Hanging with the Queen, Again!

On Tuesday after my short overnight nap, I sprung out of bed (well as much as I could considering how tired I was!!) because I knew I was about to do some cool things. All in the name of work!!

My assignment for Tuesday was a tough one. Liveshots from the lawn of Buckingham Palace. Seriously? I get paid to do this? For real?!?! It was like a dream come true!! I had been there on a tour a few years ago when I was in London for a mission trip. Since Queen Elizabeth II was out of town on holiday, we were able to tour the palace which was incredibly cool. We also got to walk around the gardens but it was pouring down rain. This time was different. It was beautifully sunny and I was getting paid to be there!! My correspondent and I met up with a cameraman from my network’s London bureau and started our day going through security. For getting to see the Queen, I thought it would have been much more rigorous and would have included some interrogation in a dark room somewhere. But in reality, it was just the standard set of metal detectors and bag checks.
We set up our liveshots location in the backyard of Buckingham Palace (literally) which is something that my cameraguy says NEVER happens. Like never ever. There I was, standing in the Queen’s backyard with virtually free reign of the grounds (ok, that is a total overstatement. We had royal minders to make sure we didn’t storm the back door!) I have to admit, I had an ever-so-slight glimpse of heaven. I mean, I know heaven will be much more glorious than the grounds of Buckingham Palace but I had so many heavenly parallels going through my head at that moment. Then I remembered the fact that I was actually working (It’s my firm belief that will not be happening in heaven!) and it was quite busy!! We did liveshot after liveshot after liveshot.
Then all of sudden it was showtime for the Queeen when the arrival ceremony began. POTUS/FLOTUS had met with Prince Charles and Camilla earlier at the US ambassador’s house and then headed over to Buckingham Palace. They had also already met with Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge. The newlyweds stayed inside (my guess is that they didn’t want to take the attention off the Obamas) and then the Queen, Prince Phillip, Prince Charles and Camilla and the Obamas headed outside.
The bands played and cannons went off. Prince Phillip and POTUS reviewed the troops. Then some more music and bands marching. And then it was over. Not to sound too snobby or jaded but I’ve been to a bunch of official arrival ceremonies and while this one might have been the first at Queen Elizabeth’s palace, it was also the one where we were the furthest away. When the Queen came to the WH, we were much closer. I could actually see her eyes. This time we were quite far away and I wish we had been about 100 yards closer. But beggars can’t be choosers so I’ll take what I get but next time, I want to be just a little bit closer to the action.

The rest of my work in London was not nearly as exciting. I was supposed to go to 10 Downing Street on Wednesday morning but that didn’t work out so we spent the rest of our time doing liveshots from the roof of our hotel. I watched all the rest of the festivities on a big screen on my makeshift desk. Not too glamorous but at least I was in the same vicinity and that was close enough for me. I admit that there was a twinge of jealousy to my friends at another network who lucked out to get Tuesday as their pool day. I would have traded my day in the rain through Ireland in a heartbeat for a chance to run around the palace all day!!!

The other highlight of my time in London was on Wednesday night when I was able to meet up with one of my friends from college, Sini. She and I graduated from Virginia Tech at the same time and spent many hours working together on our college’s weekly newscast. She lives in London now and I am always excited about the chance to get together with her whenever I am in the motherland. We met up for dinner and then did a bit of a walking tour around parts of London where I had never been before. We walked along the Thames, past the Tate, and then over to St. Paul’s Cathedral. It’s such a beautiful church, most famous in my eyes as where Charles and Diana got married, and while I didn’t get to go in, it was just a beautiful building!!

We did a little bit more walking and then hopped on a double-decker bus for a few blocks to get a little closer to my hotel and then walked back the rest of the way to my hotel. But luckily, that included a stop at a cheesy souvenir stand so I could load up on my stash of cheesy Royal Wedding souvenirs!!

Total sleep time for Tuesday and Wednesday: 8 hours.