Prince William and His iPhone

Obviously, the biggest news of last week was the Scottish Referendum. Scotland voted "NO", which means that they won't become an independent nation, and they'll still be a part of the United Kingdom, and the Union Jack will be the same, and the Queen will still be the Queen of Scotland as well, and everything will just go back to the way it was.

So what was the point of getting Bob Hale on the One Show?

Another thing that happened last week was that Prince Harry, future fifth in line to the throne, turned 30. Happy 30 years and one week birthday, Your Highness!

To mark the occasion, The Mirror put together a list of thirty of his best quotes over the years. I personally found it rather touching, especially the parts where Harry speaks about his mother's death. Click on this sentence to read it.

Speaking of Prince Harry and that particular article from The Mirror, The Invictus Games is another thing that happened. Harry was the one who spearheaded the entire event, and it was a spectacular success. I didn't watch it, of course, because I don't like to watch sports, but I did read about it and see the pictures on Twitter. Some are of the opinion that the Games are the finest thing that Harry will ever achieve. Perhaps, but I think that Harry will be able to do a lot more for his country. More than William anyway. I want to draw a comparison to erstwhile royals, but the only ones I can think of is the Black Prince (Edward, Prince of Wales, the eldest son of King Edward III) and the Duke of Lancaster (John of Gaunt, the third son of the same King), and that is just an awful comparison, because Edward died young, and his son Richard (King Richard II) was just an awful King, and the Cousins War and everything.

No. I'll just stop at saying that Prince Harry will be a good son, a good brother, a good uncle and a good Prince. (Though never a King. Sorry, Harry)

Anyway, I digress. Apart from Prince Harry, Princes Charles and William were also at the Invictus Games (but not Kate, because she's feeling poorly, and not George, because he's a baby. But here are some sweet pictures of him in the park with his nanny). This is a photograph taken of them:

Look at what Prince William is holding!

His iPhone!

If you have been a loyal reader of my blog (Haha, as if!), you might remember a post I wrote almost exactly a year ago, about the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's first engagement since Prince George's birth, in which I commented on Prince William owning an iPhone. And here is a picture of the famed gadget. I see William hasn't stopped letting people know he has an iPhone. 

Prince William has an iPhone! (But I don't)(Well, I'm also not in line to the throne of England)

iPhone owning Prince William was also in Malta this weekend in place of wife, Catherine. I felt a little bad for him; he knew that the people were expecting a pretty Duchess, not a balding Duke, and so he kept apologising for being there. Well, better him than no one, people of Malta!

He also promised to come back with Catherine and George someday. And the new baby, I would think! Or has everyone but me forgotten about him/her?

Oh, and by the way, as far as baby gender and names go, my bet is on a boy called James. So, if you read an announcement in March or April or May saying that the Duchess of Cambridge has been safely delivered of a boy, and then another one a few days later saying something something Prince James of Cambridge, remember, you saw it here first.

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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.

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#HappyBirthdayKate

It's the Duchess of Cambridge's birthday. She's 32 today. Wish her on Twitter!

No, you can't, she doesn't have a Twitter.

Which brings me to my main subject - royalty on Twitter.
(If you were expecting something more to do with the actual event of Kate turning 32, there will be a post on Royal Central and an article in the Daily Mail which will list 32 facts about the Duchess, more than half of which I will already know. But I'll put links at the bottom of the post for those who want to know more, anyway.)

None of the higher up royals are on Twitter. The Queen obviously isn't, and not just because she's getting on in age, and, if my grandparents are anything to go by, probably doesn't know how to use anything more newfangled than Google. No, she doesn't use it because she's the Queen. She has a certain image to maintain, and it would most certainly be defiled if she sank as low as Twitter, where she would have to be on an equal platform with the likes of Justin Beiber - even more so if she didn't manage to gather as many followers as him.

Prince Charles doesn't have a Twitter either, but Clarence House does. Clarence House is the official residence of the Prince of Wales, and usually they are the first to convey important royal news on the Internet. Like when Prince George was born, or when it was decided that the excitement about Prince George was going down and it was time to christen him to liven things up a little bit.

This is what Clarence House looks like. You can follow them at @ClarenceHouse.

Neither of Princes William and Harry have a recognised Twitter. That doesn't strike me odd - after all, they are a part of The Firm - but they're both still young, and Prince William has an iPhone. What does he do on it if he isn't tweeting?
Last year, it was revealed that Prince Harry did have a Facebook account, which was taken down following the debacle with the pictures in Las Vegas, and a little before that, he said in an interview that he reads almost all the articles written about him even though his father has told him not to. Which is why I wouldn't put it past Harry to have a Twitter too. It's probably called something inconspicuous, though, like Steve or Jim, so if you see someone on Twitter who looks to ordinary to be true, it's probably Prince Harry. Follow that person. (Don't really.)

However, the next in line to the throne (I'm excluding Prince George from this altogether. I don't think he knows how to speak, let alone tweet), the Duke of York, does have a Twitter.

If you're wondering why I've stuck a picture of Prince Andrew in the middle of the post is because he is a relatively obscure royal and not many people even know who he is. For those people, that is the Duke of York. His Twitter is @TheDukeOfYork, but he isn't the only one who uses it. In fact, he hardly uses it at all, just occasionally. His tweets are signed 'AY', for Andrew York.

Another, well, ex-royal with a Twitter, is Andrew's ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York. Her Twitter seems like she actually uses it, which is fitting because she's always struck me as the most different and modern, I suppose, of the otherwise extremely rigid royal family. The Duchess was very interested in Queen Victoria before she got married (and after - she was a producer for the movie, The Young Victoria), so it must have been a dream for her to marry Victoria's great-great-great-grandson. Well, into the family, anyway. Even though she got divorced from Andrew, she never married again, which is why she was allowed to retain the title of Duchess of York. She's very close to her daughters, and sometimes she wears crazy clothes, like she is a 25 year old, not the mother of one. Despite leaving The Firm she's continued to do charity work and one time she did an interview with Cheryl Cole, and it was hilarious. Twitter: @SarahTheDuchess

None of the royals lower than Prince Andrew have a Twitter of which I know, but there is an account for the British Monarchy (@BritishMonarchy) which isn't maintained by any of the members of the family, but is an official account and does post relevant and accurate royal information, so if that's what you want you can follow them.

Good people to follow if you're looking for concise and almost instant information about the British Royal Family are royal correspondents. These are the people who write for newspapers and websites or appear on the news channels to talk about royalty. If you follow too many of them, like I have, and something big happens, like Prince William goes back to school, it does get a little bit repetitive, and a lot of the times it's just one correspondent retweeting another, so choose wisely.

My personal favourites are Dickie and Victoria Arbiter. They're father and daughter - he was a press spokesman for Her Majesty and she is a royal contributor for CNN. Both of them are great fun, especially if you have a fair bit of knowledge about the members and the working of the royal family. You can follow them at @RoyalDickie and @victoriaarbiter.

Also, you should follow Royal Central, because I write for them, and I'm not above blatant promotion of websites which I write for (A link to this post will go onto my Facebook page five minutes after it is published).

Duchess of Cambridge turns 32: Royal Central's article.

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Good Luck With 2014.

It's the last day of 2013, and what a year it's been. There have been ups and downs and a lot more ups, and not just for the royals but for me too. Of course, no one cares about my life, so I'm just going to skip that altogether.
At the end of last year, I wrote about the year that had gone by. Write might not be the most appropriate word, though. I just stuck in a lot of pictures. Anyway, this year, instead of focusing on the past, I'm choosing to focus on the future. Mainly on what the future holds for the British Royal Family.

At the beginning of this year, there were a couple of major milestones and things to look forward to as far the BRF went. The 60th anniversary of the Queen's coronation was approaching and the Duchess of Cambridge was pregnant with the heir to the throne, who would have ruled irrespective of gender. Nothing that big is expected to happen next year, not unless you count Prince George's first birthday as an important milestone. Except, there is someone who can be quite unpredictable.

Prince Harry. As he approaches his 30th birthday, he must be starting to realise that he can't stay unmarried forever.

I really want Prince Harry to get married. I'm not the kind of girl who hankers after royalty, wishing that they were closer to her age but reasoning that an age gap of more than ten years isn't all that much (Lies). I do want to see another royal wedding in England, and I think I'll enjoy it more now that I know who Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie are and understand why they would wear such ridiculous fascinators.
I don't want Prince Harry to get married to Cressida Bonas. I don't remember what I said I thought of her the last time that I wrote a post about her, but I don't like Cressida Bonas. It could just be a thing with Prince Harry's girlfriends, because I didn't like Chelsy Davy at first either, but I'm starting to miss her now that Cressida Bonas might become the new royal wife.

Here are Prince Harry and girlfriend leaving a theater in London

That being said, whatever Prince Harry does is fine with me. If he does get married, I get to watch a wedding, and if he doesn't get married, I get to heave a sigh of relief and continue to hope that something breaks the happy couple apart.

Perhaps the most important thing, according to me, that is happening next year is the Cambridges' tour to Australia and New Zealand in April. I love when royals go on tour, because that means that for the few weeks that they are in a foreign country, they make public appearances every single day. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have previously visited North America and South-East Asia, but what makes their visit Down Under so special is that this time they're taking Prince George.

No, that isn't the Cambridges and Prince George. That's the Wales's and Prince William.

There's a lot of excitement about the fact that Prince George is accompanying them. For seasoned royal watchers, the excitement is all because Prince William was about the same age - nine months - when his parents took him on his first foreign visit, also to Australia. I'm excited because it doesn't seem like there are going to be a lot of opportunities for pictures of Prince George leading up to the visit, but once in Australia, I'll be surprised if he doesn't come out in public at least twice. And public appearances mean pictures. I can't wait.

[I've written a post about a section of the itinerary for the visit on Royal Central, so you can click on this sentence to read that. Additionally, there is a link at the bottom which leads to a more comprehensive itinerary.]

Also, in the next few months, TWO babies will be born into the ever growing royal families worldwide.

The first is the son/daughter of Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall. This will be the first child for Zara and Mike, the third grandchild for Princess Anne (who is already grandmother to Peter Phillips' daughters Savannah and Isla) and the fourth great-grandchild for Queen Elizabeth (who, besides the two children of Peter Phillips mentioned above, is great-grandmother to Prince George). He/she will be 16th in line to the throne, behind his/her mother and ahead of David Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley. There is no word from the Palace yet on the gender of the child, but I am betting that it will be a boy and that they will call him Augustus.
The second is the daughter of Princess Madeleine of Sweden and Chris O'Neill. Again, the first child for the couple, but second grandchild for the King and Queen, who are already grandparents to Crown Princess Victoria's daughter Estelle.

It is unlikely that either of these children will be given titles upon their birth. Unlike their older cousins, George and Estelle, they will have hardly any claim to the throne, and will lead as normal lives as possible, only mingling with higher-up royalty at weddings and Christmas and that sort of thing. However, despite their lack of proximity to the Crown, Zara and Princess Madeleine are two of my favourite royals, coming second and third, respectively, only to Kate. And it's no secret how much I love Prince George, so I'm certain I'll love their children too. Well, I'll blog about them when they're born, anyway.

That's all with the royal events. There is just one more thing.

In the extremely near future - tomorrow - season 3 of Sherlock airs in the UK. Fangirls on Tumblr are going completely nuts, and understandably so. It's been a two year long hiatus for them. I get restless when Order of Splendor goes on holiday for a week.
The major focus of watchers' interest this season [SPOILERS] is finding out how Sherlock survived a fall off the rooftop. They've been racking their brains for an explanation for months and months, but I honestly don't think it's that important. If there was a question as to whether he was dead or not, their eagerness for answers would be justified, but now that it is very obvious that he is alive, I'm looking forward more to seeing John reacting to Sherlock explaining how he faked his death than to actually listening to Sherlock explain how he faked his death and seeing how much of it tallies with my theory. That being said, I do not have a theory about how Sherlock faked his death.

Something that I don't understand is the disparity between the air dates in different countries. England, obviously, gets to see it first, but then it is a full two and a half weeks before it airs in America, on the 19th, by which time the English will already have seen the final episode. I highly doubt that season 3 is going to end with anything other than a cliffhanger, probably Sherlock announcing his decision to retire from active detective work, and that means that there will be a four day period during which fans on one side of the Atlantic will be pondering this new plot twist, and fans on the other side of the Atlantic will still be trying to figure out how Sherlock didn't die when he jumped off the roof at the end of season 2.

I think it's a little bit odd, but I'm not going to question the folks down at BBC.

~

So, that's all for the year. Hopefully, all of you will keep coming back on Sundays to read the nonsense that I write. Do watch season 3 of Sherlock (unless you haven't seen seasons 1 and 2, in which case watch seasons 1 and 2 first), pray that Prince Harry doesn't get married, and if you live in Australia, go out to see the Cambridges in April. God save the Queen.

Good luck with 2014.

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