Happy Birthday, Elizabeth II!

[bjarvis]

Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God of the United Kingdom, Canada and Her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith, turns 80 years old today. May she have many more years reigning over her loyal subjects, if for no other reason than I really don't want to think about the expense of replacing her image with that of Charles on the coins, postage stamps, official portraits, etc..

I'll have a sundae at lunchtime to celebrate.

Comments

[allanh.livejournal.com]

When I worked at Barclays Bank of California (sadly, now gone AND forgotten), we used to get Her Maj's Birthday off every year.

Then some bright boy decided that we should follow the same holiday schedule as other banks. We traded in all-day The Queen's Birthday for two half-day Fridays (Admissions Day & Good Friday).

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

The bean counters spoil all the fun. :-)

Today may be her birthday, but Canada celebrates it officially on Victoria Day, the 4th Monday of May. As it happens, I'll be in Vancouver that day so I'll have yet another sundae in her honour while watching the fireworks.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Plus changing all the Queen's This-and-thats to King's This-and-thats, having to remember the words to the national anthem, etc.

Not to mention that nobody is overly thrilled with the prospect of Charles as king.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Seriously. We'll have to make all of the coins oval to accomodate his ears and that'll just screw up vending machines all around the planet. We just can't have that.

[bradferd23.livejournal.com]

Can't we skip, skip Chuck and go to William??? He is much more all that than his father.

[jss]

A sack of wet cement is more "all that" than William's father.

[bradferd23.livejournal.com]

Hahaha... I agree.

[bradferd23.livejournal.com]

I like you.. I added you to my friends list.. :)

[abqdan.livejournal.com]

Ah if only. However, the rules of succession are rigid. Since I was born British, I'm in line somewhere - around 62,544,321. Since I'm in America now, WWWIII could potentially put my on the throne... but I digress.

Liz has made it clear she will NOT abdicate - ever. If she lives as long as her mother, that means she has another 20 years to go. By then, Charles will be nearly 80, and with any luck, dead. I'm told sleeping with horses can indicate impending death... or is that just horses heads?

Anyway, if she dies and Charles is still alive, parliament would certainly urge him to abdicate, but the royals aren't big on that unless they've fallen madly in love with divorced American Catholics - which doesn't happen that often.