Great Expectasia: Thoughts on the Funeral

We are super removed from British life here. The American School isn't 100% American, but it is SUPER international, and also I don't go there or really talk to anyone, so I absolutely don't know what it's like to be British right now, losing the Queen. But we had a mild experience, so I might as well document it.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, nearly all shops had messages posted about how they are mourning the Queen. Flags have been at half staff until this morning. People have been going on a pilgrimage to Buckingham Palace as well as Westminster Abbey for the last 11 days.

In our experience, school was closed on Monday, and we both watched the ceremonies on the TV and went for a walk to see what it was all like outside.

Overall, the funeral service and all of the ceremonies around it was the most amazingly choreographed thing I have ever seen. I don't think we will ever see anything like that again - so many people. So many different groups organized. Perfect sounds. Perfect visuals. Truly unbelievable and flawless. FOR FUCKING HOURS. Every bit was more beautiful and intense than the last. Until about 1pm - we were then pretty done and figured she could make her way to Windsor without us watching.

I was going to kill my kids, given it was a long weekend, and we're still in an airbnb and people are definitely all going through transitions in different ways, so I went for a walk. Nearly every shop that was part of a chain was closed. McDonalds. All major grocery stories. Mobile stores. Banks. Many mom and pop shops or mom and pop restaurants were open. It was a weird sight to see buses and lots of people but most things were closed. We were gonna meet a friend at the park, and the park was CLOSED. Gate actually locked. But luckily we found another park, so we got to play a little football and football (both kinds) and play with some pups.

It was definitely a weird day. The whole nation was aware of this intense ceremony. I'm sure many people truly don't care and others have negative feelings about it all, but overall it did feel a bit heavy. Not only because of the constant helicopters we can see and hear from our house that were hovering over it all. There was something in the air.

Sam and I met the boys at Camden Market after they had football and we went to shul. We had lunch and then shopped for hours. We could stay all day.

Abbey Road Studios! Just a few blocks from shul. Dropped the kids at Hebrew school and figured we should check it out

THE Abbey Rd crosswalk, but we got the angle wrong. Next time

The grocery store I have been going to, noting they will be CLOSED for the funeral

Matching

We went to see Matilda. Train troubles on the way there, so we had to RUN through Covent Garden, then got out and found we were in SoHo, the Theater District and happened upon Chinatown. What a weird experience to have done no research, not know the city you live in and then just find these SUPER cool areas!! But it was COMPLETELY packed with people, so we hopped on the tube at Piccadilly Circus (there were queues to get on the train - bumper to bumper in the whole tube stop. I nearly had an anxiety attack and we probably got covid) and found dinner in the quieter areas out here. I was worried we were getting close to Hangry.