Trooping the Colour

Thank you for the reminder. I've been gardening and would have missed it.

I don't usually watch this and expected to see Saturday Kitchen but it does all look rather splendid in the sunshine. Anyone know what the blue fluffy things are on the horses' headbands?

I’ve never seen it live but always try and watch if I can. Back when DS was in junior school and DH working at the MOD in a “shop window” appointment, he was given four tickets by his boss for seats in one of the stands. DD was very small then and I knew she wouldn’t last through it, so we stayed at home and DH took DS and a friend from school. They had a wonderful time and talked about it for ages afterwards.

The drill has changed a lot over the years, but is never less than impressive, especially the wheel movement that the massed bands do, for which there are no instructions -it’s just sort of “handed down” and, apparently, if you are a young bandsman in the middle of it, it can be very scary indeed!

Every single uniform there is a bit of a pantomime, but it all looks great in the sunshine.
I bet they are all looking forward to a Saturday afternoon in the garden after a nice lunch.
Would love to be a fly on the wall.

I caught a glimpse of Keir Starmer and his wife looking tense and exposed. I feel sorry for him. He must really be feeling the burden of responsibility with all the defence debate going on.

All the horses are given a carrot 🥕 at the end, I hear.

I remember many years ago (about 50 !) my mother and I were shopping in London. Suddenly there was a great surge of people and we decided to follow them out of curiosity. We ended up at a rehearsal of this event. Lovely and totally free!
Today I am having a lazy day. Having watched this event this morning I intend to watch tennis from Queens this afternoon. I will go grocery shopping this evening though.

That was an unexpected treat Greenfinch.
I was once standing on the pavement outside Chester town hall and realised that the couple on my right were the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester. They were young, the Duchess had recently had their first child. They had attended a function in the town hall and were waiting for their car to pick them up. No obvious security then.

I may be unpopular here but I thought the Queen looked ridiculous in that female version of a Grenadier guard outfit.
It was like a pantomime costume.

Thoroughly enjoyed it, and the sun shone!

I watched it and it is always impressive. The Princess of Wales looked lovely in blue.
Of course it won't be as spectacular as Trump's birthday celebration cage fight 😳

Managed to see most of it and it was great to watch. Lovely weather too.

Well, there are 2 of us then. She's worn it before (last year?). Btw my turning the TV on coincided with their carriage crossing Horse Guards Parade. I changed channels quickly.

I've loathed all this sort of stuff since I was a kid, but it wasn't as bad when QE2 and DofE were on horseback. It's just a fashion parade now, like all the other outings.

Poor old Charlotte, just turned 11, and she has to wear such odd clothes. And those awful shoes. Someone please let her be a pre-teen, and I don't mean ripped jeans and a heavy metal T shirt. I remember similar odd choices for Anne in the 60s.

Sorry, that was for Usedtobeblonde

Chardy

Well, there are 2 of us then. She's worn it before (last year?). Btw my turning the TV on coincided with their carriage crossing Horse Guards Parade. I changed channels quickly.

I've loathed all this sort of stuff since I was a kid, but it wasn't as bad when QE2 and DofE were on horseback. It's just a fashion parade now, like all the other outings.

Poor old Charlotte, just turned 11, and she has to wear such odd clothes. And those awful shoes. Someone please let her be a pre-teen, and I don't mean ripped jeans and a heavy metal T shirt. I remember similar odd choices for Anne in the 60s.

I'm quite sure Charlotte doesn't wear stiff and formal clothing on a day to day basis.

Oh I forgot it was happening am disappointed now I didn’t see it. Will try and get it back on catch up

The money wasted on this nonsense could go to funding our armed forces

We’re watching it on iPlayer since we were out this am.
I love the pageantry, the costumes, the horses and the skill of all that marching.
At the present time, it’s also lovely to see all those crowds of people out in the sunshine with no fighting!

For those who don’t enjoy it, how lucky you are that you don’t have to watch-although even a quick turn over offered chance to say which parts you didn’t like . . .

It looked a bit pared down this year.
I think the Queen needs to add "waists" to her dresses and agree that today's was rather odd.

What a strange comment about Charlotte wearing "odd" clothes.

What was odd about a girl wearing a dress? When we see informal photos of them, the children are wearing pretty much the same as any other youngster. I certainly wore dresses for special occasions as did my daughter and as do thousands and thousands of young girls today.

Perhaps the Princess of Wales should have nipped to Asda with Charlotte and bought her a cheap and badly fitting polyester outfit to be worn in front of a global audience.

Did you see the Duke of Kent filming on his mobile phone and George suppressing a sneeze during the National Anthem?

I’ve been out all day so I’ll watch the highlights later.
I love it..

StoneofDestiny

The money wasted on this nonsense could go to funding our armed forces

The armed forces are funded by the defence budget and have nothing to do with the financing of Trooping the Colour.

The money wasted on this nonsense could go to funding our armed forces

Have you any idea how much money the ToC brings in? In tv rights, ticket sales, tourism etc. But this is not just an event put on for tourists. It has a purpose for the Regiments that goes back centuries - to make sure every soldier could see and identify their colours in battle, and they still need to see and revere their colours now. It’s not about uniforms and spectacle. They would parade in their underpants if necessary (perhaps not Vern Stokes though - you have to draw the line somewhere!).