It can’t have failed to come to the attention of anyone above ground that the last couple of weeks have been exceptionally hot. It seems that in this country we take great delight in cataloguing all the different weather we are experiencing and discussing it at a national and even international level! From the first flakes of snow paralysing the transport system to the first rays of the sun causing a rush on bottled water as we all forget we can get it out of the tap! Then there are the inevitable thunderstorms that follow the heat, although here it seems more humid after the storms than it did before they started! I was quite disappointed not to be abel to watch the storm but the arrival of a frightened five year old put paid to that but it was nice to listen to the rain! Thankfully the child who is the most scared by thunder managed to sleep through it somehow! The eldest didn’t want to come in but instead camped out on the stairs with her bedding and a book and then promptly fell asleep again about an hour before I needed to get her up for riding!
All the children were pleased that a royal baby has been born, it is exciting that a baby that will be king one day has been born and I can understand why people are excited all around the world. Indeed I did feel happy and patriotic last night at the news and hope that the duchess isn’t in too much pain after the delivery as he was rather a big boy. Now the speculation about how and when they will leave the hospital, when official photographs will be issued and what his name will be has started in earnest. The news have filled hours with telling us over and over again what has happened and what might happen, but like us, they don’t know yet! In this age of instant news I was pleased that the couple were able to keep the news that the baby was here to themselves for a few hours. Having said that the children are guessing the name Imp thinks he will be called Henry because then that will make 9 and apparently that is a world record, Pixie thinks he will be called Jack and Hpops has yet to comment. Pixie is keen to meet him as her main ambition is to grow up to be a princess so who knows…
I worry for the poor child though growing up in the spotlight although William seems to have managed, I do hope that despite the furore concerning the family they will still have time to be themselves and enjoy the child growing up. I can only imagine how hard it must be for Kate having given birth just yesterday to appear on the steps of the hospital with her precious new arrival and ‘show him off’ to the media and public. For any new parents it is a time when they want to be surrounded by their own loved ones, get to know their baby and bond as a family. You often feel like you’ve been hit by a bus having just given birth, having done it three times all I wanted to do was shuffle down the corridor and into the car, shuffle into the house and recover slowly and in private! I was lucky to get anything remotely sensibly fitting on so to have to face the media would not be top of my list of things to do 24 hours after giving birth. Yes be excited, wave flags, fire a gun to salute and visit the special golden easel but remember that at the heart of the excitement is a family and we need to be careful not to overwhelm them with out desire to know what is going on with the baby. Being a parent for the first time is difficult enough without everyone wondering when the prince will walk, when he will have his first solids and whether his first will be Mum or Your Majesty!
I hadn’t really thought about what it felt like to be patriotic until recently. The wedding and the Olympics as well as the birth have all made me pleased to live in Britain. As a country we do have a number of problems but having looked at other places there doesn’t seem to be anywhere on the Earth that is ‘perfect’, or at least not for long. I have heard people saying we should abolish the Royals but imagine if we did what we’d lose, not just the excitement of weddings, births and pomp and circumstance but the years of tradition, the tourist lure. So many buildings and gardens and feelings of good will exist and if there was one person many of us would like to see up close it would be a member of the royal family. They are our figureheads and we should feel proud of the positive image they present to the world! At the moment the country seems to be on the up, the cricket team are 2-0 in the Ashes, Andy Murray won Wimbledon and Froome won the Tour de France! Now if we could just get over the heat and thunderstorms and have a nice steady 20-24 degrees everything would be perfect -for a while!
