How did we get to the Queens Lunch on the Mall last Saturday? We didn’t work for a charity but earlier this year we accessed the Magna Carta website and there in the corner in tiny letters was the legend…that said in essence …..if you are interested in watching the discussion about the Magna Carta in Westminster Hall with King John versus the Barons …click here. So I did and entered the public ballot to attend Westminster Hall, and dear reader, we got it. Then we got an invitation to enter the public ballot for the Queens Lunch from the Magna Carta people so I suppose we had been vetted for the Magna Carta event and found that we had no Kalashnikovs in our luggage and we were OK. So we got the public ballot for the Queens Lunch. It cost everyone that attended £150… So we paid and practiced our curtseys.
We travelled down on the Saturday ( the day before) having changed our hotel to The Cavendish in Jermyn Street where we could walk to the Mall in eight minutes instead of struggling with public transport from miles out. Good move. And handy for our next bit of indulgence – ‘Showboat ‘ in Drury Lane . Brilliant musical. A taxi there but no taxi back, no matter that the taxis had disappeared I had this app on my iPhone that told me where to go. But then it started raining and in the absence of taxis we hailed a rickshaw . No problem – except the cyclist was Polish and had only been in the country two days , couldn’t speak English and had certainly NOT read the Highway Code. I even had to key In our destination on his Sat Nav . I suspect he had no insurance but with the rain…what the hell. However, several times during the journey I thought that this may have been a mistake and any warnings that I had given my kids about irresponsible behaviour paled into insignificance as the 18 year old Polish cyclist took his passengers with the combined age of 162 years across several lanes of traffic in central London at 11.00 o clock at night. Do not do this kids ! ( or get a tattoo)
The Queens Lunch – we woke to pouring rain and set off with our umbrella . I mention the umbrella because we had been issued with a list of items we couldn’t take in, and umbrellas were one of them. No matter – it was raining so hard we were resigned to ditching the umbrella and keeping dry before we went through security. We had to be there by 12noon after which no one was to be allowed in. Let’s go at about 11ish said David No fear I said , I guessed that the queues through security would be lengthy ….I think we should go at 9.30 at least . We settled for 10ish to be met with a queue into the Mall that must have reached back into Piccadilly Circus. It was still raining . We joined the queue . It took nearly two hours to get through to security, it was still raining, and were were given a hooded plastic poncho so that the queue looked like the local meeting of the Klu Klux Klan.
We were through ! Airport style security,identification checked , place of residence checked , bags checked. I took my travelling handbag with 42 zips and every one of them was opened and closed. Then through to the Mall where we got a bag from Boots with lots of goodies in it including sun cream and wet wipes . The day was looking up, even the rain had stopped – for the moment. We collected our hampers from the collection point – David had said they were sure to be cardboard but no! A really classy wicker basket from M&S with a zippered linen lining containing enough food for the day ( we eventually ate the sandwiches in bed that night) We drank the Pimms from the hamper, then got a jug of Pimms from the bar. Free ice cream Free tea, Contrary to expectations there were no royals waiting on tables but the younger royals did a walkabout down the centre of the Mall followed by lots of dancing , bands , a cardboard cutout of the Royal yacht , big furry animals on bikes, and Her Majesty in an open topped car with Prince Philip We sang happy birthday and listened to speeches from Prince William about his gran.
We hadn’t met anyone on our table before but they were all good eggs (everyone for Brexit) and all had entered for the public ballot and all were surprised to have got it . Much hilarity, we stood on chairs to watch the procession and vowed we would meet again for the 100 years celebration. I wondered if we would get the ballot for the Coronation but perhaps that’s being a bit too lucky .
