In praise of Daisy

Today's a big day in Denmark, a country where I resided up until rather recently (10/10... ok, 10/12* ;) would reside again). Queen Margrethe II is abdicating and today's the proclamation of King Christian X and Queen Mary.

I take a rather Nick Cave approach to monarchies - neither a monarchist, nor a royalist, but fascinated by the spectacle of it all. I have to say, I didn't really know much about Queen Margrethe until I moved to Denmark - Fred and Mary caught my Australian attention much more. But I moved there in 2020 and had a lot of indoor time on my hands, especially around the time of the Queen's 80th birthday, there were lots of documentaries that I could brush up my duolingo Danish on (I hadn't yet unlocked advanced trash dansk).

What I learned is that she is not afraid to be herself. And coming from a commonwealth country with the reserved yet overexposed British monarchy by default, it felt rather refreshing to live in a country with a Queen who has a love of dressing colourfully (something which hasn't rubbed off on the everyday Dane) and engaging in the arts (she illustrated a Danish edition of the Lord of the Rings).

My impression is that she definitely took her role seriously, but she doesn't take herself too seriously. See the promo video for an exhibition which shows her crafting and wearing dog and bird hats. Or the time a few years ago when the script cards were jumbled up in her very live New Year's speech - she handled it with lots of grace and not a trace of 'et øjeblik'**.

And I know everyone is going wild for that floral rain jacket and matching bright yellow hat. But that's not my favourite Daisy^ photo - I mean, it's in my top three but not the top. My favourite pic is of her holding a pølse in one hand while sipping from a juice box, holding a cigarette in another. The Queen - she's just like us! Drinking from a juice box, eating a hot dog. My runner up is the picture of her on the rutsjebane^^ at Tivoli, complete with the branded photo that gets automatically taken on the ride. It's my favourite ride at Tivoli, it's just as likely to make you laugh as it is to scream, but I'm impressed that she managed to keep her hat on (the magic of hair pins!) and have a great ride photo.

All that to say, thanks Daisy for being a Queen with a personality and sense of fun! And of course, she still is Queen in title, just not The Queen. So hopefully we'll see more of her in a more relaxed capacity. Hopefully with more craft involved - the world needs more hats!

*a little joke directed at the Danish grading system which makes absolutely no sense until you start grading in it, and it seems to work well.

** trash dansk translation: 'just a moment!'

^Daisy's her nickname, the clue's in the meaning of her name ;)

^^the rutsjebane is a wooden roller coaster, the oldest ride at the second oldest fun park in the world. Highly recommend it.