The Funeral of Queen Elizabeth II - It Was Wonderful!

I was glued to the television yesterday, as was much of the world, watching the official funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. I was fascinated by the entire event. I had the BBC feed on my television and on my cell phone, and was watching until the end, despite having to help a couple of customers. I got to see all of the important things - the larger and longer service at Westminster, the walk to Windsor Castle, and the shorter final ceremony there. I loved the two corgi dogs and her horse, and got to see the "breaking of the wand" and the sinking of the casket to wrap things up. 

I especially wanted to see the Lord Chamberlain "break 
the rod", the pieces of which were then placed on top 
of the coffin and buried with the Queen. It was a lot 
easier with the ferrule in it, I suppose in days gone 
by, they would have broken it by breaking it across 
the thigh. 

I adore bagpipes, and there were a lot of them, but where they were used singly, they were so very effective. There's nothing quite like that instrument to pull at the heart strings, at least for me. The family was cohesive and supportive, and Charles held that stiff upper lip during what was, I'm quite sure, a very difficult public performance. 

There were two lone pipers at the ceremony, one at 
Westminster (this one), and one at Windsor (her personal 
piper who awakened her every morning). I would love 
to be awakened by a piper's song every morning. 

DH was curious about seating arrangements of foreign dignitaries, and that was a bit harder to find, but I did fine this lovely article that went into a nice bit of detail about those who attended from around the world. ( bbc.com/news/uk-62890879 ). If you're curious, you might be interested in it as well. I loved the fact that the Bidens arrived almost half an hour late because of traffic and thus, were seated in row 14, quite a ways back in the seating. This is because they had to drive over in "The Beast" - the armored car that Secret Service insists be used for transportation. The rest of the dignitaries took the bus that was made available to them, but no ... we had to be the "special little snowflake". Good grief! Serves him right, being seated so far back. 

Two of the Queen's Corgis were at Windsor to bid her 
farewell, as was her favorite pony. She wasn't hale 
enough for horses anymore, but downgraded to a 
lovely pony instead, so that she could continue 
riding - a life long love of hers. 

So, I'm off to the pool today, then a run down to the bank. Tomorrow will be hellish busy starting with a 7:30 appointment to get my car serviced, so I've got to get the banking done today. No choice. Have a wonderful Tuesday and I'll be back tomorrow, and once again, thanks to Great Britain for a truly wonderful funeral. Well done! Slava Ukraine.