Wills, and Mike and Mia Tindall
You've probably seen these pics of Prince William chasing little Mia Tindall all around the polo grounds earlier -- and indeed I meant to run them earlier this week and just didn't -- but they are still INCREDIBLY cute.
Mia Tindall and Wills
Everything about this is adorable. Wills and Zara are apparently extremely close, and you can there. (There was also a pic where Zara appeared to be poking him, mockingly. It was very amusing.)
Mia Tindall and Wills
SPOILER: He DID catch her ear!
Mike Tindall and Wills
This event also brought with it a good deal of man-hugs, which I also appreciate. (There was speculation that this hug occured because Kate is pregnant, but there's basically no basis for that other than the fact that it's humanly possible that she might be, because she's a human woman. It's just as likely that ZARA is pregnant, honestly. Or that, I dunno, they're hugging because they like each other, or that there's a whole other reason for hugs that no one knows because we're not in their family. Anyway: Yay for hugs.)
Mike Tindall, Mia, and Savannah and Isla Philips
Mike Tindall seems VERY willing to allow children to use him as a jungle gym -- as seen here. He also twirled the girls around by their feet, taught them how to hand on their hands, performed wheelbarrows (where you hold someone's feet and they walk on their hands) and generally was A Very Fun Dad.
Wills and his horse Elton John
Here's Wills on his horse and they're both in full fancy regalia because this is the Trooping The Colour rehearsal. (The actual event is tomorrow -- Saturday -- so pop by and check out the shenanigans. I'm sure the kids will be there.) I imagine security is extra tight this year.
Wills and the Queen Visit Scene Of Grenfell Tower Fire
Today, William and the Queen paid a visit to Grenfell Tower, which was the site of this past week's absolutely tragic, awful, nightmare fire, and to the location that is temporarily housing those who've lost their homes. (I also just read that Wills and Kate and Harry donated to the Evening Standard's relief fund and are urging others to do so as well.) Let me turn to Informative Caption: "Queen Elizabeth II meets firefighters and paramedics during a visit to the Westway Sports Centre which is providing temporary shelter for those who have been made homeless in the disaster...30 people have been confirmed dead, and dozens still missing, after the 24-story residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road was engulfed in flames in the early hours of June 14. Emergency services will spend a third day searching through the building for bodies. Police have said that some victims may never be identified." God, it's just awful. These firefighters, paramedics and first responders are very brave; I also read that many lives were saved thanks to the fact that many Muslim residents in the building were awake when everyone else was asleep, due to Ramadan, and were able to raise the alarm. Just thinking about what everyone who lived there went through makes me want to cry.
The Queen Visits Scene Of Grenfell Tower Fire
In less important aspects of this story, I do think it's interesting that William came out with the Queen -- I think Charles is in Scotland right now? -- and it's also correct for him to have done so. It feels like they sent the varsity squad for this (which is absolutely as it should be).
Prince Harry Visits Borough Market
And Harry has also been doing his part, this week. Let's begin with Informative Caption: "Prince Harry buys doughnuts from Bread Ahead as he tours stalls during a visit to Borough Market, which has opened yesterday for the first time since the London Bridge terrorist attack on June 15, 2017 in London, United Kingdom." Well done him, on all counts: Supporting Borough Market AND chosing some delicious donuts. Additionally: H and I went to Borough Market when we were last in London and it's SO GREAT. Next time you're in London, you should go.
Prince Harry Visits Borough Market
Here, "Prince Harry meets stallholder Ratan Mandal in his tea shop as he tours stalls during a visit to Borough Market." Look at all this tea! (There's some kind of spilling the tea joke in there SOMEWHERE but it's been too long a week for me to find it.)
Prince Harry Visits Borough Market
This gentleman with Harry is David Gledhill, who is the Operations Manager of Borough Market. And this is definitely a very nice and smart and useful trip on Harry's part, not the least because I now know, thanks to the pic behind him, that there's a place there called OLIVEOLOGY and I want to go there.
Prince Harry Hosts WellChild Reception
Also this week, Harry hosted a bash in honor of "the 40th anniversary of the children's charity WellChild," and that's all honestly great but I want to know more about those GIANT VASES in the background.
Prince Harry visits Chatham House
Here, "Britain's Prince Harry poses for a group photo with international young fellows from the Queen Elizabeth II academy during his visit to Chatham House, the Royal Institute of International Affairs... Prince Harry visited Thursday to open their new extension, The Stavros Niarchos Foundation Floor, which will provide a permanent home for the Queen Elizabeth II Academy for Leadership in International Affairs, along with new meeting and work spaces." He also took part in a roundtable meeting about landmines. On less serious notes, the Stavros Niarchos in question is I ASSUME the Late and Elder Niarchos, not the one that Defamer and we referred to as Stabby Nachos during that halcyon summer where he was dating Paris/An Olsen/Lindsay Lohan. (Fun fact, he's currently allegedly engaged to Jessica Hart, the model.)
Princess Beatrice
Meanwhile, in Manhattan, Bea is wearing snazzy brogues and feeling doubtful about something.
Princess Eugenie in Erdem
Euj looks great here, and also more like her father than I have ever noticed in the face.
The Queen and Philip Visit Tower Hamlets
Informative Caption: "Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh leave Mayflower Primary School during an official visit to Tower Hamlets on June 15, 2017 in London, England. The visit coincides with commemorations for the centenary of the bombing of Upper North Street School during the First World War." I looked up that event and it's ABOLUTELY HORRIFIC and honestly, don't even read about it if you are at all sensitive to terrible things happening to little kids. (However, that article also has some interesting historical photos; it's not an insensitive piece in the least, it's just a very VERY sad historical event.) I was totally unaware that said bombing had even occurred, in part, I think, because Americans don't learn nearly as much about the ins and outs of WWI as we do WWII.
The Queen and Phil Attend Evensong In Celebration Of The Centenary Of The Order Of The Companions Of Honour
Lots of centenaries this year. Here, Her Maj "leaves an Evensong service in celebration of the centenary of the Order of the Companions of Honour at Hampton Court Palace." If you're planning a trip to the UK this summer, again: Hampton Court is GLORIOUS. So interesting for history buffs, the gardens are gorgeous, and also it's TOTALLY haunted.
The Queen and Phil Mark The 175th Anniversary Of The First Train Journey By A British Monarch
And here, we blow right past a centenary as QEII "arrives at Paddington Station after travelling by train to mark the 175th anniversary of the first train journey by a British Monarch on June 13, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. The first journey was made on the same route from Slough to Paddington by Queen Victoria on June 13th, 1842." I love this photo. She's like, "did they spell my name right? DAMN STRAIGHT."
Anne Hosts A Ceremonial Opening For The Postal Museum
In which our favorite Secret Detective takes a ride in what I believe is a mail robot.
Per Informative Caption, the official story is: "Princess Anne, Princess Royal, takes a ride on Mail Rail during her visit to The Postal Museum and Mail Rail for its ceremonial opening on June 13 in London, England. The Postal Museum and Mail Rail will open to the public on July 28 2017. The Princess Royal explored the quirky history of the most royal of British institutions, the Royal Mail, and discovered the origins of the world's earliest social network; the post. "
a) that's an EXCELLENT Informative Caption, and;
b) now I want to go to that museum.
Princess Anne visits the Anglo-German Club
Anne's in Germany today and whatever she's doing, she strongly doubts everyone's alibi.
Crown Princess Victoria Of Sweden Attends EAT Stockholm Food Forum
This is a very cute dress on CPV...
Princess Victoria of Sweden arrives at the United Nations Building
...and I don't love this one, but it did belong to her mother (I believe), and I like that quite a bit.
Crown Princess Victoria and Prince Daniel
This is at "the award ceremony for the Polar Music Prize" in Stockholm, and that is a GOWN. I feel like she's always wearing something that appears to be molting -- often H&M; which this may also be, I haven't found a credit yet -- but this actually really works on her. It's so glam!
Princess Madeleine and Prince Carl Phillip
Oh, Madeleine. Madeleine. No.
The Polar Music Prize
And here we've got, from left to right: Prince Daniel, Crown Princess Vic, Trudie Styler, Sting, Queen Silvia, Wayne Shorter (he's an American jazz superstar), King Carl XVI Gustaf, Carolina dos Santos (she's married to Wayne), Princess Madeleine, and Prince Carl Phillip. I assume that Princess Sofia is home with her feet up, resting her gestating body, and Chris O'Neill is babysitting ALL the children in the manner of Mr. Mom.
King Felipe and Queen Letizia and President of Peru Pedro Pablo Kuczynski
Behold! The President of Peru, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski and wife, Nancy Lange, are visiting Felipe and Letiza.I obviously LOVE this dress on Letizia. I enjoy that the Peruvians are holding hands. Wiki tells me that Pedro Pablo Kuczynski generally goes by "PPK" and his father was a Jewish Polish-German pathologist and genius who fled Germany for Peru in World War II where he worked for public health and seemingly did a lot of work involving leprosariums. I'm just going to paste this entire bit from the "Personal Life" section of his Wiki page -- always my favorite section: "[PPK] as been married twice, first to Jane Dudley Casey (daughter of Joseph E. Casey, member of the U.S. House for the 3rd district of Massachusetts), their offspring being corporate executive and technology entrepreneur Carolina Madeleine Kuczynski, the journalist Alex Kuczynski,[ and John-Michael Kuczynski. His current wife is Nancy Lange, with whom he has had a daughter. Contrary to false information spread during Mr. Kuczynski's second presidential race, Nancy Lange is not a cousin of the actress Jessica Lange: they are only very distantly related and do not know each other. Kuczynski's younger brother Miguel Jorge is a fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge; and their first cousin is Jean-Luc Godard, the renowned French-Swiss film director. Kuczynski's brother-in-law Harold Varmus received the Nobel Prize for cancer research in 1989." OH IS THAT ALL.
Queen Letizia
I always enjoy this dress on Letizia. (Hard to follow a slide that implies it was a brewing scandal to be related to Jessica Lange.)
Felipe and Letizia
"What do you mean, you didn't turn off the cotton candy machine? The kitchen is going to be overrun with it!"
Queen Maxima
PS, it's windy in Amsterdam.
Crown Princess Mary
MARY. WHAT ARE THESE PANTS.