Meeting the Queen of England, almost

Posted on Feb 29, 2012 in Events | 0 comments

This morning was pretty eventful for me as I joined hundreds of other students standing in the cold outside our university waiting for the arrival of a special guest. The other students who were there, I’m assuming, were invited because we were scholarship recipients from the university.

I didn’t arrive too early so I didn’t get to stand where they are in the picture above (don’t think they got much of a better view than I did though) but at least I didn’t stand as long as they did in the cold. Having said that, it wasn’t particular chilly outside today.

The occasion was the launch of King’s College London’s new school wing at the Strand campus. Since I’ve arrived last September, I’ve noticed that they had been renovating the building next door – the East Wing of the renowned Somerset House.

When I got the email invite a couple of weeks ago, I wasn’t sure what the arrangements were. I suspected we were just there to greet her quickly, but a big part of me (admittedly) was hoping we’d actually get to meet her. I’m not a royalist per se (although I grew up being terribly fascinated by Diana, Princess of Wales) but it would have been quite a thrill to meet her, and what a story it will be to add to my adventures living in London?

Alas, it was not to be. When she arrived (a couple of minutes after she was scheduled to), it caught everyone by surprise. Most people around me scrambled for their cameras by the time her car had entered the gates and didn’t have time to get any good shots as the car went past us.

In fact, I didn’t get a shot of her at all (not even her hat!). I tried later to get a shot as she was leaving (everyone was trying to get the front of the car, so I positioned my camera at window level to try and get a shot of her) but pressed the button too soon.

It’s a good thing then that I managed to get a video of her car coming in, although you can’t really see her too well. Still, I guess it’s better than nothing!

Yup, the car just went past us, then someone opened the door and she walked straight in (I didn’t notice her turn around to wave at anyone unfortunately!). It was, for a lack of better term, pretty anti-climactic. Everyone had been standing there for a while only to have it all over in les than 15 seconds.

In fact, when everyone got over the shock of her just walking out of her car and into the building, there was a slight laughter that went through the crowd, which translated probably said: “Are you kidding me?”

We were then told that if we wanted to catch a glimpse of her, we should head over to the Somerset House entrance where her car will be exiting. Except that when we walked out, we were told that all gates and doors have been locked and we cannot get out. It was pretty funny. Imagine, all of us who had the invite wanting to get out and everyone inside, wanted to get out to see what was going on.

Still, it was a nice experience. At least I got the opportunity to “see” the Queen, even if I didn’t get to meet her. Hey, it’s part of my London experience, no?

Having said that, I did get to meet her car. Consolation prize?