The Week in Pictures: A Right Royal Celebration

Reasons why last week was probably the least productive in the history of everything:

1. The Queen celebrated turning ninety with a 'walkabout' right outside the office front door
2. The GBBO contestants were there with cake
3. The guy who played Max Cunningham in Hollyoaks spent the day in the office
4. There was chocolate cake and prosecco (in celebration of the Queen, not a semi-well-known ex-soap star...)
5. Obama helicoptered in for lunch and bought a chock load of helicopters with him which were super noisy and distracting and turned us all into excited ten-year-old boys

I mean, as far as a working week goes, this one sort of took the biscuit. Or the birthday cake, if you will... *ba dum tss*. Yes, Eleanor does mean 'immeasurably hilarious'* in Swahili.

*no it doesn't.

While I (very very) sadly didn't get to actually set my eyes on the Queen, I did get to witness the palaver that surrounded three very busy days. God knows how a tiny ninety-year-old woman has the stamina to withstand such gargantuan tasks when I got out of breath just trying to photograph the whole thing. (I may or may not now be forever immortalised in BBC News coverage as a strange passerby attempting to take a picture of the news stand set up on the Castle front lawn...).

But alas, this is what I was able to surmise from this experience:

• There isn't a single colour the Queen can't pull of.
• Open-top Range Rovers are a thing. But seemingly only if you're the leader of an empire. 
• The Queen just has some pimping rides full stop, let's be real.
• Everyone loves a flag.
• Like, literally everyone.
• Opening a bandstand is a big deal.
• Being born in the same year as a monarch is a big yes.
• The Queen must own a lot of vases.
• Dressing head-to-toe in a Union Jack print will get you on the news.
• If you go on a BBC baking show, you'll 100% end up baking for royalty.
• Prince Charles saying "Mummy" is never not funny.
• Lighting a ceremonial beacon can be somewhat problematic.
• The Princess Diaries gave me unrealistic expectations of how a beacon should be lit. Where were the flaming arrows at?
• There's nothing a piece of bunting can't cheer up.
• I'd like #ProseccoThursdays to become a thing.
• We should all have two birthdays each year.
• I sodding love spending five days a week in Windsor.

I also like to imagine that after enjoying a civilised tour of the Post Office, witnessing a dramatic re-enactment of a Romeo & Juliet scene by a local school, slicing some cake and unveiling several plaques, the royal family got totally smashed and swung from the grandest of chandeliers. Liz seems like that kind of gal.

#LongLiveTheQueen.
~ Eleanor xo