Bhumibol Birthday: Royal Windows

THERE IS A DOCUMENTARY ON THE RADIO as I speak about blind people on a photography course. Radio 4 are running this in all seriousness. What next? Yodelling for the deaf?
I've been thinking about the Queen quite a lot as I've been staring out of my clear window (my new passtime). She was grumbling on Monday night about being tired. Frankly I'm not surprised! Heading the state aged 82!

And to those who say her Majesty does not "work" I'd say imagine the kind of situation e.g. a wedding. You really don't want to go but duty calls. And all day is spent drest up, on display, being photographed and camcordered at every turn and having to be gracious for hours on end to people you hardly know and might not like. All this running right through to the evening when, toadd insult to injury, something you'd particularly like to watch is on television. Assuming you're not roaring drunk when you return - how are you going to feel? Nothing if not utterly exhausted! Our poor Queen is on such best behaviour every day of the week!

Having said that, if I'd been somehow given a choice, pre-birth of a royal life or a normal life, I'd be the kind of fool to press the royal button!! Rollerskating round Buckingham Palace would be too much of a joy to turn down...

Did you know, every afternoon she's at "home" her Majesty is served tea at three o'clock sharp with her corgis at her feet. A little pot of tea is brought in for Ma'am, along with a multistorey silver cake stand loaded up and brimming with creamy dainties. In strict contravention of the Royal Vet's instructions, her Majesty feeds every one of these to the baying, squabbling, misbehaving eight-strong pack of hounds as they charge round the room trying to catch them in their elongated noses... Half an hour later the obsequious servants return to one empty teacup and a Persian rug now strewn with dog-hairs, cake crumbs and creamy paw prints. And straight-faced, her Majesty claims to have noshed the entire stack of creamies herself!

Because I would not put it past Evilstein to poke out my hamsters himself, I kept htem stahsed under deep cover until Tuesday evening. Out they pinged merrily in a furry jamboree when finally I undid the tartan clothes bag.... I could not help noticing they'd polished off all four handfuls of hammymix and birdseed I put out on Monday morning (and probably stashed it directly in their teabox) - they had done this so efficiently that not a stray seed remained on open display barely a day later. A couple of broccoli-sprigs were the only untidiness. I've made them a public toilet now and a toy and they actually use both. The latrine is an empty Parmesan tub with the biggest flap open. Ugh it smells, but if I washed it too well they'd forget what it's there for knowing them and start weeing in the toilet tubes again (which made Itchy really stink - I think being lowest pecking order she got the lavatorial end to sleep in ...)

The special toy is two toilet tubes fixed together with random holes cut all around on both. These are slotted into a Jaffa Cakes box with more holes cut into all six sides. Itchy especially loves diving in and peering out. She looks so funny with her tubby bum blocking up the hole, two pink and stubby legs akimbo as she vanishes inside....

I have just found out I may have that winter SAD thing. TK Kerouac posted a fairly clinical description of the condition (Monday 3 December post) and it was me down to a T. Especially when I found out it often manifests as exhaustion rather than straight "depression". Last night I was asleep by early evening, maybe 6pm. And slept on and off (but mostly on) all the way through till 2pm this afternoon... This may have something to do with London being on such a high latitude. Though we're hardly arctic circle, in deepest midwinter we do get barely more than seven and a half hours of very faint, watery daylight. That is miserably depressing... And each time I try to get more active and to do things I pay for it in even worse weariness afterwards. So I can't win!

Anyway, happy 80th birthday to King Bhumibol of Thailand, longest-serving monarch in the world!

Videos of the day:
King Bhumibol, Great King of Thailand
Boney M: Rivers of Babylon (!)

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Two blogs of people (they are a couple) who moved from Amsterdam to Adelaide recently:

Nicole http://nicolemobile.blogspot.com (she's already featured here)

Vincent http://vincentmobile.blogspot.com (brand new blog)
It's fascinating to see a new life spanning out before you...

Another expat blogger I know is Welshcakes Limoncello who blogs about her current life in Sicily http://sicilyscene.blogspot.com

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Sketches of Japanese Manners and Customes: a facsimile 1850s book courtesy of Nicole!