Of royalty and Royal Residences

Two weeks til Christmas break…Two weeks til Christmas break…Two weeks…

I’m looking forward to the break to catch my breath, do some travelling, and hopefully get a good start on next term’s work.

You’ll have to forgive the disjointedness of this post. There’s a lot I’d like to share with you but (as always) little time in which to do so and, quite frankly, I’m getting tired of writing (think academic papers) so I’m not worrying to much about style here. Just content. I hope you’ll find it in your hearts to forgive me. =)

So first things first… A few odd sightings here in London. The first I don’t have a picture of but I saw the Queen when she came to open the oh-so-creatively-named New Academic Building on the LSE campus. My second royal sighting of the week occurred at the Remembrance Sunday service I attended on Whitehall. Here’s the picture I got of the Queen then:

I think she’s behind the tree but I know she’s in there somewhere…

Here are the third, and fourth odd sightings:

That’s right, blue sky!



I’d wondered if I’d done something to offend my shadow…it had been such a long time since I’d seen it.


Just to give you an idea as to the weather here I’ve taken the liberty of including a weekly forecast from the BBC website.



In other news, I’ve been introduced to a British institution: the football match. A friend of mine got some cheap tickets to a Chelsea F.C. game so though I’m not a big sports fan I went along for the experience and was not disappointed! My first inkling that “we’re not in Canada anymore Toto” was when the ‘away’ team’s fans arrived at the stadium in a single group surrounded by police on foot and on horseback. They were escorted past the rest of us Chelsea fans (well, I had to pick a side for the evening didn’t I…there’s no such thing as a neutral party at a British footie match!) and up to a separate entrance reserved especially for them.

Once I’d taken my seat I noticed that all the ‘away’ fans had been segregated (ghettoized?) on one side of the stadium with a cordon of cops standing shoulder to shoulder between the ‘home’ and ‘away’ fans. As things got heated up more and more police were interspersed among the crowd and by the second half they were lined up around the perimeter of the playing field as well, presumably to intercept any streakers or other miscreants.

I certainly have a better understanding of British culture now! The normally reserved Britons change completely when cheering on their team. There was a bloke seated nearby who was getting so worked up we all thought was going to have an aneurism right there and then, and the language… oh the language. I think it would have made the Royal Navy blush collectively!

Now onto the other end of the spectrum. This past weekend the LSE’s International Relations Department held it’s annual academic conference which I and about 75 of my cohort-mates attended. The conference itself was OK (it dealt with rising powers in IR. The BRICs for those of you interested in, or familiar with, the field.) but the real highlight was the venue.


Cumberland Lodge is located in Windsor Great Park, about 3.5 miles south of Windsor Castle. It’s a former Royal Residence that was set aside as a centre to contribute to education and social advancement. My next door neighbour while there was Royal Lodge where the Queen is known to spend weekends. I was able to slip away and attend church at the Royal Chapel nearby but alas, Her Majesty wasn’t in attendance. We weren’t allowed to bring cameras so I have no pictures of the church but here are some of Cumberland Lodge and surrounding area.

I guess I'll finish off by posting a few pictures of the Lodge (my room, dining room, etc...)

My room.

Hallway to my room.

Dining room.

Reading room/lounge.

Music room.

Staircase to my room.

Royal Chapel.

The grounds.

Once again, my apologies for the hodge-podge nature of this post but I just wanted to get it up quickly so I could go to bed at a decent time but knowing that all of you (there must be at least two of you!) know I haven't been the victim of some terrible accident in the Tube. Hope all's well back in Canada and I'll look forward to your comments.