I Know How The Queen Feels

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I know how the Queen feels. Well, on one minor point anyway. Many countries in the commenwealth celebrate the Queen's birthday, however for reasons understood only by them, none of them celebrate it on her actual birthday. The date of her actual birthday being an enigmatic, mysterious point in time - or simply a google search away. It is this similarity that I share with the Queen - in that other people celebrated my wedding anniversary today, even though it was in fact not my anniversary.

Today was our second day at Disneyland. Having cased the joint a couple of days ago, today we ran (walk please) straight to the rides that we hadn't yet done. This rose a few eyebrows from the ride operators as most of the rides were in "Fantasy Land" (kiddy section). The operator for "Mr Toad's Wild Ride" (a kindly old codger) asked us if we were celebrating anything today. No we said. Well, would you like to? he said as he handed us each a "Happy Anniversary" badge. Our anniversary actually got missed this year by virtue of the fact that it possibly happened somewhere over Europe or Asia while on route to Hong Kong. So, why not, says I and slapped on the badge.

It changed my life.

For the rest of the day every single conversation that I had with people either started or finished with them congratulating me (or Cheri) on our anniversary. Some even took the time to ask how long, etc etc. It's one thing when these people are the Disneyland staff (who probably have to do it to keep their job) - but it's another thing when it's Joe Average next to you in line for California Screamin. It's almost like celebrity. People that you don't know seem to know you - and want to congratulate you on passing a fairly personal milestone. Albeit a few weeks late.

So we progressed thorugh all of the kiddy rides at Disneyland and then through the higher adrenaline rides next door at Disney's California Adventure. On the whole, adrenaline is better - though the Peter Pan ride was pretty good. Not to be sneezed at however are multi-entry passes which allow you to leave the park and return unlimited times during the day. During the hottest part of the day we were thus able to saunter back to our hotel for a bit of a siesta and then return later when everyone else was decidedly wilted. Even so, we played it cool and did some of the less attractive rides while we waited for the electric light parade to begin and our night to end.

Come to think of it, the United Kingdom doesn't actually celebrate the Queen's birthday at all - whether on the right date or not. In fact, unless she happened to be in a commonwealth country on the exact day that that country was celebrating her birthday, the Queen probably doesn't know how I feel...

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