After an excitable hour of getting ready, eating breakfast and watching the BBC build up, I headed off to the train to meet Jo and Ed.

We had chosen to head to Hyde Park, as they were setting up large screens to let the crowds watch the wedding.  We had assigned picnic duties to ensure that we had enough food and drink.  My assigned items were Champagne and strawberries .  Jo and Ed had prepared sandwiches and a host of other food, plus they also brought another 2 bottles of Champagne…alcohol was not going to be in shortage!

On arrival to Hyde Park, we were surprised to see that there were in fact 3 HUGE screens set up – each about the height of a 4 story house.  There was also a large collection of temporary bars, food stalls and merchandise stands.  Even if we did manage to get through the champagne (we did), there were plenty of supplies within easy reach

I guess we must had sat down on our picnic blanket by about 9:30.  We opened our first bottle of champagne by 9:35.  Popping open the first bottle at such an early time in the morning felt slightly naughty and exciting…but not in a society outcast kind of way.  Trust me – we would have been the odd ones out if we were NOT opening a bottle of champagne.

The buzz in Hyde Park was infectious. There was a strong festival like atmosphere.  The whole crowd were there for a common purpose, the crowd had chosen to sit on the grass, the crowd had chosen to be amongst other people rather than sitting at home in front of the TV.  The numbers of conversations with strangers and the willingness to hug random passers-by was way higher than usual.  The level of public camaraderie was atypically strong – what a great feeling!

The huge concert style, parabolic speaker sets ensured that everyone in Hyde Park was kept informed with each and every development of the wedding ceremony.  In fact, the speakers were even used to project ambient crowd cheering sounds across the park – noticeable by the eerie silence each time they muted the speakers at various points throughout the day.

The BBC switched their coverage to show the crowds in Hyde Park every now and again, just to remind us that the whole world was watching us! That felt pretty damn good

OK, time for another one of those emotional moments!…

Kate walked down the isle of Westminster Abbey, with a perfectly choreographed and beautiful set of clergymen, family, bridesmaids and page boys.

Hyde Park roared with laughter as Prince looked over his shoulder, caught a glimpse of Kate and then whispered something such as “She looks amazing” with a big smile to his nervous brother William.

Then it happened! The build up of emotion peaked.  The angelic sounds of choir were booming over the huge Hyde Park sounds system, the tens of thousands of people in the park were cheering and swaying in a sea of union jacks, it was impossible to escape the immense feeling of pride and excitement buzzing around the whole world at that moment in time…

THEN, the BBC switched to this stunning roof shot of the Abbey, showing the beautiful symmetry with the unmissable wedding dress as a centre point.  This served as a reminder of how big of an event this was!

This perfect shot summed up the grandeur of the day.  For whatever reason, or reasons, seeing this camera shot on the big screen, through the sea of British flags, and with the sounds of the orchestra and choir booming through the Hyde Park sound system, brought a little proud tear to my eye.  Thankfully I wasn’t the only one, it brought more than one tear to Jo’s eyes.

During the wedding vows, the eerie silence came back to Hyde Park as everyone listened carefully to each word from the priest, William and Kate.  There was a huge “ooooooh”, followed by a cheer from everyone in the park as William forced the (seemingly slightly too small) wedding ring on to Kate’s finger.  The park then erupted with cheers and celebration as they heard the words…”I pronounce you man and wife”.

As the choir (and Elton John) in Westminster Abbey started to sing “Guide Me O Thou Great Redeemer” (“Bread of Heaven, Bread of Heaven, feed me til I want no more, want no moooorre”), most of Hyde Park stood and listened, although a group of lads just behind us were singing at their loudest volume word for word – thanks to the lyrics which had been printed in the local London newspaper.

After the ceremony was complete, Hyde Park carried on partying thanks to the large amounts of BYO (BYO is an acronym i picked up in Australia meaning Bring Your Own) alcohol and food, the large selection of bars and a live band called ‘MIB” who entertained us with live covers of typical cheesey wedding songs from bands such as the Jackson 5 and Kool and the Gang.  We were also entertained by an on stage presenter who looked a bit like Dale Winton.  The rest of the afternoon was pretty much like being at a Hyde Park music festival (although the music wasn’t quite as good).

Yesterday, the 29th April 2011, was the date for the Royal wedding of William and Kate.  We decided to brave the crowds and head to London to part of the experience.  My story of getting up and motivated is worth capturing…

My day started off with an unwanted 7am alarm call from iPhone.  I jumped out of bed, muted the phone and switched the TV on to try and wake up my brain.  I’ll be honest – at that precise moment in time, I regretted arranging to meet friends early on a public vacation day.

I HATE the feeling of missing out on something just because I was too lazy to do it.  So a few minutes of watching the BBC news TV crews interviewing excited wedding spectators in central London, was all it took to get me excited and WANT to get out of bed.  I turned up the news loud enough to hear it in the shower, got washed and ready excitably quickly, and then thankfully had time for a quick bit of breakfast down in the kitchen whilst I continued to watch the build on the BBC.

I love how unexpected, and completely unpredictable moments often become the most memorable parts of an experience.  On the day of the wedding, one of the most memorable moments occurred for me before I had even left the house!

One of the BBC presenters was interviewing the crowd who have been camping out over night so that they could secure a spot to see the wedding procession.  The female presenter asked a question to a friendly, elderly (ish) looking man…

”So why did you come down here, rather than staying at home and getting a better view on television?”

to which the man responded…

1) ”Because you don’t get to meet great people like this by staying at home” (followed by a cheer from the crowd around him)

2) “Because being here makes it a memory you will never forget”

Seeing this, genuinely brought a little tear to my eye, whilst also getting me even more excited about getting in to London!  Before I had even arrived, that nice old guy had summed up the whole reason why we were getting out of bed early on a day off work.

We were going to be part of the crowd, we were going to make friends with the crowd, we were going to part of the event…we were going to make it a memory to never forget.

Yesterday we went for a random day in London and decided to check out Inamo, a restaurant which has an ordering process with a difference.  Rather than having paper based menus, and a waitress to take your oral order, the restaurant users interactive tables which project a digital menu of food, drinks and some other options directly on to the table service in front of you!

There is a large selection of Asian food to choose from, and an image of each menu choice is projected on to the plate in front of you as you navigate the options.

Despite appearing to be very similar to Microsoft Surface, the tables are way less sophisticated and in fact are merely a projector above each table, which displays a clever menu system to be navigated using a cursor controlled by a touch pad in the corner of the table.  It’s still VERY cool though!

As well as selecting food and drink, you can also use the menus to change the background, find out about local attractions and play games!  We started to play 2 player battle ships, however it’s a little silly because each player is shown a small display with their configuration on it – which is very easy for the person opposite to see and cheat.  Again – still very cool though

The food was amazing! There were four of us, so we ended up ordering a combination of things including fish, beef salad, cinnamon chicken (one of my favourites), duck pancakes and more.  We also all ordered dessert, and ended up coincidentally ordering exactly the same thing – Macaroon and white chocolate moose – mmmm

We also managed to get through 2 bottles of champagne, although I must admit that 2 glasses were knocked over – one by Ilona, and I forget who did it the second time The staff were very insistent on cleaning up the spill thoroughly – but were not too worried that we smashed a glass.

Our ‘lunch’ ended up lasting over 2 hours, and we were all STUFFED after the three courses of food which arrived in a random order (whenever it was ordered/cooked), but at a steady pace.

Will definitely be going back there again! Great experience and lovely food – would like to try it at night next time.