So I have never been that into the Royal family, in fact a few years ago I would have argued about getting rid of them (probably more to wind up my Grandad than actual conviction). In more recent years I have conceded that they make a lot of money for us, so they are worth keeping purely on a financial basis. How nice for them, they are financially viable!
Then in the last 12 months I have fallen in love with Wills and Harry and their lovely ladies (Harry having many more than Wills) and have felt really quite positive about our Royal future.
Now, having lived in a Commonwealth country for just over two months, I am positively brimming with pride for our Windsor contingency.
Twice over the Bank Holiday weekend (yes that’s right they have a Bank Holiday for the Queens’ birthday – every year!!) I have commented on how much more enthusiastic Kiwis are about our Queen than we Brits, “We don’t have a bank holiday every year for her birthday and she’s our Queen”. Both times I have had a very rapid response, “She’s our Queen too!” I am literally an idiot. To think, I was hoping to do a History degree, I so should have!
Our Elizabeth is a legend and it’s not until you move to a country where she doesn’t reside but is still on their money that you realise just how important she is and what a privilege it is to be a country with a decent monarchy. OK they are all a bit scandalous, but since when did our society expect good behaviour from people?! They do amazing work and they inspire others to do amazing things also.
Come on Elizabeth you can beat Victoria’s record!
the things not said 
Here in Scotland Claire the celebrations have really been quite low key. The Scots don’t seem to celebrate these occasions like the English and I’m really quite disappointed about that. According to one source I came across, there were only 100 applications for a licence for a street party in Scotland compared to 1,100 in England and Wales. I can only conclude that the Scots are not fond of the royals or is it something deeper than that!
There were celebrations here in Brodick though with lots of things going on, the sun shone too so we had a really nice day. Our gym class did a display outside on the sea front, I really didn’t want to do it but actually enjoyed it in the end but I wouldn’t want to do it too often!