen for speed and efficiency but when disaster strikes and all hope it gone, get down on your knees and pray for Shackleton.'

State opening of Parliament

There are perks of working in London and one of them I experienced today, the State Opening of Parliament. Only 5 minutes from the office, we thought we would 'pop over'. Trouble was, popping over meant walking loads of diversions so we ended up walking to Whitehall via Buckingham Palace! We only just got there in time to watch a carriage go by, not enough time to get a picture! So we started walking back, but as we walked past Horseguards I saw horses....we saw the wrong carriage! So we had to leg it back and watched the Queen on her journey to open Parliament. I say we saw the queen, we actually saw an arm in a carriage...

Afternoon tea at the Ritz

Months ago I booked afternoon tea at The Ritz. It was rather surreal finishing work and walking to The Ritz. It's tiny, the palm court doesn't have many tables. It's as I imagined, very opulent and grand. The service was impeccable, even down to offering to take our picture half way through the tea. Gorgeous sandwiches and 2 refills, warm scones with tonnes of clotted cream and gorgeous cakes. I don't drink tea but tried the Royal Ritz Blend. I must have liked it, I drank 10 cups!

Stilton cheese rolling on May Day

I love British traditions and the May Day celebrations are the crème de la crème. I watched Stilton cheese rolling in Stilton. The street was closed off and filled with stalls and a fair. On the walk from abandoning the car, local residents set up stalls of car boot stuff in their gardens. It was quite surreal. Timings were extremely loose, so I spent hours stood waiting for the rolling to begin. One local lad thought he was at Glastonbury, he was shouting to the crowd. I watched singers, majorettes and my favourite - a demo of the new defibrillator bought by the chemist.

The cheese rolling started with parading the garland and raising money for the local guide group. Then the teams paraded around the area cordoned off for the cheese rolling. We had a team of Queen Elizabeth, men in 60's gear, union jacks everywhere. The rolling started with the children's teams first. The rules are that every team member must touch the wooden cheese at some point down the course. Due to it's shape, it goes in every which direction.

A great Bank Holiday Monday.