The Prince, the Duchess and me!

Hi everyone,

You're probably expecting "Childhood II"....well it's coming up soon. In the meantime, I feel I just have to show off a bit!

A few of weeks ago I was lucky enough to go to Buckingham Palace to a royal garden party. Garden parties have been held each summer at Buckingham Palace since the 1860's, when Queen Victoria was on the throne. Originally they were called "breakfasts" - even though they were in the afternoon! From the 1950's onwards they became a way of rewarding and recognising all kinds of people who are involved in public service - either working or volunteering. Every year the Queen hosts 3 garden parties at Buckingham Palace and one at Holyrood House in Scotland. About 10,000 people are invited to each party. You can see a short film about the garden parties here.

"So", I hear you ask, "How did you get invited?". Well, the Metropolitan Police are trying to prevent young people getting involved in crime by starting a scheme called YOU. This stands for Youth Organisations Uniform and the idea is to encourage young people to join youth organisations like Scouts, Guides, Sea Cadets, St John Ambulance or the Prince's Trust. The latter is a charity set up by Prince Charles (he is the Queen's eldest son, the Prince of Wales and heir to the throne). To celebrate the start of the YOU project, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla (the Duchess of Cornwall) hosted a garden party for members of the uniformed organisations and special guests. 11 of the Rangers were selected to go and I went along as their leader. They were chosen because they have an act called Camp Stomp, which they have performed at a couple of events. Basically this involves using objects you would use to go camping as percussion instruments: things like buckets, kettles, mallets and even a portable toilet!! They were asked to perform Camp Stomp at the Buckingham Palace garden party....six times! Here some of them are, practising hard!



The day started early. We all met for one last rehearsal before packing up all the "instruments" and walking to our local train station.



We travelled to London and were given new uniform to wear and told what to expect. There were 14 pages of instructions about where to go, what to do and what to say if Prince Charles spoke to you. At 2 p.m. the gates of Buckingham Palace opened and we were allowed in:



The gardens are behind the Palace, so you have to walk through the Palace and out the other side to get to them. When we got there, we could see 2 enormous tents each with a table inside that was 124 metres long and laden with little sandwiches and cakes (at a garden party for 8,000 people they serve 27,000 cups of tea, 20,000 sandwiches and around 30,000 pieces of cake). We had about an hour to set up before the guests arrived at 3 p.m. The Rangers performed Camp Stomp 3 times - inviting the guests to come and have a go at playing the instruments too. I'd love to show you, but no cameras were allowed in the grounds!

Although the guests arrive at 3 o'clock, members of the Royal Family never arrive until 4 o'clock, so after performing we had time to get tea. Tea is served in china cups and you can help yourself to food. All the food is finger food and is cut in to small portions - I guess that's so that you feel elegant when eating! There were cucumber sandwiches, ham sandwiches (both with the crusts cut off), mini hot dogs, fruit tarts and delicious little squares of chocolate cake. To drink there was tea, iced coffee or fruit squash. The plates are quite small, so you can't be too greedy!

Just before 4 o'clock we were all asked to go and stand by the steps of the Palace as the Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall were about to arrive. As they came out, the band started to play the National Anthem. After that Prince Charles and Camilla walked around and met young people and leaders from all the organisations. When they came round to us I was lucky enough to talk to both of them. Prince Charles asked us what Rangers did and the Duchess of Cornwall asked whether we had had tea - I told her to be careful of the chocolate cake, as it was very gooey and melted quickly!



Then there was just time to perform Camp Stomp 3 more times and have a wander around the garden. The garden is the largest private garden in London: it has more than 300 types of wild flower, 30 different species of wild birds, over 150 mature trees, a lake and a tennis court, where King George VI and Fred Perry played in the 1930s. Every Monday morning when The Queen is in residence, the Gardens Manager sends Her Majesty a posy of the interesting plants in flower in the Palace garden. It's really peaceful - there are busy roads on each side, but in the garden you can only really hear the birds and water - although with so many young people at the garden party, you could also hear quite a lot of chattering voices!

At 6 o'clock we all had to make a long corridor of people and the Prince and Duchess walked down it to their car and drove away. All that was left to do was pack up the instruments, walk back to the station (stopping for a burger and chips - cucumber sandwiches don't really fill you up) and travel back home. We just got back when there was an almighty thunderstorm and torrential rain...thank goodness that didn't happen when we were at the Palace!

Take care

Carrie

public service: doing something for the benefit of the public e.g. firemen, nurses, charity workers
heir to the throne: in this case the person who will become King after Queen Elizabeth II
an act: a short performance
percussion: musical instruments that you hit e.g. drums
finger food: food you can eat with your fingers (rather than with a fork)
fruit squash: a kind of concentrated fruit juice that has to be diluted with water