Sipping Royal Tea

A rare opportunity arose for us to attend a Royal Garden Party at the Queen's home of Buckingham Palace and we wasted no time in chasing after the small number of tickets available through the New Zealand Embassy. These tickets are given to all Commonwealth embassies and after being given to all VIPs, a small number of leftover tickets are given out on a first come first serve basis. After missing out on these the previous year, we made sure we were there on time to get them the following year.

The event was very posh indeed and required a high standard of dress. Blokes had to wear either a morning suit (the one with tails), a military uniform, or traditional clothing and ladies had to wear a hat and suitable dress. It was like a day at the races. We managed to get tickets along with our friends, Tania and Ryan and we all drove in to London together and parked our car in the reserved Buckingham Palace spaces. Security was tight with many armed guards and snipers. Strictly no cameras inside the palace so we could only get a few shots outside.

Once we were through security, we passed through the main foyer of the palace and out into the Royal Gardens. The gardens were magnificent. Acres and acres of finely groomed grasses, trees and flowerbeds. On closer inspection, everything appeared to be hand trimmed to perfection, about 10 football fields worth! We assumed there must have been hundreds of full time gardeners taking care of this lot! Taking a stroll around the gardens, we saw 3 lakes with bridges and fountains, hundreds of ancient Oak and Willow trees and miles of carpet like lawns.

There were several tea tents and 2 full brass bands taking turns banging out sorts of songs, including many a blockbuster soundtrack (they even busted out some Star Wars).

When it was time for the Queen to make her entrance, the brass bands struck up the national anthem. Then the little lady appeared in her wee purple Nana's suit and matching hat on the balcony. She made her way down the stairs and through a prepared walkway snaking through the large crowd. She was accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Andrew and a few other royals we didn't recognise. We scrambled for a glimpse of the good lady amongst the 5000 strong crowd. It was rather amusing seeing manners go out the window with everyone pushing and shoving for a position to speak to the queen while dressed in all their finery.

After she made her way through the crowd, the Queen retired to her private Royal tent with a few of the VIP guests. The rest of us commoners headed to the peasants tea tent where we devoured the royal sandwiches and cakes at a restrained mannerley pace. All pinkies were out while we sipped our royal tea and balanced our overloaded finger food plates.

After tea, we took a walk around the gardens and ate ice cream. The day drew to a close with the national anthem escorting the royalty back into the palace. It all felt very surreal, kind of Alice in Wonderland. There were even Beefeater's there dressed in their weird looking red uniforms with their big fat heads looking rather fairytale like. Where they find these unusual people is a mystery. We imagined they disappeared into small hatches under the palace.

We left soon after and lamented not taking any of the silverware for a keepsake. Although it was not usually our cup of tea to hang out at an elderly ladies tea party, we had a great time dressing up and listening to all the toffs speaking in their very best posh accents "The rain in Spain falls mainly in the plains, darling".