Selfie overload

For those who know my blip, I rarely put pictures up of myself as I hate having my picture taken.  But as we scrubbed up well today I thought I’d give you an overload.

By kind permission of the King, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester were allowed to host a garden party at Buckingham Palace to celebrate 150 years of the Kennel Club and as Mr C is a member we were cordially invited.

Some of Mr Cs friends who are on the same working party were travelling down from Yorkshire or the Midlands.  We arranged to meet them at a restaurant for lunch before heading across Green Park to the Palace.

….. will finish entry later as just realised the time and have to get ready for work :-o

Ok, so where was I?

We showed our I.d and invitation to pass through the gates and followed the guests into the garden.  Our little group decided to go for a wander around the garden first (see extras).  Back to the marquee where we queued for our yummy sandwiches and cakes.  Just then the National anthem is played as the royals come out. The Duke and Duchess were also joined by Prince Michael of Kent.  There is a roped walkway for them to walk down.  Their men in waiting (not the official term for them lol) go along and chat to the people and then ask them to go into the roped area to meet the royals.  The Duke did lots of chatting and I grabbed a few pics as he went past. The Duchess was way behind having a good old natter.  We were busy chatting to a friend of Mr Cs (he was enjoying catching up with some people he hadn’t seen for many years) when blow me the Duchess only came over to us. There was me with glasses and phone in one hand, clutch bag in another and she puts her hand out to shake, I have to do a little curtsy ( I had watched the ‘men in waiting’ tell other guests) and then sort of caught my foot on the pole that was holding the rope (remember we are on the other side of the top). Although it was all a few seconds of wobble I did manage a handshake :-D)). What a lovely lady, amazing blue eyes and incredibly friendly.  Asked Mr C what breed he was in lol.  He explained that he was involved in the education side of things.  She chatted for quite a while until her ‘man’ said we really should get to the tea tent and on she went.

After they have had their tea, they sat and watched the band who had been playing throughout the afternoon do a little marching display and then the National Anthem is played once again and then retire back into the palace. Soon it was time for us to leave too.

We thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon, had the best weather and chatting to the Duchess just made everything even more special.

As we left the palace, our group split up and Mr C and I walked to Victoria with another couple stopping for a drink before catching our train home.

A few extras added.