February already and I haven’t made any posts or taken any photos in 2014. I hadn’t made any resolutions to take more photos this year or anything, but I kind of hoped that I’d have some more motivations but that hasn’t really happened yet. Oh well.

At any rate, Danni and I went into London for the Chinese New Year celebrations and to watch the parade that they haven’t held in a number of years.

China Town looked brilliant as always, but the parade was really, really short.  Both in the route it travelled and the length of the actual parade.  We waited on the road side for the better part of an hour only to have the whole thing be over in about 10 minutes.

Still, I’m always happy to get to see the dragon and lion performers out on the streets.  I love that kind of thing, and they always do a brilliant job for Chinese New Year’s in London.

We struggled through Trafalgar Square which was ridiculously packed.  I’m probably getting old, but I honestly can’t see how anyone can have fun crushed in with tens of thousands of other people in such a small space.  Maybe they were trying to recreate an authentic Chinese experience?  At any rate, my cranky, inner old man wasn’t enjoying this part of the day, but I did get a shot of my lovely wife with the dragon as they were moving it into the Square.

My faithful lens had given up the ghost on this day and the autofocus was broken.  It’s fixed now (after an ugly repair bill), but it did mean that I got an awful lot less images than I was hoping to.  Still, there are a few more in the gallery here.

It was hard not to get caught up in this years celebration of the Queen’s 60th year on the throne.  TV ads and transport posters all took on an overtly British flair, buntings and the British flag where everywhere you look and lets not forget about that extra bank holiday.

Unfortunately, the weather also decided to be very British about the whole affair and brought with it lots dark clouds as well as the inevitable rain.  This scuppered our plans to sit out and watch the Jubilee flotilla on the Saturday and just relax at home and watch it on TV.  Much more civilized and we didn’t have to worry about the rain diluting our Pimm’s & Lemonade.

We ventured out of the house on the last of the 4 day celebration to wander down to Buckingham Palace where the Queen would be traversing the length of The Mall following a service at St. Paul’s Cathedral.  There where lots of people around and the weather was co-operating for once so we spent a bit of time amongst the revelers before deciding that sticking around would only result in being overrun and made our way out of the area.

We wandered up to an abnormally empty Piccadilly Circus and took a few photos along the well decorated Regent Street.  It was nice to be able to walk around these usually crowded streets knowing that most people in the area where packed in hoping to catch a glimpse of her Royal Highness.

And since we were in the area, we headed to our favourite restaurant in China Town for some Dim Sum.

We had a lot of fun even apart from the crowds, and if nothing else the event helped me finally learn how to spell jubilee, so a resounding success says I.  There are more images in the gallery, but it was a predominantly a family portrait day.  You’ve been forewarned.