I Succumbed...

... and I've been up all night watching the Royal Wedding brouhaha.  It's pretty entertaining, actually... all the spiffy, almost comic opera-like uniforms, celebrities in morning dress, and women in silly hats.  What's caught and kept my eye, however, are all the London street views and such, which fire off powerful memories of another time.  I've prolly mentioned this a few times, but The Second Mrs. Pennington and I were living in London when Charles and Diana married.  The pageantry hasn't changed and London looks much the same as it did in the way-back.  As for "other things?"  Well, they've changed considerably.  I have a MUCH better teevee now.

Update, 1300 hrs or so:  So, we went to bed sometime around 0700 hrs this morning and are just now working on our first cup.  I was half-joking about having a better teevee above, but it's true.  I watched the event in HD and everything was simply stunning, especially the interiors of Westminster Abbey.  I'm not sure how much of the vast improvement is in the technology (both transmit AND receive) or in my new-found appreciation of color and detail.  The whole shebang was most impressive, whatever the reason.  I had a state-of-the-art teevee in the way-back... a pretty decent combination PAL/SECAM Sony Trinitron... and the Charles-Diana nuptials weren't nearly as impressive.  Or at least I don't remember them as being so.

Yeah, I watched Chuck and Di on teevee.  With my mother-in-law.  The in-laws were over on their first state visit (they came every year TSMP and I were in Ol' Blighty); Mom and I elected to stay home while TSMP and the FIL got up at oh-dark-thirty and caught the first train out of High Wycombe into London for a 20-second glimpse of Chuck and Di as they trotted past in the carriage.  I think the MIL and I got the best of that deal... we had sandwiches and beer at hand, nice comfy places to sit, facilities for when nature called, and no crushing crowds.  But TSMP and her father had the bragging rights, I suppose.  They were really "there," for what that's worth.