Royal Ascot 2008 - Our Neighbors From Windsor

During race week, every day at 2:00, four horse-drawn carriages ride the 6 miles from Windsor Castle in a 'Royal Procession' to the Ascot race course to watch the races, which start at 2:30. Their route takes them about 100 yards from our front door.

Queen Elizabeth 2 and her main squeeze, Prince Philip the Duke of Edinburgh, are in the first picture, Prince Charles and Camilla are in the second, didn't know the rest. Interestingly, although a crowd gathers to watch them pass, no one makes a sound. No cheering, waving, nothing. But the same people go to see her every day.

Shirleen walked down to the corner and caught these pictures. Looking at the bottom picture, notice the thatched roof on the house in the background. It is very impressive and very uncommon. Our house is across the street the carriage is turning off of, and two doors down to the right.

Royal Ascot 2008 - "Substantial Fascinators"

(The actual published dress code for the races)

Her Majesty’s Representative wishes to point out that only formal day dress with a hat or substantial fascinator will be acceptable.
Off the shoulder, halter neck, spaghetti straps and dresses with a strap of less than one inch and / or mini skirts are considered unsuitable. Midriffs must be covered and trouser suits must be full length and of matching material and colour.

Gentlemen are required to wear either black or grey morning dress, including a waistcoat, with a top hat which must be worn at all times when you are in the Royal Enclosure other than within your private box or facility”. Note that box balconies, restaurant terraces and gardens will be deemed to be “within” the facility.

Overseas visitors are welcome to wear the formal national dress of their country or Service dress. Those not complying with the dress code will be asked to leave the Royal Enclosure and will be relieved of their Royal Enclosure badge.

Remember this lady with the white dress and blue 'bathroom hat' from an earlier post? I got a shot of her myself. This is a shot of her off the BBC web site.

This is the actress Helen Mirren who starred in the movie, "The Queen". She was here on Ladies Day, 2008 for her first Royal Ascot. She was quoted as saying she liked the hat, but it drove her nuts because she couldn't help bumping into people.

And this is our neighbor, the real Queen in 2008, note she is wearing a hat every day and looking elegant.

(pictures pulled off the web both from last year and this year's Royal Ascot, showing some of the most outrageous hats)

Bruce "The Boss" Springsteen - May 31,2008

Bruuuuuuucce!!!!
We got tickets to the Springsteen show, sort of our last hurrah before Rebecca has to fly home after having been here a month. We are all very sad that she is leaving, but she has to go home to get a job and earn tuition for next semester at BYU. She can't work here.
Interesting crowd, every age represented from little kids, to rockers, to families, to grandparents. You know what to expect with his shows, they will be clean, high energy, high quality, and a ton of fun. Plus, with Bruce, you always get your money's worth. (at least compared to other rock shows) He doesn't take an intermission mid-show like most groups, and he gives you a good, solid 2 1/2 hours every night. Most acts go 60-90 minutes these days.
In the first picture you can see the interior of the arena. It is a soccer field for the Arsenal Football Club, on the north side of London. As you can see from the view, we had the most inexpensive seats, and yet they still cost in the neighborhood of $100 per seat. (Repeat after me, "everything costs more in England")

The third picture is a funny one. Brittany is the pink lump asleep on Shirleen's lap, while Shirleen is trying to hold the binoculars in front of the camera lens, to get a picture of the show. After Brittany got her nap, she was ready to party, dancing the show away. The next shot is the whole crew, left to right, Amanda, John, Rebecca, Brittany and Shirleen.

FAN ZONE
The last picture is fuzzy, but is just for the Springsteen fans. Bruce's line up has changed a little since I saw him last a few years ago on the 'Born in the USA' tour. From left to right, sitting on a very fuzzy golden throne is Clarence "The Big Man" Clemmons (hilarious that they got him an actual throne - at the end when Bruce introduced the band he called Clarence "the biggest man in the world"), then Gary Talent on keyboards, then Nils Lofgren on lead guitar. Nils is new, and a great surprise. His has always been one my obscure favorite artists that never got the recognition he deserved, and now he is touring as part of the E Street Band. Got to pull out some of his music to hear again. He was fantastic. Then Bruce at center stage. Next is 'Mighty' Max Weinburg on drums. Now that Max is the bandleader on the Conan O'Brien TV show in between tours, he's really very clean cut looking. Next is 'Miami' Steve Van Zandt, looking pretty good. The last time I saw him he was shot on one of the final episodes of 'The Sopranos.' And then Patty, aka Mrs Bruce Springsteen. She rocked pretty well for a mother of three teenagers. The last time I saw them she stayed in the background, this show she was up front beside Stevie on every song. She sang, played guitar and violin. Interestingly, the final song of the encore was a folksy sounding number from 'The Pete Seeger Sessions' called 'American Land' whose lead instrument was a violin. So Patty got to shine. The piano player, Danny Federici, died a few weeks ago of cancer. They did not introduce the replacement, but he / she did a great job. The show was excellent. He played 5 songs (that I spotted) from the new CD. Interesting omissions, he did not play 'Glory Days', 'Born in the USA' (understandable, I suppose), 'Brilliant Disguise', 'Dancing in the Dark', or the real shocker, 'Thunder Road." I would never have guessed that there would be a Springsteen show without 10,000 fans getting to sing, "The screen door slams, Mary's dress waves, like a vision she dances ..." - truly a goose bump moment. Sorry the kids didn't get to hear that.

John: Drama Club

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John is in the Drama club and they just did their production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Most of the kids in the club had never done drama before, so this was quite a challenge for their first attempt. Those of you who remember Shakespeare can recall the difficult language.
The way they run the club is all of the participants get to both act and do backstage stuff. John was on the costume committee and he play Duke Theseus in the play.
The kids did great. The play was abbreviated to some extent, but still lasted about an hour. John's role started the play and was on stage quite a bit. He had many more lines that I could have remembered. Being the one with the first words in the play, he started a little nervous and tentative, but by the end was great.
The first picture is the Duke and Hippolyta coming on stage to start the play. The last picture is a very relieved cast taking their bows.

John: Baseball

John's on the school baseball team and having a ton of fun!

AFA - May 2008 - Barcelona: Gaudi's "Parc Guell"

I'll admit that I'd never heard of Gaudi prior to visiting Barcelona, but he's everywhere in that town. His style is based on nature with curved edges, rounded shapes, animals and plants. He was a big fan of doing mosaics, sometimes in the weirdest places, like on the park bench above. He was originally not appreciated by the general public, but a rich industrialist named 'Guell' loved his stuff and supported him.
Parc Guell was intended to be a 60-unit housing project for the rich. He put in all of the pictured park features, with fancy buildings at the entrance, fountains, benches and walkways but the houses never came. At the time the park was too far from the city center and the rich didn't want to be that far away.
The pink house was where he lived, now a museum and .... say it with me ... gift shop.

AFA - May 2008 - Barcelona: Gaudi's "Casa Mila"

This one is also called "La Padrera" which means 'the quarry' for its rock-like exterior. (not meant as a compliment) It is a Gaudi designed apartment building, still in use today. You can tour one floor, the attic and the roof. The building is designed around courtyards, so that every apartment has natural lighting on both sides. The roof is the thing that blows your mind. First the roof curves up and down for no reason, other than art. Second, the chimneys are all twisted and square shaped in groups of four. And then there are other items covered in mosaics. You've definitely never seen a roof like this before.