April 29, 2011.

Day of the Royal Wedding; Kathleen, Colin, and I headed for Westminster to try to catch a glimpse of the exit from the cathedral (scheduled for 12:15). On the tube there were announcements saying Westminster Station was closed due to overcrowding. We opted to off at Green Park instead (one stop further). As soon as we got the train an announcement came on saying Green Park was now closed as well; got out just in time! The station didn’t appear that crowded but the streets definitely were.

We couldn’t get anywhere near Westminster or Buckingham Palace. After about 2 hours of wading through crowds we finally fought our way into Hyde Park and watched the “first kiss” on the balcony of Buckingham Palace (on giant screens in the park).

After that, the wedding was officially over! But it was still a bank holiday so the party was still going strong. Kathleen, Colin, and I met up with some friends (more fellow Canadians). We strolled down Oxford and Regents Streets, the latter of which has rows and rows of union jack flags hanging above the street. We all picked up the “Evening Standard,” which already had full colour photos of the wedding. It was super speedy! We met up with yet more friends (yes, they were also Canadian) and got delicious Mexican food. We all ate too much.

After lunch our group got smaller as Kathleen and Colin went home, some people went shopping, and the rest of us went off in search of a pub. We met with some more friends while pubbing (this time one Canadian and one Russian). We all found ourselves at a place called The Blue Posts. The other girls shared a couple pitchers of Pimms (Britain’s summer drink), while I had a pint. The Bartender serving us seemed thoroughly miserable when we placed our order; like he was having the worst day ever (not mean, mind you, just miserable). He informed us that they were out of most of the garnishes that go into a jug of Pimms. We couldn’t figure out if he was trying to tell us not to buy them or just pre-warning us. At one point we flat out asked if he didn’t want to make them but he said he did. His smile said happy bartender but his eyes said “I want to be anywhere else.”

Midway through the Pimms, one of the girls’ housemate showed up, his name is Andy; the only Brit in the bunch (he was from Doncaster so we chatted about Yorkshire). Andy is a pilot; he flies a private jet for owned by Tesco. He wanted to do something swanky (because of the formal occasion of the wedding) and he suggested that we go to The Ritz, to which everyone grumbled “they’ll never let us in dressed so casually.” He insisted that we try and even offered to pay 50% of whatever we got. That convinced me to give it a go but the others could not be swayed. I will never forgive them for ruining my chance at going to The Ritz. I even serenaded Sarah with my rendition of Puttin’ on the Ritz, but it didn’t help. Instead of The Ritz we went to The York pub at Angel station. After more Pimms and pints were had, I headed back to Colin and Kathleen’s flat.

I spent the evening making my Day 29 video and I introduced Colin and Kathleen to Michael McIntyre. We watched one of his comedy specials; I fell asleep before it was finished – I’m just that much of a party animal.