#19 – Tea at The Palace

When I travel and people discover that I am British I often get asked if I’ve ever been to tea at the palace.  So it seemed foolish not to take the opportunity to be able to answer in the affirmative in the future.  I had heard about the Coronation Exhibition and had thought it sounded interesting, but when I saw a photo of a friend drinking tea in the Terrace Café there I knew I had to go!

Finding a friend to go with me was easy as my first choice jumped at the chance and within an hour of coming up with the idea I had been online and bought our tickets for my next out of office day.  I think it is safe to categorize my feelings as VERY excited!!!  I think I was also far more excited about the tea at the end of the tour than the tour itself – though to be fair, mostly for the opportunity to be able to say “I won’t be in the office on Friday, I’m going to tea at the palace!”  And I can assure you I used that line a lot… especially with my colleagues from across the pond!  And their response never disappointed!  Hehe!

When we got there to pick up our tickets and go in I was surprised at the numbers of people and length of queues and was worried that we would miss our slot.  But thankfully it all worked out and we even made some friends in line as we worked together to outwit a queue jumper …after all no Brit likes a queue jumper!

When we got in to the palace rooms we received a lovely welcome from HRH Prince Charles! …Well, okay, so the message was pre-recorded and we listened to it on our headsets as we walked but still!  Walking around the rooms was fascinating and the individual headsets gave a great commentary to all we were seeing.  But despite having headsets on Fran and I still managed to enjoy our typically less than sensible conversations as we went round and so it didn’t feel like you were doing the tour alone.  There was a special exhibit added to the normal tour in celebration of the Queen’s coronation anniversary year.  It was amazing to understand more about some of the traditions of the coronation and see close up the costumes that were worn.  The detail and beauty was outstanding, though we were left wondering how on earth the ladies managed to fit in to those tiny tiny waistlines!  Unfortunately the four leaved clover specially embroidered into the shoulder of the Queen’s dress was not visible despite our great efforts to spot it (we did eventually give up and ask, only to be told it definitely wasn’t visible).

 

 

At the end of the tour, the part I had been waiting for…  We headed out to the gardens and sunshine to enjoy a right royal cream tea.  The prices were certainly royal and the cups were paper (though that did mean I felt no worries at claiming them as a take home souvenir!) but it had to be done.  And best of all, as we sat down, we were reunited with the friends we had made in the entry line.  Happy days!

So, for all those who now ask me in the future… yes, I have indeed had tea at the palace and it was a delightful experience! Just call me Lady Faith from now on!

#18 – Outdoor Theatre

Shakespearean theatre, picnic in the park and unpredictable weather – all truly British things. Put them together and you get Theatre in the park.  I’ve done Shakespeare in the park before and it rained so much that I still felt the chill for days afterwards so I was hoping for better this time, especially since we’ve had some a gorgeous summer.

 
We got to Jubilee Park at Canary Wharf just in time to bag ourselves a decent blanket spot and broke out the picnic.  And then sat and watched as the grass around us filled up until barely a blade was visible.  I already knew the story but had never seen it quite like this.  They had modernised the story and thrown in a good number of fun songs too so we enjoyed singing along.

The play was Twelfth Night and so it opens with claps of thunder and the sound of rain which obviously gave the weather bad ideas and as the interval approached there were little drops falling.  As they started up again our view was through umbrellas.  And gradually the park area became a whole lot less crowded than it had been.  But we stuck it out even though we only had a small umbrella between the three of us and by the end it had actually stopped raining. 

 



Even though it was cold and we were wet it was so much fun and I enjoyed seeing a very different take on Twelfth Night.  I’m still a fan of the Outdoor Theatre.