Graham Hawkes, Services Coordinator writes … On Wednesday 11th May, Sue King and I went to Buckingham Palace for the Queen’s Garden Party, to mark Support 4 Sight winning the Queens Award for Voluntary Services in 2020. Due to the pandemic this event was postponed from 2020 to this year.
We travelled up by train and the underground, getting off at Green Park tube station, where we had what should have been a pleasant walk through Hyde Park to our allotted entry gate, but while we were travelling the heavens decided to open and the rain fell.
After queuing for what seemed like forever, huddled under a small umbrella, we finally got in and had a stroll through the beautiful gardens to the main lawn at the back of the Palace where we had afternoon tea.
We then joined a queue to meet the Royals. Prince Charles, Princess Anne, and the Duchess of Cornwall were the Royals on duty that day, and fortunately enough Sue and I had joined Prince Charles’s queue. Sue was lucky enough to shake hands and exchange some small talk with the Prince, mainly about the weather while I did the gentlemanly thing and tried to keep the umbrella over us both.
Afterwards we made for our way out: the gates at the front of the Palace, where much to Sue’s amusement, I got told off by a police officer for taking a photo of the front of the Palace whilst still inside the railings. The final straw came on the walk back to the tube station; while waiting to cross a road, a vehicle went through a massive puddle, soaking Sue and I ‘Bridget Jones’ style!
