What's Black, Red and a little bit Boring??

What's black, red and a little bit boring? The "trooping of the color". Hate to say it, but it's true! Impressive, but boring.


A little back story - in January, I got one of the American Expat "English Experience" reminders that told me it was time to submit my name for the lottery for the Trooping of the Color tickets. This basically means they have a lottery to select names for the "opportunity to buy the tickets". Not really knowing all about the Trooping... ceremony, I submitted my name and received the great honor of being able to buy tickets. I received the tickets some time ago and on Thursday of this week, pulled them out to check out the details. The ceremony is basically a 3 Saturday-in-a-row parade of all the Queen's troops. A military parade that has it's origins in the field battles of yore when the troops needed to be inspired and realigned after a battle. It is in honor of their troop flag. The first 2 Saturdays are really types of dress rehearsals before the 3rd Saturday when the Queen is present and is able to observe her troops gathered together. We attended the first Saturday which is also known as "Major General's Review" because the Major General is in attendance and sits astride a horse for the entire parade receiving the salute of the troops.

The Major General on the white horse arriving with other dignitaries:



What I learned when I studied the tickets on Thursday was that dress code is "strictly followed" and that on the "review" days, men must be in "lounge suits" and on the Queens day, they must be in morning suits. Lounge suit??? what on earth is that??? I quickly Googled lounge suit. I pulled up all sorts of rental sights but no clear definition. I was not about to pay to rent a tux for DA and L. Fortunately, after attending the event, I think a lounge suit refers to a business suit, SOOOO on Saturday morning at 7 am I tried to rouse my family to get dressed up for a trip into the city to watch a parade. DA never complained a moment even though wearing a suit on a Saturday morning is more than he was even required to do for his own wedding. L had to wear a dress shirt and a tie. He figured out on our drive that his dress shoes, which he hadn't worn in months, were of course, 2 sizes too small. Oh well, he crammed those feet in and had to walk a couple of miles and keep them on for a few hours. I was extremely grateful that he didn't give me the evil eye the whole time. B and I were in our dresses. As we drove into the city all I can say is, "THAT drive" - so stressful!!! Driving into London is so crazy - even with a TomTom. We couldn't find a place to park and my sweet hubby and I were getting frustrated with each other before 9:00 had struck. Finally found some place to park and got into our seats before the 10:00 deadline. The parade didn't start until 10:30 and it lasted until noon. B actually fell asleep during the parade.

Troops were doing the slow walk around the grounds in formation

It is cool to see all the troops in their finest dress, marching, hearing the bands play and all, but when you don't really understand the pomp and circumstance, it is a little strange to watch hundreds of troops walk around and around in formation. Oh, one funny thing is that the stern, bear hat wearing guards will talk to you on this day. While they are not on guard duty, they were being the ushers directing people to their seats. I pictured the "I Love Lucy" show where she tried and tried to get the guards attention and here they were talking to us. Their uniforms are really so detailed and fancy up close. I don't know how they stand wearing all that in the heat. L enjoyed studying all the different uniforms to tell the differences between all the troops. Even the spacing on their buttons distinguishes between the troops.
All in all we are glad we went (at least DA and I are) but I don't think I'd ever go back. Next year, I would just watch them walking down the parade route from the road and then go see something else in London instead of watching from the spectator stands. That said, I would like to go back on June 14th to see the Queen in her coach though, haven't seen her yet.
B's take on the day..."those guys look like a caterpillar walking down the road". ha.. they did. little black fuzzy hats, red body and hundreds of legs walking in unison. I'm sure those troops would love to hear that take on all their formation practice.

THE CATERPILLAR shot.

Here's DA in his "lounge suit". This guard was on duty and would not speak to anyone. I'm surprised they let DA and L get so close to the horse and the door he was guarding.

This is definitely a "been there, done that, mark it off the list" type of event. So I'll mark it off our English Experience list. check.