I just bought a new pair today!

I’m in the paddling pool with you, feeling like Meg from Disney’s “Hercules”, “So did they give you a name along with all those rippling pectorals?”

Australia is a continent, similar in size to the US, so weather varies widely depending where you are. So far, they have mostly been in Melbourne, which is in the south east, and Canberra, which is inland in a mountainous area.

It is currently autumn, so weather in Canberra is often quite cool. Melbourne weather at this time of year is very “four seasons in one day”, it changes fast, there’s a lot of variation, and layers are your best bet.

When they go up to Sydney, it will probably be a lot warmer. Lately it has been mostly in the high 20s Celsius, sometimes low 30s (right now it is 27, which is 80.6F), although there have been a few cooler days when the weather turns. More humid as well.

I don’t know their full itinerary, but if they go up to Queensland, it’ll be even warmer. Different temperatures in different places (Queensland is 17% larger than Alaska). If they go to Western Australia, that state is more than 3x the size of Texas, so, you know, lots of variation there too.

‘Trump’s people meet multiple needs’
MAY I QUOTE YOU? 😹

@NorthofBoston

All that you say is true. So why did she favor the Heir instead of the Spare?

As others said, her primary motivator was to protect the Crown. And part of that has always been to refrain from criticizing the Heir, as well as to suppress criticism of the reigning monarch.

She herself did that for decades by using and abusing her own sister, Margaret, to make herself look better by providing fodder for gossip and negative press.

She also let her Princess of Wales take the heat in the press and in private for years, despite openly abusive behavior toward Diana from Charles. Yes, she doubtless found Diana annoying, but I think that was primarily because Diana wouldn’t play the game as QEII herself played it, and keep her mouth firmly shut about any disputes, disappointments, or betrayals from her spouse.

This was her duty as she saw it, and it was firmly enforced by her mother, who was all in on the old code of the aristocracy — if a couple, or family members, can’t get along, they simply “find themselves unable to spend as much time together as they would like.”

Never ever air your even mildy scented laundry in public.
Never let the peasants see you sweat.
Never complain, never explain.

Why? Because if the peasants realize that the aristos, and especially the royals, are actually just like them, the mystique is destroyed, and the ability to control the flow of money and power upward vanishes with it. That is a truth the current Left Behinds have utterly lost sight of.

If you look at it in this light, all of her actions toward all of her children and grandchildren suddenly make sense. Even her coddling of Andrew. Better he be allowed to run riot in private than let his ugly predilections be exposed (plus of course he was her favorite.)

I really wonder what kind of mother, and what kind of Queen, she might have been if her father had lived a decade or two longer.

Because as it worked out, she really was quite the awful parent. Every one of her kids turned out badly, her sister self-destructed, her grandchildren aside from Harry are generally awful too. It’s really quite sad.

I’m still laughing after bingeing Season 2!!!!! Oh, my stars! Eddie! Dulcie! The Tavern with ‘both beers on tap’!! Triple Pet!

It’s blind & overweight. And yes, I’ve seen real ‘gators in the wild–specficially, the Everglades National Park.

Right? That gator never had the sky overhead! Never smelled fresh air! That little rec room area was hardly big enough for an animal his size.

This was my reaction. Google the Queen, Margaret, Princess Alexandra of Kent and Anne in the 1960s and 1970s. Just because the Queen didn’t go above the knee as a senior citizen doesn’t mean it was suddenly “protocol”.

They’ve done that before, a few years ago, and when Meghan launched her lifestyle show on Netflix. Not so progressive, huh The Guardian? Still controlled by the royal family.

Oh, god, I would! If I found out my BIL did something so heinous & his victims were willing to hear my abject apology & accept my help–whatever they wanted–I’d meet with them, you bet!