Royal Weddings and me

I remember watching the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Di, on Wednesday 29 July 1981. It was easy for us and not too early then, because we lived in Chappaqua, on the East Coast, and the viewing hours were decent.

We saw the all thing on our small TV with Nadine and Michel Duret who had come to visit us from France. For some reasons, we missed the wedding of Prince Williams in 2011, but I wanted to make up by watching Harry and Meghan's, which we did last night on YouTube.

I liked the bride, the song “Stand by me” and the preacher. I found the rest of the Windsor family rather boring. We fast-forwarded a lot and the whole thing was screened in 15 minutes.

I felt somewhat stupid to be among the billions who watched that celebrity slice-of-life, but what got my attention was the $45 million this extravaganza cost the Queen, Prince Charles and the British taxpayers.

There's no question this money would have be better spent elsewhere (I'm thinking to care for the wounded and starving Yemenis for instance) even though some sources assert that it brought in $750 million worth of tourism activity and sale of miscellaneous trinkets.

As for me, this may be my last Royal Wedding for a very long time, unless monarchy gets abolish pretty soon, but I'm not holding my breath on that one!