The Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle

Well, the Royal Wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle is here. As I type this, it's sunny and beautiful outside and from what I hear, tomorrow, their wedding day, should be sunny too. Fingers crossed. I'm very pleased about that! (smile) As someone who has lived in England for twelve years and counting, I know that these sunny days are not the norm, so we must relish them while we can. I'm happy for Harry and Meghan, because I believe in love and they seem so in love. I wish them all the very best!

My hubby and I went to London to watch the procession at William and Kate's wedding in 2011, mostly because we were already in London for our own anniversary which we share with them. But we also wanted to experience history up close. It was wonderful. Sadly, we won't be able to get to Windsor for Harry and Meghan's big day, but we'll definitely be watching it on television.

When we were out the other day doing grocery shopping, I saw some souvenirs so I picked up a few. They were all inexpensive and I thought that once again it's all a part of history. These things along with other things I've picked up for bargain prices over the years, royal and otherwise, will always remind me of my England years. Check them out below.

commemorative spoon

side of Harry and Meghan cup

front of Harry and Meghan cup

commemorative plate

bridal fancy tea cakes

The special little cakes are my favorite. Lol. I've eaten two. They're white cake inside and are very wedding cake-like. I'll save the rest for tomorrow to share with hubby.

All of this wedding talk takes me back to my own wedding here in England twelve years ago. There are slight similarities between Meghan and I. We both married/will marry a British man (hers is a prince) and we are both American. We are also both women of color....I'm African-American and she is a biracial American. That's kind of where the similarities end mostly. She is marrying into a life of great privilege, but also one of great scrutiny, as we've already seen. I live a "normal" life that I enjoy very much, but it has come with its challenges as I've worked to immerse myself into life in another country. Things have worked out pretty well for me and I'm sure that Meghan will do fantastic! Meghan already seems to be taking to her new life beautifully.

I simply just wish her well...from one American bride to another...as she goes on this journey. All the very best!

Congratulations to Harry and Meghan!

Flowers for An Anniversary

Today is our wedding anniversary and over the weekend Brit Boy gave me these beautiful flowers to start the celebration early. They remind me of the flowers that he sent to me on our wedding day! :)

 

Here's to true love!

Our Trip to The Royal Wedding

We had a wonderful wedding anniversary and our trip to London was historic and lots of fun. The royal wedding had London all abuzz when we got there. Let me back up a bit though. And I have a variety of photos, so I'll just scatter them within this post independently with captions :)

We headed to London on Thursday morning, the 28th, by bus and train. When we arrived in London we made our way to our hotel to drop off our bags. Then we headed out to see the last minute preparations and see what kind of action was going on. We headed to Westminster Abbey and there were loads of people walking around. There were loads of media around and we saw recognizable reporters amongst the crowds getting interviews with people in the crowds. There were quite a few people camped out too and there was a definite buzz in the air.

Leading up to the side of Westminster Abbey

Front of Westminster Abbey the day before royal wedding

Some of the media across from Westminster Abbey

Then we headed to Buckingham Palace to check things out. Lots of people were camped out along The Mall and there were loads of media and people walking about here too, but the crowds weren’t as big. Since this was a bit of a strategic trip out, we decided that standing along The Mall would be the best place for us to catch a glimpse of things the next day. We really enjoyed soaking up the atmosphere as there was lots of happy anticipation in the air.

Top: Some media across from Buckingham Palace;Middle: Views along The Mall; Bottom: On the way to The Mall (all taken the day before the wedding)

I noticed something when we were watching the various media outlets in their makeshift studios. Whenever they wanted to have cheering in the background, they would have someone on their staff out to the side waving their arms in order to get people to whoop and holler :) And nearly every one of the news studios from different countries did it. A great unifying practice ;-) They also motioned people over who had signs so that they could get them in the background of their live shots whilst their anchors interviewed people. It was surreal and very orchestrated. Who knew? ;-) It was fun to watch. Brit Boy and I hung out for a while longer and played “spot the news anchor”, and then we headed off for a bite to eat. Then we went back to the hotel to chill in preparation for our early start the next day.

On the day of the royal wedding, also our wedding anniversary, we got up and out a bit before 6am. Some people were already out besides those who camped overnight, but not that many. We took a place along The Mall and stood behind some ladies who had camped out and a couple who got there a few minutes before us. Later loads of people filled in behind us. We got a very good spot considering the fact that we didn’t camp out for a spot. The couple in front of us were very nice and we chatted a lot. It was a great way to pass the time together as we all waited. The couple were from the United States like myself and have been living in London for a short time due to the husband’s short-term job assignment here. The ladies who camped out were from South Africa and England, whilst behind us there was a lady from Argentina. It was a very eclectic group in our little section. My own main personal intention for going to see the royal wedding was to experience this global event and that’s exactly what it was. I heard many accents from all around the UK, the USA, continental Europe, Africa, Asia, and everywhere around the world. It was truly a sea of humanity! And I loved that Brit Boy and I got the chance to be a part of this crowd and a part of history.

We were very lucky to get such a good place to watch. Crowds quickly swarmed in right after we got there. It was quite a crunch to be standing there and not be able to move our feet, but it was worth it in the end. Speaking of feet, our hands and feet were freezing. It was a chilly day and there was a cold wind blowing.

Top: The guards & tv cameras; Middle: The Fabulous Band; Bottom: Excited happy people :)

We tried to get some photos, but it was a tough assignment :) Some are rather blurred so I won’t bore you with them. When the royals were heading to the church, the cars sped by very quickly and the crowd went into a frenzy...so I got some pretty random shots. We could hear the ceremony on loudspeakers and they had these programs for sale for £2.




When they all headed back to Buckingham Palace, they came back at a slower pace but it was still tough to get a good shot. But I’ll tell you, seeing it all was something that I’ll never forget :)

Top four: Prince William & Kate; Middle: Prince Charles, Duchess of Cornwall, & Kate's parents; Bottom two: Queen Elizabeth & the Duke of Edinburgh

After they all passed by we made our way down The Mall towards Buckingham Palace. We had been standing for about seven hours so we were a bit stiff. The crowd bottlenecked at one point, so we took a shortcut through St. James Park and somehow got closer to the palace than we expected considering how enormous the crowd was. It was quite a crush so my photos turned out kinda random, but I got a few. We saw the balcony appearance and both of the kisses.

All of the above: the balcony appearance :)

And then it was over. We didn’t see Prince William and Kate drive out in the car, because like many others we had dispersed. However, the memories of those days will stay with us forever!

Here are a few inexpensive things we picked up as souvenirs. The free things were being passed out at or around train stations.

Top: flag £1; Middle: tea - free; Bottom: card - free:)

Brit Boy and I made our way out of the crowd slowly...it was quite a crunch, and then we headed to Covent Garden to have our anniversary lunch/dinner. It was so delicious and we were so hungry by that point. It was truly a wonderful day...and it was one that we’ll never forget. We were so happy to be there to witness it all!

The Mall heading to Buckingham Palace the day after the royal wedding:)

The day after, we had a bit of time to kill before we caught our train, so we went back to see how things were the day after. A lot of the scaffolding was being dismantled along The Mall and at the temporary television studios. And the sky was a beautiful blue...a perfect way to end a great trip!

P.S. ~ Check out Brit Boy's post about it at his blog: Getting Busy Living

Trip to London & Matrimony

I just wanted to drop in with a short post and say hello :) Brit Boy and I are headed out tomorrow morning on another London adventure. As I mentioned in this post, we are going for a visit to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary. We had planned our trip and then coincidentally, the royal wedding was announced. So I guess that we'll be right there to see what we can see. I'll take some pics if I can get any. Wish me luck! ;-) Even if I don't get any royal-esque pics, I'll hopefully get something to share here. So watch this space!

Have a great rest of the week and I'll be back to share in a few days.

P.S. ~ Also, I have a couple of items that I've been sent to review and I'll be sharing those in future posts. One tastes really great and one is very smooth...

Until next time...

Back on My Journey

I’ve been a bit absent from my blog the last few days. Brit Boy and I have been wallowing a bit more in the afterglow of the holidays before we go along with everyone else into the first full week of the new year :-) So we chilled out this weekend and didn’t go anywhere and it was just great. Saturday we slept in and we relished just sitting around watching movies and just letting the day happen.

Then on Sunday we woke up at about 8am and turned on the TV and started watching this show about people going into the second act of their lives and doing something they always wanted to do. It was great. We ended up watching about three hour-long episodes from bed with one trip downstairs to get green tea and we so enjoyed both…the tea and the show.

They were showing episodes all day. We were so enthralled that we couldn’t tear ourselves away. So while we were getting dressed, we recorded what we were missing. We were hooked :-) But it was good to be hooked on this.

When we were dressed and were sitting down to have lunch, we picked up with watching again. I guess that we were both so into it because we were open to what it was saying…that it’s never too late to do something different with your life.

Brit Boy and I are at a point in our lives where we have been out of school a couple of decades, so we have experienced life a bit. But the way we look at it, there is more experience, life, happiness and fulfillment out there to be had. So I think that we both were very receptive to this show and ready to receive the message. Most of the people on the programs were a decade or two decades older than us, but age was irrelevant in the end. You don’t lose your passions in life just because you have counted more birthdays. What struck me was the underlying theme in all of the episodes, which was to do what you want with your life now, while you have your life to live. Most of the people profiled on the show had long held dreams of pursuing something else, but had to make a living at something else in order to raise their families. Then their kids grew up and they decided it was time for them to take on the second acts in their lives. You could see the twinkle in their eyes along with a bit of anxiety, but it was the greatest thing to see people rediscover a part of themselves.

Seeing this show was so timely for me personally. I wrote in my end of year post that getting separated from Brit Boy twice while we were in London was a good thing for me. Well I feel like the London experiences and how I have been feeling lately and even this show have all converged at this moment to pull me out of this sleep I’ve been in somewhat for quite a while. Sometimes clarity comes in roundabout ways :-)

In a couple of months, I will have been in England for three years and it’s only now that I am really starting to take a real look around. To be truthful, it has been scary. When I moved here, I was doing a whole lot of things at one time. I’ve read since that there are certain life experiences that knock us for a loop even when they are good things. This article said that death of course shakes you up, but the list also included: leaving a job/changing careers, getting married, and moving to name a few. Well, when I came over here in March of 2006, I had done all of them at the same time. I left my job right before Christmas in 2005; eight days later my mom passed away; then I was still trying to be optimistic about getting married (I loved Brit Boy and wanted to marry him, but I was so sad about my mom. I just wanted to go to bed); and then I moved away from the familiarity of home across the Atlantic and I was not myself. Like I said, there were happy things in there, except for my mom’s passing. The good things were things that I wanted, but grief turned everything so upside down.

So I arrived here seriously diluted, but it was sink or swim, so I tried to swim. That didn’t work out so good. I had been here before many times, but visiting is nothing like living somewhere and the culture shock that is normal, just hit me full on as it mixed with everything else. It was too much to take, so I shut down a lot of who I was before. I got married and then I became a lady in waiting…waiting for what I didn’t know.

As I’ve written previously, it’s taken some time, but now I’m finding my groove again. A LOT has challenged me in the last few years and day by day, the Dori I knew before has reappeared, and a lot of that started with beginning to write this blog. And I’m so grateful to all of you that come here to read what I write. It has been so therapeutic to just show up here. I’m more of who I used to be, but there is also change in me…one of the beautiful by-products of living life. We grow :-)

Now that I am getting more connected with myself again, I’m asking myself lately…”So what do you want to do now Dori?” Well, I have a few ideas, but they aren’t in full focus yet. However, that show yesterday showed me that you should just go for it in life. So I think I will :-) It's so true what they say...life is short. My favorite line out of “The Shawshank Redemption” is, we should…”get busy livin’ or get busy dying”.

So I’m back on my journey again and I hope to explore life more here on my blog in this brand new year.