We're Not Amused

Like all Brits under 57*, I have grown up only knowing one sovereign the whole of my life. The amount of visuals about this Queen throughout my life have been absolutely overwhelming.

I have seen the Queen smile. I have seen the Queen laugh. I have seen the Queen annoyed. I have seen the Queen look earnest. I have seen the Queen look impish. I have even seen the Queen give her dogs what for.

But I have, until now, never seen the Queen look like this.



Blimey, the famous royal stare which I have been told by courtiers, once seen is never to be forgotten (or to want to have repeated).

This is the look of a woman completely disapproving of the spectacle before her. Check out at minute 0:18 how she is piercing the ether with that thousand-yard stare. Curiously, instead of the usual spectacular blue tint of her eyes, which I have seen in person and are an absolutely compelling hue, they are an odd opaque colour here -- almost green-black, the colour of an angry sea. Then she looks down and up very quickly at minute 0:20 in a gesture very reminiscent of my late grandmother.

That was the look she gave anyone when she had had "quite enough of that".

I cannot know what was really going through H.M.'s mind as she listened to the Quran's 55th Chapter called "The Beneficent" being chanted, back in May '08, but as the saying goes, if looks could kill.

...what a contrast she will seem to Charles III.

*Almost 57 years to the day of my post. She ascended on 6 February 1952.

ADDED: Uncanny, no? I never noticed the resemblence of that look of thunderous disapproval before.



Please note that there have been candid snaps of the Queen annoyed in the past.







NONE of them reflect the added layer of discomfort mixed in with, oh I don't know, disgust? shown in the video.

Have A Very Merry Christmas!

Not only does Pepito wish you a very blessed Christmas day, but so does your humble Sundries blogger. May today bring you peace and happiness, pausing to remember why today is special to so many of us around the world.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Palin's Church Suspected Of Burning Due To Arson

It's a grody Sunday and the news this weekend has been a slow trickle of grey depression. That's one of the reasons I vacillated in posting today.

But you know I cannot let a Palin mention in the newswires pass unremarked.

Governor Sarah Palin's church in Wasilla caught on fire, whilst there were children inside. If you want to know the damages, they are about 1.5 million dollars in total -- but that is not important. What is important is that if this is arson, as one might suspect given Sarah Palin's apology for bringing her church "undeserved attention", is that whomever committed it be brought to justice.



I personally hope it wasn't arson.

There is just so much that I can believe about the human condition in one year, and after emails have been hacked, after a woman has had a hundred rumours levelled at her, including that she is not the mother of her own child, after the satisfactory conclusion of a Presidential campaign (for those who voted against her), I was hoping we had moved on.

If this does turns out to be arson, I will just have to be prepared for her to be the direct target next time, and so should you.

Be back tomorrow, with a cheerier disposition.