The Queen and I

Hello everyone,

I hope you are all having as good a day as I had today!

What made my day so wonderful, you ask. Well.... I SAW THE QUEEN TODAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's right, the QUEEN OF ENGLAND AND A WHOLE LIST OF OTHER COUNTRIES!!!!!!!! (But it was no big deal, I'm not excited or anything...) Let me back up and tell you the whole story (it's a good one)...

So a few weeks ago I was walking past Trafalgar Square on my way to my house. From Trafalgar Square you can see down the Mall to Buckingham Palace and I saw that something was going on. However, it was about midday so I just thought, it's probably the changing of the guard. It was only later that I found out the Queen and the President of Indonesia (I think it was Indonesia) were parading through the streets and I had missed it! After that, I decided that I needed to be a bit more proactive if I was going to meet my goal of seeing the royals up close!

So...I went online! Turns out the Monarchy has a wonderful website and it is possible to find out the scheduled public appearances of various royals. So I was perusing the upcoming events and happened to see, much to my amazement (and excitement) that on 14 November (the day before my birthday, no less) the Queen was scheduled to visit the Royal Commonwealth Society. Now this wouldn't mean all that much to me except the website also stated the address and I realized this building is literally across the street from my house!! I was further excited to find out that 14 November was a Wednesday (meaning I have only one class, and every other week, no class at all) and that this particular Wednesday was one where I wouldn't have class! This meant that I could sit outside all day and just wait for the Queen.

And that is precisely what I did! I thought of it as "Operation Camp-out and Wait for the Queen" and it was a complete success. The only problem with my plan was that the website (presumably for security reasons) did not say what time the Queen was expected to visit. So I went out at 8 am this morning! Turns out that was entirely unnecessary but it was an adventure. As the hours passed, I watched people bringing in equipment to set up the room, the police dogs arrive to search the building, and police arrive to do some lengthy prep in the building. Finally, at about 12 I screwed up my courage and asked a police officer about the Queen's visit. He suggested I go inside for a few more hours. "No sense getting cold" he said as she wasn't not expected for a while (I didn't bother telling him that the advice about staying warm came about 4 hours too late). So I went inside for about an hour and then came back out and prepared.

They had set up only one set of barricades so I went to stand near them and when two ladies got behind the barricades, I figured I better do so as well or risk losing a prime spot! As it turned out this was a stroke of luck as these two ladies were great and we became friends as we waited. They discovered that this barricade was really for the press so we stood elsewhere (they finally put up barricades for us as well, but it didn't seem as though they were really prepared for as many people as showed up). The women were from Canada and were called Margaret and Maggie. Margaret apparently comes over multiple times a year for several weeks and sees the Queen as much as possible. She has camped out for several days for events and has been here for Will and Kate's wedding as well as the Diamond Jubilee and the Queen Mother's funeral. In short, I ended up with the experts and very nice company to boot!

Finally, we saw the police motorcycles and the Queen's car (it is a nice car, just FYI)! I was so excited!!  And then, there she was!! Turns out, she is really quite small. Anyway, she basically went straight into the building and as we found out she was coming out another door we all moved over there (again securing wonderful spots right up front, thanks in no small part to the expertise of Margaret and Maggie). I had gotten pictures when the Queen arrived, but had to do a bit more planning for her departure. Margaret said that the Queen can get quite put-off if there are cameras shoved in her face and while I wanted her to come close and wanted close up pictures, I did NOT want to upset the Queen! So I devised a plan (actually, I thought of it last night laying in bed). I would put my camera on video and hold it down low (just above my waist) so that it would be unobtrusive, but if the Queen came over, I would still get it on video (genius right?)!

The Queen came out of the building and Margaret and Maggie held out small bouquets of maple leaves (remember they are from Canada) that they had made to give to her. This was brilliant and the only reason why the Queen came over at all. While I didn't have anything to give the Queen, because the people around me did (including an odd woman on my left who tried to ask the Queen about politics while also handing her flowers), I ended up about a foot or two away from the Queen!!!! For the record, this is closer than I got to Nick Clegg last year! When she came over I said "Your Majesty" rather quietly and did this sort of half-curtsey/bow thing. Now, before you say it, I know, I'm American, but it just felt right!! I couldn't help it! And it would have been a better curtsey but I was kind of being squished by a lot of people (and as an American, I'm not very experienced in the curtsey department)! Then she got in her fancy car and drove away and I got the entire interaction on video (not that she interacted with me personally, but I spoke to her so that totally counts and again, is better than I did with Clegg)!!!

Anyway, it was a wonderful day and totally worth sitting outside and getting really cold!! I have posted all the pictures on Facebook as well as the video. If you don't have Facebook, I'm sorry, but it is the best and easiest way I have of posting photos, but I would be happy to send you some if you would like. I will also post several here and I'll try to post the video (but I'm not sure it will work). I'm sorry it ended up being such a long story, but I was so excited I just had to share it with you all!

The Queen arriving! This picture is not zoomed in or edited in any way so you get a sense of how close we were! 

This is the same picture as above, but cropped on the computer.

Margaret, Maggie, and I waiting for the Queen to come out after her visit.

Margaret and her Canadian bouquets that enticed the Queen to come over! 

The video I took of the Queen coming over! Hopefully it plays and sorry for the poor quality. Remember I was trying to be unobtrusive so I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing with the camera.

Well, I am exhausted after all that shivering in the cold! But as I said, soooo worth it. In other news (I know, amazing to think anything else could happen today), I applied for two more Parliamentary internships. So, we'll hope for the best with that (but I am comforted by the knowledge that if I had gotten that first internship, I probably wouldn't have had time to sit around today and wait for the Queen so I know things will work out). Going to take the rest of the evening off and go to bed early!

Love to all.
Cheers,
Abbey