Waiting for the QE2

The title is a sort of reference to "Waiting for Godot" one of the works considered as part of the Theatre of the Absurd.  The key element of the work of Samuel Beckett is that Godot never arrives - and sitting in the midge cloud to the West of Commonwealth Avenue Bridge one felt a little like Estragon and Vladimir.  However, as will be revealed below QE2 did arrive.

Moving on from obscurity this is my take on the transit, on 20 October 2011, of Lake Burley Griffin by the English lady who is Queen of that country and the Head of State of Australia. 

I was in that area and thought that this was a reasonably significant event in Australian history so should be viewed.  Since it was probably the only chance the small dog would get to see a Monarch (other than the butterfly) I took her along.

The end point of the transit was for the Queen to check  out what remains of Floriade 4 days after it was closed to the public.  As evident in this shot of Regatta Point, common folk were not allowed in the area

but a few monarchists rode the waves (OK ripples) in a surf boat.

On shore the authorities were making sure that any protesters were going to be punching above their weight!

The crowd, while not too dense, were very well behaved and peaceable.

Elements in this section were in fact well pacified (in the North American sense).

Moving towards Lotus Bay a number of citizens were out and about in watercraft.

I would take a fair wager that the guy in the kayak was not a member of the Australian Republican Movement!  (The ARM have been very quiet about this visit: perhaps they recognise that they would be on a hiding to nothing?)  The ladies in the background were very synchronised in their paddling - perhaps because every movement (whether Republican or otherwise) was done to whacks on the drum on the prow of the canoe.

On shore, folk were waiting - and waiting - for herself to appear, and relaxing on the memorial to the last big crowd event in this area.

 Some less conventional watercraft appeared ...

and followed the suggestion from a jovial, and far slimmer, member of the forces of Laura Norder to get closer to the shore.

While this was going at least 2 canine members of the masses were totally oblivious to the absence of the star attraction but were focussed on each other.  I think that if the leashes had been slipped total chaos would have ensued.

About this point a bow wave was spotted coming past Black Mountain Peninsula.  Somehow I couldn't get past the scene in Blazing Saddles where a lookout is thought to be saying "The Sheriff's a-nearer." while in fact he was using a different final word with 'ear' replaced by 'igg'.

Yes, lilac was the colour of the day!

Finally, like the ladies of the court of King Caractacus, they'd just passed by.

Actually, on the day after I have flown between the UK and Canberra, the last thing I'd feel like doing was being paraded in a boat down some lake to look at the remains of a flower show.  Well done for guts and endurance, but still a pity we don't have an Australian as a Head of State.