The Best day ever! No, it was very good and I can’t remember being so happy for such a long time. The reason you may ask, simple says I: The Lord High Mayor’s show! What an absolutely glorious event. But all in due time. So to begin I awoke fairly early, about 8:30 or so, and got ready with the intention of leaving at 9:30. This almost happened, but not entirely, as my flatmates Erika and Jessa were also going to photograph the event. I waited for them, and finally we were on our way. We left not too long after I wanted to go, but I had no idea how crowded the place we were going would get, where we were going was St. Paul’s Cathedral. Now, when we got there, Erika and Jessa, decided it would be the best idea to go and follow this parade for the whole route, from Guild Hall (as the mayor is always an alderman in the guilds of London) to Mansion House, and then along the parade route to the Royal Palace of Justice. They did not know where to go precisely, however, and I offered them my map that I keep in my pocket at all times. They eagerly accepted it, and took off, from there I walked to the perfect spot facing the stairs of St. Paul’s as well as the road, so I had great access and view of the parade route.
When I was there, I looked for Thomas and members of my class whom I was supposed to meet at this spot. After failing to see any of them, I came to the conclusion that there were perhaps steps on the other side of this great cathedral I simply was not aware of. Thinking about it further, I realised that this could not be, because the place where the archbishop of London was to anoint the new mayor was on the side where I was, and furthermore it was the grand entrance to the building on the west side, as all good cathedrals have. As I stood there, I realised that I would not see them, but I took total advantage and every happiness in the prime reality that I had taken. I stood near two Japanese ladies of about middle age or so, this is always regrettable in my experience as they tend to be the pushiest people I know of. On my other side was a lady with a few kids all of whom were quite short, perhaps hip height, this was more bearable that the Japanese ladies for the most part. Now let me explain my disgruntlement with the Japanese women. They are annoying to me, because they would always stick their cameras into my face, and such like that, but of course, by and large they were fine. Finally the parade began! And what a beginning, it started with the Royal Guards band marching first. Every sort of float or military presence was there. I particularly liked the Savoy theatre’s contribution as well, as the bobby band. I got pictures of most of the things I liked.
I caught a picture too, of the man whom I aspire to be. He was wearing a bowler, had tight leather gloves which he used to carry an umbrella with one hand. He wore a suit, and a great overcoat that I am seeking for myself to find and naturally he had a poppy on his lapel, because of Armistice Day. Also, they had wonderful pomp of every kind many traditional outfits all of which were worth noting, particularly the tributes to Admiral Nelson, as this year marked the bicentennial of his death at the battle of Trafalgar. The parade lasted a long time, but I was so happy throughout all of it, to see what London still had, and that it was not simply a displaced version of America. I was happiest of all at the end though. This part had the Royal Horse Guards, the First Life Guards, and of course all the aldermen of the guilds. One of the very last things was the golden carriage of the mayor, who was dressed in a splendid outfit and he wore a tricorn along with many of the other guild members. He went up and was anointed by the bishop, all of which I had a great view on, and again took many pictures. Following his carriage was an ensemble of troops of the same dress and appearance of the Roundheads and Cavaliers reminiscent of the English Civil War of the mid 17th century (not 18th contrary to Thomas’ comment). These men were well dressed all of them, and yes they were wearing what one may call ridiculous costumes, but I was quite glad to see it all. Also included in this bunch was the Yeomen of the Guard, whom I am always glad to see, meaning that the Queen dispelled with both sets of her body guards for this event.
After the parade ended and the mayor had left, they opened the streets and over came Thomas and his parents to talk to me. I was so relieved and happy to see them, the only problem was I needed to find my class as well. I talked to them about it, and they seemed well, and I think they were glad to see this great parade (finest I have ever been to by far). I was searching for my class in trying to find them, and I then decided to go to the crypt of St. Paul’s where I remembered we were supposed to meet, Thomas’ family came with me, and there I discovered them. After I found them, I saw that Reuter was paying for the lot of us to get in, so I went and joined them, and as we were entering the ticketed part of St. Paul’s crypt, I had to rush out and show Thomas and his family that I was leaving, to which they bade me farewell, and I to them as well. As we went into the crypt we found the tomb of Sir Christopher Wren, the architect of this cathedral and 50 some odd churches in central London after the great fire. We also saw the great tombs of two of the most important men to the free and non-French world, that’s right Horatio Nelson, better known as Admiral Lord Nelson, and on the other side of him Arthur Wellesley better known as the Duke of Wellington. I felt so awe inspired to be between such great and noble men as these, and they are considered Britain’s greatest heroes (particularly Nelson). Right in the centre of them, was also another very notable figure for the time of war, but she a woman. That’s right, you guessed it, Florence Nightingale.
After these greats, we proceeded to go up to the ground floor of the cathedral and though I had been here before, I thought it all the more spectacular and I discovered that this is likely my favourite of all cathedrals I had seen (as I had not been on the inside of St. Peter’s but I suspect that since it was constructed around a similar date I would like that a lot too). Following this, we went up to the base of the dome known as the whispering gallery. It is so named because of you stand at one end of its parameter and whisper into the wood, someone with his ear up on the other side is supposed to be able to hear you, and our professor proved this to us practically by doing it. It was quite a sensation to know it worked so well and it was a great view of the base of the cathedral as well. We were also informed that many people have taken their own lives from this place, by simply falling off, which sounds particularly gruesome and blasphemous to me. We then went to the top of the dome, and all of these walks were quite a number of stairs I can assure you, from the ground to the top of the dome it is 500 steps. Anyway, the view from this area was fantastic, and I could not ask for a better view of London, save to see Big Ben better, and also I want to do the London Eye still. Anyway, I took several pictures, and we were directly across from the Millennium Bridge and the Tate Modern, so I took a picture of that, but also the parade had carried on, to lead from the Royal Palace of Justice to lead back to Mansion House. I watched that for a while from the top of the dome and was happy to see it again. I finally decided to go back downstairs to exit the building and in doing this, I found myself walking up to the parade. It was great, I caught the end of it again, which included all of the magnificent people in uniform I had described so enthusiastically before.
When they had passed, I crossed the bridge going to the Tate Modern in the slight hope to find Thomas and his family again, though I was fairly convinced they went instead to the Tate Britain. I did enter the Tate Modern myself, and I must say, it is loaded with rubbish and terrible art. I have come to the firm conclusion that in spite of my best efforts I am not a fan of modern art in any way, architecture yes, but not art. I think it is the worst dreck that some pretentious artist spews out in the attempt at seeming sophisticated. I was completely turned off to it, when I walked into the live performance things, the first of which was two televisions, one on top of the other where they had a little man on the screen of the bottom one (the top was the same image but upside down) jumping up and down in a tantrum like fashion. He was dressed in an almost Dr. Seuss like costume and I just raised my eyebrow upon seeing this strange set of images. This was much better to see than what I saw afterward. In the adjacent room, I walked into a film displaying a set of people standing in a sombre fashion not speaking with only a voice over saying some tripe like “we are the perfume of corridors...” It just showed people standing there in a very sterile environment making mechanical repeated gestures. I was trapped to see more of this than I had wanted, and I finally escaped the clutches of art pretension.
After I left this drab and depressing complex of garbage, I made my way home, in spite of the promise of fireworks at 17:00, which were quite nice, or so I am told. I took a long nap of about two or three hours, and when I woke up, I just read more of my book basically, and finally went to bed. Ta da!