The Royal Christening : The Ceremony

Time to cover this week's christening!

Prince George's christening was my favourite of all the royal events that I have witnessed in my three years of royal watching, and that includes, to the best of my memory, multiple weddings (two Swedish, two Grand Ducal, one in Monaco, Zara Phillips' and that of George's parents), a few Jubilees, a couple of ascensions to the throne, and the christening of Princesses Estelle and Athena. Why was it my favourite? Because Prince George. I mean, just look at that baby.

Don't you just want to eat his face?

I tried to cram as much as I could about the christening into this one post, I really did, but it was just too much, which is why I'm going to have 4 segments dedicated solely to Prince George's christening, spread across two weeks. I think there is a subscribe button on my blog somewhere to the right, so click on that if you want to. Otherwise, posts on Sundays and Wednesdays.

Prince George Alexander Louis of Cambridge was christened on Thursday at St. James' Palace. It was a small ceremony, even by commoner standards, because the only people in attendance were the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's immediate family, Prince George's godparents and their spouses. What really surprised me was the complete lack of royal aunts, uncles and cousins. I understand them maybe not wanting to call the York sisters for another event which had hats in its dress code, but the Queen's children, at least, should have been invited. 

Prince George wore a replica of the original christening gown made for Queen Victoria's eldest daughter, Princess Victoria in 1841. It is NOT a dress. I repeat, NOT A DRESS. Either this gown or the original have been worn at past royal christenings in the UK, including that of George's father and grandfather.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev. Justin Welby (Who has a Twitter account. How modern) baptized the Prince, which was not something the public were allowed to see, but I was reading the tweets of someone watching a live stream the whole while - my Internet chose the most miserable time to fail - and the ceremony got over surprisingly quickly. It must hardly have been more than half an hour.

There are only two decent videos on YouTube, so you've already seen both of them already, but here's Prince George arriving for his christening (don't miss Kate's little curtsy at the end).

And here he is being carried to Clarence House for a reception and pictures afterwards.

Of course, the next day, the front page of every newspaper across the country was covered with pictures of Prince George and headlines calling him names that he couldn't read. Good names.

Everyone's favourite baby is getting big

The next three posts will cover the official photos, the godparents, and past royal christenings. Stick around for that.

Or don't.

N

I Go Off On A Rant About Prince William

I didn't post last week. Exams.

Despite that, I was not too busy to spend a lot of time on various Royal Confession pages on Tumblr. Now, I love the royal family to bits, but there are only so much Kate-hate confessions you can read before you start wondering whether they aren't so wrong after all. (Of course, I agreed with some of the confessions right away. Like Jecca Craig for godmother? Yes, please.)

So I thought I'd write a post filled with my own royal confessions. It was originally meant to be me ranting about the things about royalty that bothered me after I'd read them on the confessions pages, but it took me so long to actually get around to writing that I forgot everything bad that I'd thought about the royals and began to feel animosity towards the confession pages. But I didn't have anything else to write about, so the subject stayed. Except, instead of me ranting, it's mostly me defending.

Except Prince William. He may be future King, but I don't defend him.

Duke of Windsor

When Edward VIII abdicated to marry Wallis Simpson, the Duke of York became King and he was under a lot of pressure as a wartime ruler, and he smoked heavily, and that lead to his early demise. A lot of people at the time blamed Edward for sending his brother to the grave by forcing him into becoming King, a job that he didn't want.
But it wasn't a job that Edward wanted either, was it? All he wanted was to marry his girlfriend (Not mistress, mind you), which he wasn't allowed to do. Besides, Bertie was probably adequately trained to take over as King, seeing as their father was the Duke of York too. King George V only became King because his elder brother Albert died of pneumonia, so he was just as well prepared as Bertie. And he ruled for 26 years and through a war to boot. So it wasn't Edward's fault.

Duchesses of Cornwall and Cambridge

While the majority of hate on the confession pages was directed towards Kate, a fair share was directed towards Camilla as well, and almost all this hate was due to the fact that neither Kate nor Camilla are anything like Diana was. And I just thought it so unfair.
It isn't right to compare Kate and Camilla to Diana. All three entered the royal family under extremely different circumstances; Diana was the young, innocent virgin who was going to marry the Prince of Wales. Camilla, on the other hand, was the woman who ruined Diana's life and was now taking her place, and Kate was just the new Diana. Everything she did would be compared to the late Princess, and great things were expected from her as the new 'People's Princess'.
Princess Diana was a wonderful woman. She was compassionate and charitable and she brought up her children well. She did a lot for the royal family, and for England, but both Camilla and Kate aren't bad either. They do embark upon charity work, and they dress well (Well, Kate dresses well), and both of them support their husbands without overshadowing them, without making them feel less important, and that's something that is valued in a royal spouse. And, honestly, Kate is one of my favourite people in the world. I respect her for not using having had a baby as an excuse to stay at home, and for putting on a brave face despite all the terrible things that paparazzi have done (including that topless photo scandal), and for allegedly saying about William, "He's lucky to be going out with me". 
They aren't ruining the monarchy, they aren't 'lazy'. And they aren't anything like Diana, but that's fine. 

Prince William

Prince William constantly expresses his desire to lead a normal life. It's common knowledge that he doesn't like his position as a royal and heir to the throne, and would give it all up if he could. But does William really know what it's like to be regular? Sure, the royals have problems like the media, and the lack of privacy (caused by the media), and the rigid protocol (so that the media won't have anything to write about). Basically, all the royals' problems boil down to the media. What doesn't bother them, however, are bills, and the economy, and good grades, and getting a job, and buying a house; all the things that bother regular people. And it's never bothered them. I wonder if William knows what it's like. And if he realises that if he was regular, he wouldn't have been able to quit work just because his son was born and he wanted to look after him.
Except for a few rare cases, when you're born into a certain class of society you stay in that class for the rest of your life. And if that's how it is, isn't it better to be born into a privileged class, where your biggest worry is whether a photographer took a picture of you leaving some posh nightclub, than to be, say, below the poverty line?
And being a royal doesn't consign you to a life of being stalked by cameramen. Just look at the royals from other countries. Frederik and Mary and Willem-Alexander and Maxima and all their children lead fairly normal lives. They go to school, and public places, and participate in regular events, and they don't really feel the effects of being a royal. Granted, the British press is more ruthless than anywhere else in the world, but it can't be all that bad.
Also, the monarchy is Britain's greatest tourist attraction. So much of their money just comes from the fact that people from all over the world flock to see their royalty. This summer, I spent over 2,000 pounds on staying in London and sightseeing and buying merchandise just because I'm fascinated by the royals. Multiple that by the millions of tourists who come in every year, and it's no wonder the Duchess of Cambridge can afford dresses that cost 7,000 pounds. And the reason the people come is because the royal life is so exciting compared to their own, with palaces, and servants, and balls (I think). They live this exiting life vicariously through members of the royal family, so I don't think they'd pay quite as much to see a bunch of regular people. If I wanted to see a regular family, I wouldn't travel halfway around the world or spend hours on end on the Internet. I'd shut down my computer and look at my own family. They're quite normal. Or I'd look at Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive. They are perfectly normal, thank you very much.
The point is, no one wants to see the royals as regular people. It's boring.

With Prince William, it's a simple case of the grass being greener on the other side, isn't it? Except, this time, the grass really isn't greener.

~

That's all the royal... things I can think of at the moment.

Because I have classes on Saturday, I don't usually have enough time to also write something for my blog, so from now on, I'm going to be posting on Sundays instead.

I wish enough people read my blog to actually care.

N

I Have A Problem With Actresses

No royal has died/been born/gotten married this week. Pity.

Let's talk (Rather, let me type because I'm bored, and you read because evidently, you're bored as well) about actresses. Specifically, actresses who act in movie adaptation of books. Even more specifically, Shailene Woodley.

If you know who John Green is, you probably know that this best selling novel, The Fault in Our Stars, is being made into a movie, starring Ansel Elgort and, of course, Shailene Woodley. If you follow John Green on Twitter and Instagram like I do, you'll have a fair idea of what is going on on that set, based solely on the sheer number of pictures that John Green posts all the time. If you actually read his tweets/captions, you'll realise that John Green loves his female lead. But I don't. 

I don't like Shailene Woodley. This is a slightly controversial thing to say on the Internet, I know, but hardly anyone reads my blog anyway, and since I choose to remain anonymous, it doesn't matter. I don't like her as Hazel Grace, and I don't like her as Tris Prior. And I especially don't like the fact that she's playing both Hazel and Tris, and both times alongside Ansel, who plays her boyfriend in one and her brother in the other. Surely there are enough up and coming young actors that they don't need to keep using the same set every time, let alone in two such highly anticipated, crazy-fandom possessing movies that are releasing around the same time. It's terrible!

But this isn't the first time I've had a problem with an actress. List:

Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss Everdeen

The first time I saw Jennifer Lawrence was two years ago, when she was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in Winter's Bone. I remember seeing her on the red carpet, and not really caring or remembering. It really was quite a forgettable appearance. I'm quite glad she didn't win that year, and won this year instead. This year was just all fabulousness.

Anyway, when she was cast as Katniss, I remember thinking things like "But she's really boring", "But she doesn't seem like the sort of person who'll do a good job" and "BUT SHE'S A BLONDE!"

I was wrong, on all fronts. Jennifer Lawrence is funny, and pretty, and a great actor, and she does the best interviews, and she won an Oscar, and she's only 23, and I love her.

Lily Collins as Clary Fray

Lily Collins has irked me ever since she wore a real tiara in Mirror Mirror, one that had once been worn by Princess Grace of Monaco, and pranced about in it for a whole song. It made me want to scream. As did her being cast as Clary.

But she was so perfect for the role. I cannot imagine anyone else playing the role now. Also, she really got into character by dating Jamie Campbell Bower IRL. 

Emma Watson as Hermione Granger

As if!

(Also, I was less than six years old when she was cast. I don't think I knew how to read, much less object to a casting decision.)

And that is what's going to happen with Shailene as well. I'm going to get massively upset for a little while, go and watch both the Divergent and the TFIOS movie, and come back saying that she is the greatest person ever to grace the silver screen. 

I've just realised that all these actresses are the same age, give or take a little. Don't know what that means, or whether it does mean anything at all. 

If you want a bit of a laugh at a royal's expense, here is a picture of the Duchess of Cambridge getting her shoe stuck in a grate.

N

Unfortunately, Boggarts Don't Exist

"In this post, I promise that there shall be no mention of the royals, even though they were at Balmoral this week, where William and Kate attended a service and Prince Philip met Prince George for the first time and probably taught him how to swear (Philip taught George, not the other way around)!
But no. Not a word."

This was the beginning of what was meant to be this week's post. I typed that out on Monday or Tuesday. Trust the royals to make me go back on my word.

William and Kate have been granted a new conjugal coat of arms, which basically means that their individual coats of arms have been combined to signify marriage, two years and one child after their wedding. That is a picture, and if anyone is interested, the Daily Mail has broken it down and analysed it. Link.

I don't have anything to say. I don't understand why coats of arms are needed. I looks good though. Maybe Prince William can make it the lock-screen background of his iPhone. I wonder if he's upgraded it to iOS 7 yet.

Which brings me to the topic of today's post, but before that, Prince George's christening, October 23. Keep your day open. I'll be tweeting about it most of the time, so you can follow me @JustAsSaneAsMe.

Right. iOS 7. I don't like it. It's stupid, and childish, and everything is different, but for some reason, people love it. Everyone who I see who has an iPhone has iOS 7. But I can't stand it. And I know why that is.

Because it has changed.

Of all the things in the world that annoy me, and a lot of things do annoy me, change annoys me the most. I absolutely detest it. When something changes, whether for the better or for the worse, I either refuse to accept it or go off into a huge tirade. I don't know why that is. Here is a longer list of things that annoy me:
1. Change.
2. Crowds.
3. Falling sick.
4. Slow learners, like that girl in my French class who just cannot, cannot say 'Je m'appelle' but who probably won't take offence at this post because she doesn't know my name or that I exist, let alone that I have a blog in which I call her annoying.
5. My brother.

I've been reading Insurgent lately, where fear landscapes play an important role, and it made me think about how much importance fictional characters give to fear, and overcoming it (Another prominent example being Harry Potter and Boggarts). People in real life don't have many fears, and if they do, they aren't often faced with them. I don't know what my greatest fear is; death, probably. But a lot of people get annoyed by things, and they come into contact with these annoying things quite often. And sometimes it can be worse to find something annoying than to find it scary, especially if the thing in question is a person. It would be a lot less rude to tell a person that you find them frightening than to tell them that you think that they're annoying.

Boggarts need to evolve so that they take the form of the thing that annoys a person the most, rather than the thing that frightens them. And there shouldn't be a spell; the only way to get rid of this Boggart should be by sitting through a pre-determined amount of time of that girl trying and failing to say 'Je m'appelle' over and over again., until it doesn't annoy you anymore. Or until you shoot the Boggart out of frustration.

Unfortunately, Boggarts don't exist.

I'm just going to make that the post title and stop writing. The word Boggart has lost all meaning to me.

N

There Has Been A Royal Wedding!

Prince Felix and Claire Lademacher have literally just gotten married.

I haven't seen anything of William and Kate lately, so I actually had a post planned for this week that wasn't about royalty in any way. But then Luxembourg decided to have a royal wedding, so that plan was put off indefinitely.
I knew Prince Felix was going to get married. I knew it last year, when he got engaged. I mentioned the fact that he got engaged somewhere on my blog. I just didn't know that he was getting married today.

Civil Wedding

Kissing at the civil wedding

Religious Wedding

Kissing at the religious wedding

The dress

The bride, of course, wore Elie Saab, which is no surprise seeing as Elie Saab is to the Grand Ducal Family as Alexander McQueen is to the Duchess of Cambridge. Their favourite, if you don't get that royal analogy.

So, Claire Lademacher is now Princess Claire of Luxembourg (not to be confused with Princess Claire of Belgium as Google did when I was looking for wedding pictures), and Prince Felix is no longer an eligible Prince, so strike him off your list, girls, and keep a close eye on Harry.

I will too.

N

Dungbombs rule.

A quick round-up of royal news before I get to what this post is actually about.

This Thursday, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge attended the Tusk Conservation Awards, but before doing that Prince William quit his job!

That's right. He resigned from the Armed Forces to become a full-time royal, which means that he will be undertaking more duties on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen, making more appearances at public events and becoming the patron of more charities. He'll also be able to spend more time looking after Prince George, so that Kate can go out to undertake duties on behalf of Her Majesty The Queen, and so on and so forth.
This will be interesting to watch, because Prince William has often been accused of being a 'lazy' royal, because he doesn't carry out as many engagements as, say, the Countess of Wessex, even though he's closer to the Crown and not all that much younger than Sophie.

After ceasing to be a part of the RAF, Prince William went to the Tusk Conservation Awards with his wife, Princess William (more commonly called Duchess Catherine or just Kate), their first evening away from Baby George. She wore this sparkly thing.

Now there is nothing wrong with this dress. It's pretty, and it probably cost more than my car, so that's fine. But I've always preferred day time Kate to red carpet Kate, and even of her red carpet appearances, this isn't my favourite. Show off how much baby weight you've lost, Kate!
Oh, and she wore those Jimmy Choo's. How I detest those Jimmy Choo's.

This week Prince William mentioned that fact that he owns an iPhone twice. Once to say that he listens to the sound of crickets on his iPhone to relax, and again when he asked to be excused for constantly checking his iPhone for updates on how Prince George was doing (He didn't say iPhone at the second instance, but we all know). I always assumed that the royals, at least the more modern ones, owned phones, but to the best of my knowledge they've never admitted to it. William mentioning it twice makes me wonder if it has been newly acquired and he can't help but show it off. ("Oh, yes, I just had a son, and someday he's going to be the ruler of sixteen nations, but did you hear? I bought an iPhone.")(That's not what Prince William sounds like)(I wouldn't know, I've never met Prince William)

Also, finally, Prince Harry turns 29 tomorrow, so tweet at him wishing him a happy birthday!
I wish Prince Harry had a Twitter.

In really big news this week, Warner Brothers has announced a movie adaptation of the Harry Potter spin-off 'Fantastic Beasts &Where To Find Them'. J. K. Rowling is going to make her screen-writing debut with this movie, and Harry Potter fans are going to line up for tickets weeks in advance because it's been SO long since anything new has come out and they're beginning to suffer from withdrawal symptoms.

I've read the book. I bought it at the height of my Harry Potter obsession, and read it from cover to cover. And I can list at least three flaws in this endeavour to make it a movie.

1. Fantastic Beasts has no story. I saw the One Direction movie this week with my friends, and that had no story either. It was just a glorified advertisement for the band and their concerts. And even though I do like One Direction themselves (No judging!), I wouldn't advise people to watch the movie. The opposite, in fact. And that's what is going to happen with Fantastic Beasts. It's going to make money by playing on people's fancies, and then just not be very good.

2. The best part about Fantastic Beasts is Harry and Ron's little notes in the corner of every page (including 'Glumbumble' and a picture of a troll captioned 'My name is Gregory Goyle and I smell'). And Dan and Rupert aren't coming back for this, so I don't know how they're going to do that. Even if they did come back, I don't know how they would have done that.

3. Harry Potter fans will be disappointed if it doesn't live up to their expectations. I know I will. The books got progressively better, and so did the movies, but there is no way that this will trump Deathly Hallows : Part 2. And I've already been disappointed enough (I'm looking at you, Casual Vacancy).

I think I'll just watch it when it comes on TV.

UPDATE : As I'm typing this, my Twitter feed is filling up with news about Princes William and Harry and thirty year old Pippa Middleton at some society wedding, but I can't find any pictures yet, so I'll cover it next week.

N

Baby Tiaras

On Tuesday morning, I woke up with a splitting toothache. I made a mental note to visit the dentist the next day because I was sort of busy on Tuesday, with college and exams, but mostly because I really hate dentists. My tooth hurt like the devil, but I ignored it all day, wanting to stay as far away from the dentist for as long as possible. The next morning I woke up and had my breakfast, and it wasn't until I was eating my third slice of toast that I realised that I no longer had a toothache. Just to make sure, I banged at it with the end of my brush to check for any pain, and when there wasn't, I just went about my day as usual. That tooth hasn't bothered me since.

Let that be a lesson to everyone. Don't go to a dentist unless it's absolutely necessary, and even then put it off for as long as you can. No good can ever come out of visiting a dentist.

~

Now the big news this week, obviously, is that Princess Madeleine of Sweden, who you may remember from my post about her wedding not three months ago, is pregnant with her first child with her title-less husband, Chris O'Neill.

That was quick.

This possibly untitled baby is going to be born in the March of 2014, and I am going to have a quick roundup of all the royal babies born or conceived in this year so far.

Sacha Casiraghi (21st March, 2013)

Pictured here with his mother, Tatiana Santo Domingo. Sacha's father, Andrea Casiraghi, will be the ruler of Monaco if Prince Albert dies without a legitimate heir, but because Sacha was born illegitimately as well, I'm not sure whether he will ever be able to rule. Nevertheless, he is a royal baby, which is more than can be said about the thousands of babies born every.... hour? Minute? Second?

Baby Tindall (Due January 2014)

This is one baby that will definitely be untitled, and definitely not be King, but will have Queen Elizabeth as his/her great-grandmother anyway. Good luck, kid. 

I also, for some strange reason, hope that this child is a boy and is named Augustus. I don't know why I wish that way, but if you read about Gus Tindall in the papers a few months from now, remember; you heard it here first.

Prince George (22nd July, 2013)

I've written enough about this baby as is. I'll leave him alone for now.

Baby Elmaleh (Due Late 2013)

Like Queen Elizabeth with great-grandchildren, this baby will be Princess Caroline's second grandchild born this year. Unlike her brother, Charlotte Casiraghi intends to get married to her fiance, French actor Gad Elmaleh, before thier child is born, in the autumn, so there's a royal wedding to look forward to. Sort of. 

Maud Elizabeth Daphne Marina (15th August, 2013)

I'm not sure what this child's surname is, because her grandparents are the Prince and Princess of Kent, so they don't have a surname, but their rank in the royal family isn't high enough to warrant their granddaughter a title. Her parents are Lord and Lady Frederick Windsor, but there isn't a Windsor in sight in her name, so I'm not sure at all. That's the thing with babies. It's hard to be sure with them.

Baby O'Neill/Prince(ss) of Sweden (Due March 2014)

I'm just amazed at how quickly these two decided to have children. It took Kate and William two years after getting married, and their child would be directly in line to the throne. This baby very possibly won't even have a title. But if he/she is anything like his/her cousin Estelle, this is going to be fun.

A girl would be best, in my opinion. I mean, someone needs to continue to wear Madeleine's tiaras (Imagine that. A baby sized Modern Fringe) after she can't any longer.

~

Last week, I asked you to give my vote for the GGBI and Poltimore Tiaras a thumb-up. Unfortunately, Order of Splendor went on vacation before it announced the two tiaras that had been added to the Readers' Ultimate Choice, so I don't know whether my choices won. Thank you anyway, if you voted for me. 

Yesterday was Pippa Middleton's birthday, and she turned 30. By the time her sister was that age, she had gotten married in the wedding of the decade and was carrying the future King of England. Congratulations Pippa!

Also, next week the Duchess of Cambridge is going to be making another appearance without Prince George, at the Tusk Conservation Awards, so I will be commenting on that. If I don't forget, that is.

N