Project 366 – 155 – 161

3 June – down at Tower Bridge trying to catch sight of the Thames river pageant in celebration of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee. This was the closest we could get…

4 June – better luck today – the sun came out to enjoy the best of British talent performing for the Queen outside Buckingham Palace. The Mall was full to the brim so the overflow watched it in Hyde Park – the atmosphere was amazing.

5 June – back in Hyde Park and the Red Arrows flypast Buckingham Palace turning the sky red, white and blue. The Queen seemed truly touched by the turnout. What a great time to be British!

6 June – special shortbread biscuit tin. God save the Queen.

7 June – taking advantage of the long weekend, I took a short flight to explore Slovenia with my friend Lynsey. This is the view from our apartment.

8 June – a glimpse of blue sky over the lovely city of Ljubljana.

9 June – Lake Bled in the Slovenian Alps looks majestic, even on a gloomy day.

Into the wild

It seems – fingers crossed – that the unrest has calmed down in the UK.

In other news, a group of Brits camping in the Arctic in Norway were last week, attacked by a polar bear.

I was reading the paper on the tube and it sounded horrific, and then suddenly parts of the story started to click into place. My friend Spike is in Norway, yes, that’s the place, Svarlbard, ah, and I think he’s with BSES (British Schools Exploring Society), he’s one of the group leaders, I hope he’s alright…

The next morning I logged onto facebook and thought I’d just check out his profile. It was bombarded and I felt a bit queasy. It was indeed my dear friend Spike Reid, friend of almost 10 years from university, who had picked up the gun and shot the polar bear after it attacked their camp site. This was devastating news.

Spike is a very positive character, full of enthusiasm for getting out and exploring the world. Just some of the feats he has recently completed are: navigating the globe along the line of 50° North in a Land Rover, climbing in the Altai mountains in Russia, and cycling solo from Lands End to John O’Groats. He is an inspiration to all he meets and he was hugely excited about this expedition when I saw him a few weeks ago for his birthday.

In a scary twist of fate, he is now recovering from plastic surgery and serious injuries in hospital. I have everything crossed that he’ll be ok and am so glad he has lived to tell the tale. I know for a fact it won’t stop him enjoying life and everything it offers the minute he feels able to do so.

My condolences go out to the family of Horatio Chapple who was killed in the incident.

London never disappoints?

OK, at the end of my last post, I stated that London never disappoints.

But it appears that this week it has. Or at least a small minority of people in it have.

I do not know what is going on, but I do know that there is absolutely no reason for it. Setting other people’s cars on fire, breaking into shops and stealing things, smashing into homes, destroying people’s livelihood. It sounds like a scene out of the turmoiled Middle East, not Great Britain. Luckily I have not directly witnessed the madness – yet. Another blogger was not so fortunate.

What exactly are people trying to achieve? What are they angry about? None of us really know, and I don’t think those committing the crimes do either.

I am not going to suggest a solution, as I do not know what it is, but clearly more force and serious penalties need to be issued to assert some kind of control.

Last night I sat and watched the news in disbelief. I just hope tonight I am not again going to sleep to the sound of constant sirens, it’s most disconcerting. I’m glad they’ve drafted in some Angels from the North to help out 🙂