(So Many Brackets)

When I went to the Harry Potter Studio in Leavesden a couple of months ago, I bought myself a Ravenclaw patch (This one, exactly). I let it lie around for a while, without doing anything with it, but last night I stitched it onto my bag, so that people assume I'm a genius because I have a Ravenclaw patch on my bag. Or that I'm a Potterhead, which I am.

This morning, I was scrolling through my new feed on Facebook, and it was full of pictures of a party from last night that everyone who is popular in my school (Well, what used to be my school) went to. And that made me think about what I was doing last night while they were dancing, and posing, and not standing up straight - stitching patches and listening to Hank Green sing about ponies. Ah, the nerd life.

On Saturday, I got into college (Huzzah!), so I spent the entire week getting my documents in order and going to the college to submit them and all that. I'm going to be studying Psychology and Political Science in college, but if you think that I'm going to start writing about smarter things on my blog (Or, for that matter, stupid things in a way that seems smart), ha! Fat chance.

I am, however, going to take a little (If three weeks can be considered little) break from blogging to get used to my new schedule, beginning next Saturday. Unfortunately, that time coincides with the birth of the Baby of Cambridge which is something that I have been looking forward to for TWO YEARS. (More than two years). I will take to Twitter as soon as I find out, and even though I won't be the first one to tweet about it (Probably won't even find out until a few hours after the birth owing to the fact that I don't follow London time, and because I'm not awake at vague hours in the morning), or the one with the most information, it won't hurt to follow me, and I'm fun. Occasionally. The blog post will follow on Saturday, and my schedule can go to hell (Don't mind my language). It's not often than Kate Middleton has her first child. In fact, excluding this one time, it's not ever.

Till then, here's a picture.

N

Royal Stuff

Today evening I'm going to find out whether I got into college or not. Because I don't want that to affect my post and because I need something to do other than bite my nails off, here's today's royal... stuff.

What a week it's been! There was Trooping the Colour, and Garter Day, and four of the five days of Ascot, and Prince William's birthday and for people like me, who practically worship British royalty... Wow!

Last Saturday was Trooping the Colour, the Queen's official birthday, and also the Duchess of Cambridge's final public appearance before the royal baby is born. Now, normally, I love Kate at Trooping the Colour; in fact, I think her debut appearance in 2011 is one of my favourite sightings of her yet. This year, unfortunately, I have only one thing to say :

Meh.

But its true. Unlike the Diana, who started dressing better as she grew older, and who had already separated from her husband by the time she was Kate's age, or the Sophie, who seems determined to give her nieces a run for their money, Kate just gets more boring with each passing day. She used to be so fun,

and slightly crazy,

and so smug. So very, very smug.

And now she's so boring. And not smug. 

And it can only go downhill from here. 

Moving on to the rest of the royal family; they didn't disappoint. I got a rare glimpse of Autumn Phillips at Ascot, riding with the Queen.

Autumn Phillips is actually one of my favourite minor royals, and I don't think we get to see her as often as we should. That's probably because she's looking after her daughters while her husband works, because the Phillipss don't get an allowance. I resent that. They deserve the money. They never commit faux pas's like Prince Harry does. Anyway, I'm glad she got to ride with the Queen. 

Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie were surprisingly sober on the hat front, but full marks for excitement!

Also for dressing like they've escaped from prison.

Also surprisingly, my absolute favourite this week was the Queen. I'm not the most pro-Queen Elizabeth person, but this week I found myself, on more than one occasion, hoping that she'd live to beat Queen Victoria's record for the longest reigning British monarch. I don't know why it was. It could have been her photo bombing BBC Radio 1. It could have been have been her face when her horse, Estimate, won and she got a little trophy. It could have been the fact that the Duke of Edinburgh wasn't there, and she had to make up for his racial slur and foot-in-mouth behaviour by being mildly amusing herself. Or it could have been the fact that I know she might not make it to her next official birthday. And everyone deserves to have a good last official birthday.

God Save The Queen.

N

Tiaras, Again.

Let's jump right to it, shall we?

MY ULTIMATE TIARAS (PART II)

11. The Midnight Tiara

As worn by Crown Princess Mary of Denmark

12. The Meander Tiara

As worn by Zara Phillips

13. The Amethyst Necklace Tiara

As worn by Princess Martha Louise of Norway

14. Halo Scroll Tiara 

As worn by the Duchess of Cambridge

15. Greek Ruby Parure

As worn by Queen Annie-Marie of Greece

16. Mellerio Sapphire Tiara 

As worn by Queen Maxima of the Netherlands

17. The Fleur de Lys Tiara

As worn by Queen Sofia of Spain

18. Queen Victoria's Sapphire Coronet 

As worn by Queen Victoria. This is the coronet with the gems visible and this is Emily Blunt playing Queen Victoria in the movie 'The Young Victoria'.

19. The Braganza Tiara

As worn by Queen Silvia

20. The Connaught Tiara

As worn by Princess Madeleine of Sweden

~

So, that's all on the tiara front from me for a while. Three things are apparent about me after reading both these lists (This is the first one). One, in my opinion, the British royal family has the best tiaras. Two, I love one hundred percent of Princess Mary's tiaras. And three, I have no social life and spend my Saturday night looking at sparkly, fancy things on the Internet and compiling lists.

Fun!

N

Chris O'Neill is Still Just Chris O'Neill

My grandparents have been staying at my house for a while, and I spend a lot of time each day talking to my grandmother about the British royal family. It's always fun talking to her about that, because she was around my age, when Queen Elizabeth became Queen, and she finds royalty quite interesting. She's never bored by the things I have to say, and also genuinely impressed by my knowledge of the subject, which isn't surprising, considering that until I told her otherwise, she thought that Princess Margaret was still alive.

On Saturday, I was watching Princess Madeleine of Sweden marry Christopher O'Neill on the Internet. This is the first royal wedding I've seen in entirety since William married Kate two years ago, and I'd forgotten how boring these weddings actually are once you've seen all the royal guests arrive. In some ways, this was better than William and Kate's because I could correctly identify a lot of royals, and yet in some ways it was worse, because there were a lot of royals missing. I didn't see Princess Letizia or Princess  Queen Maxima (which might become a regular thing now; as Queen, Maxima is too important to attend foreign weddings, and the Princess of Orange, Catharina-Amalia, is too young to stay away from her parents), but it was still lovely.

Afterwards, I had to look at the official pictures, because the image I was receiving via the live stream wasn't all that clear, and when I saw Madeleine's gown properly, I did a double take. It looked familiar; but I just couldn't place it. So I thought and I thought and I went over ever person I'd ever seen get married in my mind, and then I got it. Madeleine was wearing Melissa Bannon's wedding gown with a train. And some extra detailing.

Or, now that I think about it, maybe not.

I am extremely disappointed that Chris O'Neill chose to retain his name, and not adopt a royal title. If I was marrying royalty, I would jump to the chance of becoming the Duchess of Someplace Fancy. I'm also slightly disappointed that the couple is moving to New York. For two reasons. One, Sweden will have lost someone who can pull of nearly every tiara there is. And two, there's room for one Princess in the Big Apple, and that princess is Princess Mia.

I am, however, immensely pleased with the fact that Madeleine did not wear the Cameo Tiara, as most people expected her to, but instead went with the Modern Fringe! And that Princess Estelle came!

And she had her own little seat too!

Oh, Estelle. I'm going to miss you once I focus all my attention on the new royal baby. Speaking of which - only one month to go!

N

Did Someone Say Tiaras?

I can't think why I decided to write on Tuesdays as well as Saturdays.

Every month or so, for the last few months, The Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor has been having polls, where readers vote for their favourite tiaras in each of the major categories of tiaras (Fringe, Big Gun, various gemstones), that get added to a list; the list of Reader's Ultimate Tiaras. I have been voting religiously, but the ones I chose never won. Except one time. 

So, today, I'm going to create my own list of tiaras. It won't be exactly like Order of Splendor's, because I don't know which categories are yet to come, and it will feature a whole lot of diamonds. Because I love diamonds. They're so sparkly!

MY ULTIMATE TIARAS

10. The Laurel Wreath Tiara

As worn by Princess Mathilde of Belgium

9. The Poltimore Tiara

As worn by Princess Margaret of the United Kingdom (Shinier version here) 

8. The Diamond Bandeau Tiara

As worn by Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden 

7. The Diamond Foam Tiara

As worn by Princess Charlene of Monaco 

6. The Mellerio Pearl Tiara

As worn by Princess Letizia of Spain 

5. Queen Josephine's Amethyst Tiara

As worn by Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden 

4. The Cambridge Lover's Knot Tiara

As worn by Princess Diana of Wales 

3. The Modern Fringe Tiara

As worn by Princess Madeleine of Sweden 

2. The Girls of Great Britain and Ireland Tiara

As worn by Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II

And, finally, at number one;

1. The Danish Ruby Parure Tiara

As worn by Crown Princess Mary of Denmark 

~

While compiling this list, I was sure that I wouldn't be able to limit myself to ten tiaras. And I was right. My list originally comprised of thirty-two tiaras, which I was able to bring down to twenty. And since I never really know what to do with this blog...

I'll be back with Tiaras : Part 2 next week!

N

Stupid People Are Dangerous

If it is not obvious from the title, I have been reading the Hunger Games.

Like every partially to completely normal person in the world, I have fears. And while some of them are irrational fears, like my fear of complete silence (Sedatephobia), most of them are rational. Perhaps the greatest, most rational of these fears is dying in an airplane crash (Although, and I don't know why I felt the need to point this out, I am not afraid of flying in the least. Just of crashing).

I can put this fear down to one summer, a couple of years go, when I watched a marathon of Air Crash Investigation episodes on Nat Geo with my father. After six hours of watching planes crash in every possible way - engine failure, hijacking, flying into mountains - I turned into the most terribly paranoid flyer.

Look at this plane breaking apart in the air. 

But for someone so scared of dying in a plane crash, I fly a lot. In the last month alone, I've flown eight times; four times while on vacation, and four times to visit family. Each time, I took every precaution to reduce the chances of my dying in the event of an emergency. I always chose a seat near the window (so that if the plane was hijacked I might go unnoticed, but if the engine caught on fire I'd be one of the first to know) and closer to the front of the plane (so that if the rear half of the fuselage is seperated from the front, like in the picture, I'd be sitting in the part that has engines and wings. Also the cockpit) . I read the safety instructions over and over again (and after eight flights, I think I have them memorised) and I watched the demonstration in every language that the airline showed it in. I identified the emergency exits nearest to me, made sure that my life jacket was stowed away under my seat, and didn't take my seat belt off once.

When Katniss said, during her games, that stupid people were dangerous, I didn't understand what she meant. In my experience, stupid people, while extremely annoying, have never posed a threat to my safety. Until now.

One of the primary rules while flying is no mobile phones. If it's a fairly long flight, some airlines do allow you to use your phone once the plane reaches it's specific altitude, but during take-off and landing you can absolutely not even have it on. Signals meant for a phone might interfere with those sent to the plane by the Air Traffic Controllers, and I've seen planes crash because of less. So, you can imagine what it was like for me when someone's phone began to ring when my plane was taxiing. I ran through every swear word in my arsenal in my mind. Twice.

Another rule is that your seat back must be in the upright position for take-off and landing. I'm not sure why that is, but I assume it's because if the plane overshoots the runway or something, you don't want your face to hit the back of the chair of the person in front of you. Now, when I was flying from London to Dubai, the person in front of me had reclined his seat. And when the pilot announced that he was preparing for descent, everyone was also asked to put their seats back upright. Of course, the man in front of me didn't, because I just have the worst luck that way. I didn't mind, because I could see the stewardesses doing their round, and I figured they'd correct him. But, no. The stewardess in my section made everyone do it, except the guy in front of me. I can't understand how she missed him; I was gesturing wildly enough to land that plane. It was absurd. And I couldn't even complain, because of my fear of confrontation.

Most important thing, when 30,000 feet above the ground, is DON"T TOUCH THE EMERGENCY EXIT UNLESS IT'S AN EMERGENCY! Someone sitting in front of my did that once, and I swear my heart stopped for a moment. He went back to his reading, eventually, but I spent the rest of the flight imagining me opening the hatch and throwing him out of it. They should consider having a sort of test on basic airplane safety before allowing somebody to sit next to the emergency exit. I mean, I may not know a lot, but I know that fiddling with the emergency exit if there isn't an emergency, usually causes an emergency. I've said typed emergency a lot of times haven't I? I'll stop.

Normally, I would never target a specific group of people and say anything bad about them, but airplane safety is kind of very important to me, so if you have ever done any of the things that I wrote about, you are an idiot, and I hate you. Also, if you were in the Hunger Games, the Careers would get you before the first night was done.

My blog just gets worse with each passing week, doesn't it? Here's a picture.

N