Year of the Royal

This will be my last post of this year, unless Queen Elizabeth dies tonight and I feel compelled to have a post in her honour.

But because Her Majesty is still alive and sending out Christmas messages to us all, I will instead write about what a year it has been. Indeed, the year of the royal.

In twelve months, there have been so many major events that have drawn the royal crowds. The ever expanding royal crowds, I should say, because while monarchy is replaced by other forms of government, the royal families stand strong, and add to their team in anyway that they can.

This year especially. We had two Jubilees,

The Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth the Second of England and forty years of Queen Margrethe II of Denmark

One addition to the great, extended family,

Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg married Countess Stephanie de Lannoy

And two announcement of prospective additions.

Princess Madeleine of Sweden (pictured) got engaged to her boyfriend Chris O'Neill
Luxembourg's Prince Felix got engaged to Claire Lademacher

There were also two new princesses born into royalty,

Princess Estelle, born to Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel of Sweden

Princess Athena, born to Prince Joachim and Princess Marie of Sweden

With another one on the way.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have announced that they are expecting a baby

And the Olympics. How could anyone forget the Olympics?

Yes, there were a couple of unmentionable scandals (not pictured, because, well, the privacy of these people must be respected. To some extent.), but those aside, 2012 has been a most fabulous year for the royals.

And for us royal watchers.

Happy New Year, people on the Internet! Here's to hoping that next year brings us greater joy, royally and otherwise.

N

Made It.

I've become such a lazy writer. And the fact that I have to work on Saturdays doesn't help either.

I wonder why I chose such an unfeasible day like Saturday to be my day of correspondence each week. I might just as well have chosen Monday or Thursday or some other day ridiculously in the middle of the week. I'd probably have been able to write more consistently on those days, because I have a schedule for my weekdays. On my weekends, I try to get things done in the few minutes I take as a break between getting two things done.

But never matter that.

We made it through the Mayan apocalypse!

Go Science indeed.

I think congratulations are in order.

Congratulations! For still being alive and able to access the Internet, if that is anything to congratulate anyone for. 

Also, people on Twitter are being surprisingly not-annoying about still being alive. Apart from the occasional "Making 'end of the world' like there's no tomorrow" jokes, it's been pretty bearable.
I don't know whether that says more about the general population or the celebrities I've chosen to follow on Twitter (You can follow me @JustAsSaneAsMe). I like to think the former, although it probably is the latter.

I'll write again next weekend. Unless the Mayans were off by a few days, and we die the day after tomorrow.

N

Hyperemesis Gravidarum

Is what the Duchess of Cambridge's condition is called.

I don't know it existed, and I'm sure neither did the rest of the world, but when I typed the letters 'hy' into my Google search bar, the first result that came up was Hyperemesis Gravidarum.

The Kate Effect really is amazing.

Anyway, five days after the big announcement, I've been coping pretty well. The reason I say coping is because after the initial excitement wore off on Monday, I just felt like Suri.
(Yes, I regularly read Suri's Burn Book. No, I am not ashamed of it.)

I took me a while, but I finally found the reason. For the last year and a half of my life, the first thing I did after waking up in the morning was brush my teeth.
The second thing was to Google the Duchess of Cambridge to see if she was pregnant.
Infact, I'd Google that so many times, I even created a keypad shortcut for Duchess of Cambridge.

And now I can't, anymore. I've just lost a big part of my life. And that makes me sad.

But then, yesterday morning, the Duchess was discharged from hospital.

Just look at her. She looks so happy.

And just seeing her so happy, and seeing Prince William so happy, made me feel happy for them too.
It made me realise that I still have so many royal events to look forward to; this child being born, Prince Charles ascending the throne, Prince Harry getting engaged and..... so many things, that I can't even think of them all.

I know it matters very little to them, but I wish William and Kate all the best for the next year and the rest of their lives.

N

Blimey, A Baby!

I think a special post is in order, because the Duchess of Cambridge,

Pictured here playing hockey.

is finally, FINALLY (And I say finally because I've been expecting this day from two months after the wedding last April), expecting a baby.

Now, if there's anything I love more than royal babies, it's non-existent, because there is nothing that I love more than royal babies. Just look at them.

Sweden's Princess Estelle

And Denmark's Princess Athena

And now that William and Kate are having one, I've gone completely mad with joy.
Literally. I've taken to Twitter and Facebook and my phone's address book, and made life hell for everyone who knows me.

Oh, I really hope it's a girl.

N

A Change In Plans

In my plans, that is.

For today's post, I intended to do a second part of YouTubers. I had even decided upon the Youtubers I wanted to feature, and selected a few of my favourite videos, but I had to change my plans for the following reasons:

1. I got hopelessly stuck when I had to choose a few favourites. I could have watched all their videos, and made notes and stuff, but that is where number 2 comes into effect;
2. I realised that I had a project due this weekend, and that I had just barely begun.

I think it was number 2 which prompted me to change my plans.

So, instead of a post on Youtubers today, I'm hastily finishing a project I was supposed to have done a month ago. And neglecting my blog.

I disappoint myself.

Picture:

Cliff Walk at Pourville. It's a Monet. 

N