[Holidays] The Queen's 60th jubilee

Last weekend was the Queen's official diamond jubilee, which meant a four day weekend here in the UK.  Time for a holiday!

I spent all day on Saturday on a train down to Coventry for my friend James' 33rd birthday party. It was a relatively civilised affair, with little in the way of alcohol fuelled silliness; unsurprising really, as James is teetotal. Not that I minded, as it was a nice evening of good food and conversation, and some of the other people there were friends that I'd not seen in years. After sleeping in on Sunday morning we managed to get a few board games in before I left. James' collection has grown even more vast since I left Warwick, and I got to try out a couple of new games. "7 Wonders" is an interesting card game, and I'd be keen to play it again now that I've got a bit of an idea of how it works, whilst "King of Tokyo" was a fun little diversion, but not something that I'd play too often. We also broke out "Pandemic" for a couple of games, and I got to try out the expansion elements that James bought me for my birthday. They really add a lot to the game, and going back to the basic game was almost too easy afterwards!

Pandemic in mid-game. (Credit: thegameon.org)

On Sunday I headed home to see my parents, girlfriend, brother, and brother's girlfriend. We spent a relaxed evening not really doing anything, which was nice.

On Monday we played a few more games of Pandemic, introducing another new person to the game (and winning another convert in the process), before Ellen and I travelled down to London for the jubilee concert. We arrived just in time for the start of the concert, and after a long series of text messages we eventually managed to find her housemate's group towards the back of the Mall near one of the big screens. There were flags and excited people everywhere, and the atmosphere was brilliant. Yes there were lots of drunk people filling the road, which was rather irritating, particularly as I was driving home and couldn't have a drink at all, but they couldn't spoil the party. 

Stevie Wonder was brilliant, Elton John still has that special something, Kylie Minogue was superb, and I was pleasantly surprised by Paul McCartney. Both Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey were also on great form, and their advancing age hasn't diminished the power of their respective voices. Cliff Richard, on the other hand, was far too quiet and completely underwhelming. Not to mention the fact that it was a bit cringe-worthy seeing the pretty young dancers next to him on stage. Madness were underwhelming, which was a shame, and their performance really highlighted how poor their 'singing' is. Then there was Grace Jones, who looked ridiculous and spent her entire song whirling a hula hoop. Bizarre is the only word to describe it.

The crowd on the Mall for the jubilee concert. (Credit: David Brown)

But on the whole it was a great experience, and I'm glad that we went. Now I can say that I did something for the Diamond jubilee. It's unlikely that I'll see another important jubilee in my lifetime, unless the throne goes straight to Prince William, so this was truly a special occasion.