May 2, 2015

He hasn't even been born yet, and I already hate the new Royal Baby.

For one, he (or she, but for convenience and to back my own bet that the baby will be a little Prince, I'm going to keep saying 'he') is so late, that not only do I not share a birthday with the Royal Baby, I don't even share a birth month with him anymore.

I've complained about this many times before. In fact, just this morning, I started to write a blog post about how late the Royal Baby was and how it's inconveniencing everyone. It was set to be posted today.

And then, like the entitled little brother of the future King that he is, the Royal Baby chose to be born today. 

But Kate is in the hospital, and if all goes well, Royal Baby #2 will be born today, and no matter how many sleepless nights he caused me, I am so excited. 

I'll keep you updated.

Update: Just to clarify, I don't actually hate the Royal Baby. I could never hate anyone who could potentially look as cute as George looks right now. 

Update: The fastest news source is obviously Twitter. There are a score of reporters and photographers who are actually outside Lindo Wing, and even more Royal watchers, who, although they are sitting at home, are filled with delightful facts about past Royal births and possible baby names.

Of course, if you are even remotely interested in the Royal Baby, you absolutely must follow Kensington Palace on Twitter. They were the first to tweet when George was born, and also when he was named George, so you can be sure that they'll do it this time around too.

Update: In the last two hours, there have been twenty-five thousand tweets about #RoyalBaby. Five of them were from me.

Update: I was wrong. It's a girl.

IT'S A GIRL!!

I'm so exhausted that I can't even be sufficiently excited about this.

Congratulations to William and Kate and George.

I'm so relieved that everything went well, and that both mother and daughter are healthy. Congratulations to the Cambridges! #RoyalBaby

— Nikita (@NikitaWhoWrites) May 2, 2015

Update: The baby was born at 8:24 am, and weighs 8 pounds and 3 ounces. She is fourth in line to the throne, after her grandfather, her father, and big brother George.

And she already has a Wikipedia page, bless her. She's not even half an hour old.

Update: 

(I've been wanting to use this Harry Potter reference from the minute I found out that Kate was in labour, but it all happened so quickly that I didn't get a chance.)

Update: Oh. William's leaving.

At least, I think he is. To get George.

Update: He is.

We've been told he's gone to get George, but that he also might not get him if he's not at his best for the media.

Update: IT'S GEORGE!

HE'S HERE!

AND HE'S WAVING!

Prince George arrives at hospital to meet his new baby sister http://t.co/wz34a1POJu

— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 2, 2015

HIS HAIR IS SO CUTE.

WILLIAM JUST GAVE HIM A KISS, WHAT A GOOD BOY GEORGE IS.

SO WELL BEHAVED.

WE ALL LOVE GEORGE.

Well, I do, anyway. No matter how many younger sisters he has.

Update: George has gone home, apparently. It's a wonder no one saw him leave (or did he use a back entrance?)

Either way, there is talk that William and Kate and Baby Cambridge will be leaving the hospital today, but closer to 7 pm. Sky News seems to be an excellence source for videos, so if my live stream fails again, like it does every time some thing important is happening with the Cambridges, I'll have to rely on that.

Update: Excellent news. The Cambridges minus George are going to be leaving the hospital even earlier than predicted (in around ten minutes from now) and I've managed to get a live stream going! So far it's just those Lindo Wing doors that I once loved but have now grown to hate, but I can see people moving around inside.

Update: Someone just came out! It's not them - some sort of aide. This suspense is killing me.

Update: My hands are shaking. I've refreshed my Twitter feed nearly fifty times in the last minute. Come on!

Update: She's here! It's the new Princess!

And she is the most precious little thing. 

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge depart the Lindo Wing with their daughter http://t.co/N0qfsBJiKl pic.twitter.com/IFHwevNe8e

— HuffPost UK (@HuffPostUK) May 2, 2015

Update: They went back in, and then came back out and now they've all gone home.

Watch: The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge leave the Lindo Wing with their new baby daughter http://t.co/skCgjzpZbF

— Sky News (@SkyNews) May 2, 2015

And I'm exhausted. It's been a long twelve hours.

Now to sleep. And when I wake up tomorrow, William and Kate will probably announce their daughter's name, and then I can write them a letter saying congratulations and then they'll retire to their Palace and this will all finally be over.

Happy Birthday, Princess of Cambridge. I'll see you at your Christening.

N

Note: This is breaking news, so to speak, so obviously I do not have all the information at once. This post will be updated as and when I learn something new.

Hurry Up, Royal Baby!

My birthday was this week and the Royal Baby hasn't been born yet, and now I'm vexed.

Royal Babies Rule! (Well, They Will Someday)

Last week, we saw some truly horrific things happen around the world (If you don't already know what I'm talking about, good for you, ignorance really is bliss.).

But since it's almost Christmas, and I'm in a really good mood, I'm going to risk the chance of going to the darkest place in hell, and completely skim over all terrorist attacks and only talk about royal babies.

Lots and lots of royal news this month, after a relatively dry spell. To begin with, two royal babies were born - TWO.

The twin children of Prince Albert II of Monaco and his wife, Princess Charlene, were born on the 10th of December. The daughter, Princess Gabriella, was born two minutes before her younger brother, Jacques, Hereditary Prince of Monaco, but because Monaco still follows the principle of male primogeniture, poor Gabriella is only second in line to the throne. As consolation, perhaps, she was given the title of Countess of Carladès, but it's not as though she's going to appreciate that much when she's told that the reason she won't be Queen is because she's a girl.

But that's a few years in the future. For now, both Jacques and Gabriella are probably sleeping in their cradles, not really bothered about anything at all, let alone the prospect of ruling a country. The babies will be introduced to the Monegasque public on the 7th of January, which has been declared a public holiday... for some reason? Was the day Prince George was born a public holiday? Well, either way, there are some adorable pictures to look forward too.

Speaking of adorable pictures: In the spirit of Christmas, The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge released three new pictures of this charmer:

The latest photos of Prince George for you! Our little Prince is pictured sitting on the steps of Kensington Palace. pic.twitter.com/kWkj9aAtTz
— Clarence House (@ClarenceHouse) December 13, 2014

He's growing up too fast, faster than I can handle. Very soon, he won't be making grumpy faces at the camera any more, and then what?

But thankfully, I'll always have this picture of George to remember him by.

Not to be outdone, the Swedish Royal Family brought in their own cute child in a knitted jumper. And they made it into a video, just to give themselves an edge in this competition between royal babies.

I give you, Princess Estelle of Sweden.



I was introduced to Princess Estelle through Order of Splendor, and I instantly adored her, She had the most sass that I have ever seen in a child, let alone a royal baby. In fact, I'm almost sorry that George came along, because that meant I paid less attention to her. But then I'm also not sorry, because Prince George.

A similar situation is going to be created next year, when Baby Cambridge No. 2 is born, and I shift my attention from George to him/her. These royals really need to stop having children in such quick succession.

Which leads me to the last piece of royal news. Princess Madeleine of Sweden and Chris O'Neill have announced that they are expecting their second child. Their first child, Leonore, will turn 1 this coming February, so that will make it two children in two years for Madeleine and Chris. Which is only a little bit better than the Cambridges - if Prince George had been born in February, they would have been two for two too (Alliteration).

~

That's all for this post. I'll have more news on each of these royal babies as they are born/presented to the public/grow up, and until then I'll continue to type away about something or the other.

Happy Christmas, and best wishes this festive season if you don't celebrate Christmas. Don't forget to write to your favourite royal!

N

UPDATE: Literally minutes after I published this post (And I don't use the word literally lightly), I saw on Twitter that the first photos of Prince Jacques and Princess Gabriella had been released. Take a look.

First PICS of Monaco's twins! Albert & Charlene with babies Jacques & Gabriella http://t.co/UnMA25dUeJ via @Femail pic.twitter.com/I0vEZNtfH5
— British Royals (@britishroyals) December 23, 2014

Adorable!

This Is Basically An Advertisement

It's been a boring couple of weeks, royal-ly speaking. No one has died, no one has gotten engaged (Well, no one royal anyway. I'll get back to this), the Duchess of Cambridge is pregnant, but we've known about that for a while now, so it isn't really news.

It has been confirmed, though, that the royal baby is due in April, which is the same month as I was born in, so hopefully, HOPEFULLY, Baby Cambridge No. 2 will share a birthday with me. *fingers crossed*

During this drought of royal news, I have been keeping myself otherwise occupied. You'd think that means that I actually did something useful with my life for once, like studied or cleaned up the disarray that is my desk, but no. I wrote a blog series about the lives of Georgian Queens (Also, I watched all 100 episodes of the Lizzie Bennett Diaries).

So, the wives of Georgian Kings. It's something that I'm actually quite proud of, and I'm pretty sure that's the only reason I was granted the title of Senior Reporter, so go and check that out, if you want. Links:

Sophia Dorothea of Celle, the consort (well....) of King George I.

Caroline of Ansbach, Queen to King George II.

Caroline of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, Queen to King George III. Incidentally, while I was writing this, I realised that I'd been spelling Mecklenburg-Strelitz wrong all this while. M-E-C-K-L-E-N-B-U-R-G S-T-R-E-L-I-T-Z.

Caroline of Brunswick, the mother of King George IV's daughter.

Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen, Queen to King William IV. I still don't know how to spell Saxe-Meiningen. I have to constantly copy and paste it from Wikipedia.

~

In other news, Benedict Cumberbatch is engaged to Sophie I've-never-heard-of-her-before Hunter (Based on the time-stamp, it may seem odd that I know this, but I'm not actually writing this on the date that it says, I'm writing it much later). I was most upset about this, as my friends will testify, but not so much because he was actually engaged, but more so because I didn't even know that he had a girlfriend. I didn't think celebrities could do that - have a relationship without every single person on the Internet knowing. Because if they can, it means that Prince Harry could get engaged tomorrow, without so much as a sign.

I don't think I'd be able to survive that.

~

I really don't have anything to do until the next royal baby arrives, but I do have a stack of books that I have yet to sink my teeth into. I've completely abandoned the 100 Book Challenge - there is no way I'm going to be able to read sixty books in the next two months - but I don't see why I can't make it to at least 52 books.

And when I read books, I type some nonsense about them on my blog. So on Sunday (the next post, because you really don't know when I'm typing this), after much delay, I will post my review of The Captive Queen, and then the Red Queen after that. I've also got Wolf Hall and Bring Up The Bodies, so if I ever tear myself away from YouTube and read, I'll review those as well.

It could be a while.

N

I Still Love You, Prince George

If you haven't read about this on Twitter already, you are a twit:

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are very pleased to announce that The Duchess of Cambridge is expecting their second child
— Clarence House (@ClarenceHouse) September 8, 2014

Understandably, I am very, very, VERY excited. Unfortunately, I have already used up my quota of exclamation marks for the day rest of my life on Facebook, and Twitter, and individually messaging my friends, so there shall be none in this post.

ROYAL BABY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I was wrong. Turns out I have an infinite quota of exclamation marks as far as royal babies are concerned.

Okay. Now that that is out of my system, here are some facts:
1. The reason we all know about Kate's pregnancy was because she was supposed to go to Oxford today (I wrote a about that. If you still care after all this baby excitement, you can read it by clicking on this sentence), but she had to cancel because, once again, she is suffering from Hyperemesis Gravidarum, that form of morning sickness that betrayed her the previous time as well.
2. This is the second baby for William and Kate. A "spare" to the throne, so to speak. Although, if all goes badly (which is, if Prince George dies without issue, or if this new baby turns out to be evil and steals the throne from George's children along the lines of Richard III), he/she might be King/Queen. Although, I probably won't be alive to see it, so it doesn't bother me.
3. #RoyalBaby and #DuchessOfCambridge are already trending on Twitter. At the time of my typing this, it has been about four minutes since the news broke.
4. The Duchess of Cambridge was supposed to make her first solo visit overseas this month, to Malta. She probably won't go now. The people of Malta must be pretty annoyed. And yet overjoyed, because royal baby!
5. The difference in ages between Prince George and the new baby will be similar to the difference between the ages of Kate and Pippa Middleton (who celebrated her birthday two days ago).

And speaking of Prince George, let's come to what this post is actually about; Will I still love Prince George when there is a new baby?

Obviously, yes. Look at that face:

And yet, poor Prince George. Here is a baby at the pinnacle of cuteness, ignorantly learning how to walk and play ball, unaware that #RoyalBaby, which for the last two years has been mainly associated with him, is trending on Twitter, this time NOT associated with him, but with his prospective younger sibling.

Prince George being adorable on the cover of Woman's Day

Hopefully, them both being older siblings themselves, William and Kate will understand George's importance as an heir, directly in line to the throne, and give him his due attention and media coverage. Though, I don't think George would care.

Well, of course he wouldn't care, he's a baby! For fun, he bangs wooden spoons against Tupperware boxes and sings!

George's favourite game is banging a wooden spoon against a Tupperware box and singing loudly!
— Joanne (@royaltykate) September 2, 2014

The one who I'm really feeling sorry for over here is me. And every other royal watcher, I think. We haven't had enough time to enjoy JUST Prince George's cuteness. But I'm determined to shower that baby, who I don't know and who has no effect on my life whatsoever, with as much attention as I can for the next seven or so months (Read: I will relentlessly favourite every single tweet on my feed that has the words 'Prince' or 'George' in it). And then I will have to divide it between him and his younger brother/sister.

Another person who I feel a twinge of sympathy for is Prince Harry. It's all very fun to read the jokes about him being pushed to 5th in line to the throne, which I'm sure he doesn't mind either, but this baby announcement is coming at quite an unfortunate time for him. In just two days, the Invictus Games are going to start. These Games are Harry's baby - he's worked so hard at organising and promoting and just generally getting this event to happen, and now no one is going to care. Even though they can't really do anything about the royal baby (there will be no pictures, and, honestly, nothing will be different), it's bigger news than the Invictus Games. Big enough to steal the spotlight completely. Also, it's his birthday next week. The big 3-0. Not that it matters, not when his brother and sister-in-law are going to have a baby!

But, despite my sympathies for Harry and George (and me), ROYAL BABY! I hope it's a girl.

(I'm never going to be able to focus on my own life, ever ever again.)

Click here to read the complete Press Release, as issued by Clarence House.

N

Princess Not Named

I'd initially decided not to write today because I wasn't home for the greater part of the weekend and even now whenI am there are about five different things I should be doing. But Princess Madeleine had a baby. To paraphrase Suri Cruise, I have to cover that stuff.

Princess Madeleine of Sweden and her husband Chris O'Neill had a daughter on the 20th of February. Congratulations!
[Prinsessan Madeleine och Chris O'Neill fick en dotter den 20 februari. Grattis! That's all the Swedish I learnt from reading the birth announcements.]

The baby, as yet unnamed, is fourth in line to the Swedish throne, following her aunt Victoria, her cousin Estelle (who turned two today. Happy Birthday, Estelle!) her uncle Carl Philip and her mother Madeleine. She was born in New York, and this picture of her leaving the hospital with her parents is all the public has seen of her till now:

Ah, royal babies. The best kind of babies there are.

That being said, I do really have work to do, and so I'm not going to post a thing on this blog until Princess Claire (Luxembourg, I tweeted about it, you'd know if you follow me) has her baby.

I'm lying.

N

UPDATE: Leonore. Princess Leonore, Duchess of Gotland. It's a pretty name, but I now wonder how many times I'll confuse her with Infanta Leonor. Also, I must say, I prefer (Princess) Mia.

Speaking of, 

!!!!!!!!!! 

Isn't that awesome? Zara looks so pretty. And how cute is Mia Grace?

And while I love Prince George to bits, and he'll always be one of my favourite royal babies (Well, until he grows up, that is) I also do prefer Mia Tindall's first official picture to his. As I've said before about the Hunger Games movie, a good camera, in the hands of a photographer with skill, neither of which Michael Middleton had, can do wonders. Take note, William and Kate. And it doesn't hurt that Mia is awake and looking at the camera. Take note, George.

What a week in royal babies.

UPDATE: As predicted, Google searches for Princess Leonore still show up results about Infanta Leonor. Could be a while before they fix that. Maybe once more people know that Leonore's name is Leonore. 

And they released this picture of her!

This is the best week of my life, royally speaking. 

One Line

Post royal baby, I'm beginning to realise just what a boring life I lead.

When Will Everyone Stop Talking About The Royal Baby?

Or rather, when will I stop talking about the royal baby?

In my defence, Prince George (Or Baby George, or His Royal Highness, Prince George (Alexander Louis) of Cambridge, or whatever you want to call him) is not even a week old. I've spent more time than a week talking about the Catching Fire trailer or how I once nearly got full in a Maths exam. Compared to those things, the birth of the heir to the throne who will someday marry someone who is prettier and has better dress sense than his mother is a pretty big deal. I should get to talk about it for a month. At least.

On YouTube, which I transitioned to once Prince George had been born, and shown to the public, and named, and then hidden away, Maureen Johnson made her video as the last person filling in for John Green during his nearly two month long paternity leave, which is a rather unfair amount of time seeing as Prince William only gets two weeks and the child which he is going to help bring up during that time will someday be King.

Oh, this just struck me! What if Alice Green marries Prince George and becomes his consort? They're the right age for each other, even!
I ship it.

Reverting to what I was writing about, my favourite of the people making videos for John was Craig WheezyWaiter, whose video you can view here. Also, One Direction released the music video for their new single, which I watched repeatedly on Wednesday and Thursday before getting bored of it and wondering why they were already making a movie about the band, seeing as it hadn't even been around four five years and there was no way to know whether it would even survive that long, let alone a movie with the same name as a Backstreet Boys album (I didn't know that. I found out when I Googled it).

Which got me thinking about whether they'd make a movie about Prince George. They already have one about the Queen, appropriately titled "The Queen" and one about young Queen Victoria and one about William and Kate (Actually, two about William and Kate). And if they don't make a movie, I hope that Prince George meets the press as soon as he can stand. Sometimes, I watch William meeting the press as a child, and it always makes me happy. Always.

For some reason, I'm continuing to call Prince George Prince George. It must be because he's still new. In a few weeks, it'll be plain ol' George, just like his parents,Will and Kate.

Here's the future King for you.

N

A Post About The Royal Baby Boy

And if you hadn't guessed that already, you, sir or madam, are an idiot.

As is common knowledge, yesterday the Duchess of Cambridge gave birth to a baby boy, HRH Prince {Name} of Cambridge. Now, I could tell you about when said baby was born (4:24 pm) or how much said baby weighed (8lb, 6oz), but if you had wanted that kind of information, you would have gone to his Wikipedia page (That's right. When he was only a few hours old, the Baby of Cambridge got a Wikipedia page). But I also can't not write a blog post to commemorate the occasion because, really, I've written posts about all sorts of nonsense.

Almost everyone who knows me will know that whenever I need a dose of royal fun, I go to the Order of Splendor. But throughout this royal gestation, I got my laughs from a most unexpected source. Suri Cruise, or rather her ghost writer who maintains Suri's Burn Book, seems to hate the new Prince, and her hatred results in the most comic posts, tagged 'hrh the baby of cambridge'. I could just never stop laughing.

There was another rather surprising source of fun during the royal labour: Maureen Johnson.
I love Maureen Johnson, normally. She's funny and witty and absolutely nuts, and she always seems to have the strangest things happen to her. Notes from a neighbour is evidence of that. But yesterday, she went all out on Twitter, tweeting about Phil Collins, spiders, the Duke of Edinburgh brawling, and Benedict Cumberbatch naked on a horse. God bless Maureen Johnson. I can't wait for her video on the Vlogbrother's channel.

And it wasn't just Maureen Johnson that was being amusing on Twitter. I found everything that everyone said that was even vaguely connected to the royal baby extremely hilarious - even the jokes that were repeated over and over again, like the ones about him being a Half-Blood Prince and people hoping for a Pride Rock like introduction to the public. This was quite possibly because I was slightly hysterical at the time. I favourited all of them. Here are some memorable ones.

Now have a good rest of the week before I ruin it on Saturday.

N

UPDATE: It's William and Kate and little Baby Cambridge!

Oh, it's been so long since I've seen Kate. Is is just me or does she look prettiest when she's leaving a hospital?