Anzac Day dawn service in London (Hyde Park Corner)

There were a few activities to commenorate Anzac Day here in London. The day started early with the Dawn Service at Hyde Park Corner. It was quite a pleasant morning, and a good crowd (about 3,000) assembled to hold the celebration at the NZ memorial end. Apparently it has been held at the Australian memorial (which is only 100 yards or so away) but as we now have our lovely memorial, it was held there.





For other photos, you can view these on http://picasaweb.google.com/jane.thompsonuk/AnzacServiceLondon2008

It was a good service, albeit not exactly moving. Traffic steadily built up as we were in the middle of one of the busiest roundabouts in London. Derek Leask, the new High Commissioner here in London, gave the main speech. I don't want to sound critical, but I think he would benefit from a few sessions with Maggie Eyre!!! The other thing that really annoyed me about the service was the version of the NZ national athem they played. It was really fast and really high so to sing along with it was near impossible. The aussies had given a good rendition of their athem, but the music played for ours meant that there were only a few embarrassing murmurings.
The picture here is Ms Frances Adamson, Acting High Commissioner for Australia, Derek Leask (NZ High Commissioner) and the Duke of Kent.


The karanga was great, and I enjoyed the readings. The Duke of Kent was there to represent the Queen.


Vivienne and I had taken the day off and elected to go to the huge shopping centre outside of London called Blue Waters. Didn't see any blue water but there were so many shops, we only covered less than half of them before we called it a day. We did have a few new purchases by the time we left but neither of us elected to buy those knickers for £70, even though they were on sale and could have been purchased less 20%.


The day finished with attending the NZ Society's event in the penthouse at New Zealand House. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera, but the views from up there must be the best in London. They are truly spectacular. After a few lovely NZ wines, we had done our dash for the day. Next Anzac day I will be celebrating it in NZ, and look forward to that.

Hampstead Heath

If you are looking for something to do on a Sunday, how about a walk on Hampstead Heath, followed by a good pub lunch? This is what Kirsty, Wendy (Australia), Vivienne and I elected to do. Despite the rain, it was fun and the lunch was superb.

Here's me, Vivienne and Wendy outside the pub. Of course it rained while we were walking, it stopped rained while we were in the pub and as soon as we were ready to leave, yep, you guessed it, rain again!

Spring and Foxes in London

There's been a lot of things going on lately so my blog has been suffering. Not all the things happening are suitable for this public forum, ha ha!

There's been a fox in my garden (see picture), the squirrel has had babies (sorry no picture), the lawns have been resown (again no picture but thanks John), and we have used the outdoor furniture for the first time in ages and ages and ages (see photo featuring Bryan, Andrea, John, John and Vivienne). We need some more gas to get the BBQ going but that day the NZ Lamb roast did the trick.

While the weather hasn't been exactly wonderful, its nice to have some more daylight at the end of the day.

Events coming up include the dawn service at the NZ memorial here in London on Friday (unfortunately its not a public holiday here...). There's also drinks at the penthouse of New Zealand House, hosted by the NZ Society that night. I'm off to see Aunty Pat in Sussex for the weekend and then the weekend after that is the Badminton Horse Trials which will of course, be one of the highlights of the equestrian endeavours. I'm looking forward to catching up with the kiwi contingent there.

British Open Showjumping, Birmingham

The British Open Showjumping championships is as much about entertainment as it is about top showjumpers performing. The music, the lighting, the programme are all designed to make it a great outing for the family. And there were plenty of them here on the Saturday I attended the event in Birmingham.

The British Open started on Thursday and qualified riders compete over four days culminating in the final on Sunday night.

The Saturday programme started with a speed event (Table A 1.45m against the clock) and was won by Eric Van der Vleuten from Netherlands, who jumped a clear round 1.6 seconds faster than Robert Smith from Great Britain.

The programme then diverted from the “pure” Showjumping, starting with a Scurry Challenge. This involved a pair of ponies in a cart with the driver and the groom going hell for leather around a course. Flying sand, grooms clinging on like riders in a motorbike sidecar, and great crowd support and cheering. Ponies were cute and had the cute names to match. Piglet and Pooh Bear won the event, followed by Branston and Pickle, and the pairs such as Zig and Zag, not to mention Bill and Ben, also looked like they were thoroughly enjoying themselves.

The Parelli display was very tame after the pony scurry, and the barrel racing didn’t go down that well with the crowd who were increasingly opting for the shopping area where you could buy anything for your horse or pony not to mention whatever fashion statement you were after for your own look.

The Open Indoor Cross Country Power & Speed event was frankly a bit of an anticlimax for us kiwis as I had hoped that Andrew Nicholson would compete on the Saturday as well as the Friday night (which we couldn’t attend). Knowing how hard Andrew works, he probably had a full team of horses out eventing. He had finished 8th in the eventers showjumping the night before. The eventers showjumping on the Saturday comprised of a duo of an eventer and a showjumper, competing against the clock over a course comprising corners and other cross country type fences for the eventing rider and a showjumping course for the showjumper. The winner of the event was the combination of Mark Kyle from Ireland and the 18 year old William Whitaker of THAT famous family. Ollie Townend, always popular with the high ratio of female eventing fans, placed second with William Funnell (Pippa’s husband).

There was a lovely tradition that was started with the showjumpers where the riders threw their rosettes into the crowd to the appreciate kids who clutched their rosette as if they had won it themselves. Ollie continued this tradition – after all he probably doesn’t treasure his rosettes anymore after collecting so many.

The third round of the main showjumping competition was won by Harvey Smith, who once again rode a superb round on Mr Springfield, the horse he finished fourth on at the Athens Olympics. Apparently there have been a series of injuries and a long recovery time but he was very clean today. There were 13 clear rounds and then a series of four faulters so the riders obviously coped well with the course.

The highlight of outing was the Puissance in the evening session. Sitting through the various “entertainment” events that were repeated from the day session again in the evening session (such as the polo, the parelli demonstration and the barrel racing) was a little trying, made easier by a visit to the bar for a while, but the Puissance event, which started at 9:30pm, was well worth the wait.

The eventual winner was the 18 year old William Whitaker, on Haddon House Leonardo, who jumped 7 foot 2 inches to take the title from Dale Burnham who didn’t manage to clear the wall at that height. An exciting new combination in the event was Ellen Whitaker on Ladina B. They placed 4th equal. She is a fantastic rider, and the big white mare is an exciting talent. the photo at the top of this blog shows William standing in front of the 7 foot 2 wall.

Other things enjoyed included the music (played nearly constantly but adding significantly to the atmosphere), the pageantry as only the British can do, and the opportunity to see some exciting young european talent competing.

http://picasaweb.google.com/jane.thompsonuk/BritishOpenShowjumping
There's a few photos from the British Open - more to be put up as soon as I get a chance to sort them all out!

The Whittakers ended up winning the event, Robert, Michael and then William taking the honours. For more information on the results, please visit http://www.horsetalk.co.nz/news/2008/04/047.shtml

Sir Edmund Hillary's Memorial Service at Windsor Castle

Attending Sir Ed's memorial service was a privilege. I didn't have seats in the chapel, and with a bunch of other hardy kiwis, we stood out on the lawn and heard the service on the loud speakers. No big screen however....

As well as the Queen, Princess Anne and the Countess of Wessex (Sophie, who is married to Prince Edward), Helen Clark was there as was Jenny Shipley, Sean Fitzpatrick, Hayley Westenra, Maggie Eyre and a bunch of other important New Zealanders! The Queen didn't stay around long for me to get a decent shot of her, but Helen came around and talked to as many people as she could. She was very relaxed and shared a joke about her having to head home using Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport. One of the bright sparks next to me suggested she should just take hand luggage.

It was interesting to see the media working, with both TV One and TV 3 there, as well as a bunch of other photographers.

The most amusing bit was at the end of the service when God Save the Queen was sung. We presume it was Reverend Michael Boag who had left his microphone on. Anyway, whoever it was gave a stirring rendition of God Save the Queen, and nearly blew the outside speakers. Unfortunately he wasn't quite in tune and it sounded simply dreadful but highly amusing. Most people outside were laughing, and no doubt there will be a photo of us being very disrespectful during the national anthem.

It was pretty cold outside, there was a very light shower, but nothing much. Vivienne and John nearly froze, as they believed the weather forecast which said it was going to be cloudy but warm! John did look nice in his suit though!

http://picasaweb.google.com/jane.thompsonuk/SirEdmundHillarySMemorial

There's the usual array of photos you can view by clicking the attached link. The BBC has a very short clip (from TVNZ) which can be viewed here http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_7320000/newsid_7326600/7326622.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&asb=1&news=1&bbcws=1