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| My best friend recently invited me to accompany him to lunch in Manchester, England to have lunch with the Queen. Yes one hundred or so people were joining us, but yes, with the Queen!
I literally have never been interested in the Royal Family, any of the weddings or princess girl dreams that come along with the royal weddings. I wasn't sure if I should be excited, but when I mentioned I would be out of town and invited to have lunch with the Queen, everyone was excited, so I guess I got excited too, in an artificial sense. What would I wear, was the prevailing question. My longtime friend Diane, from London, we have been friends since we met in the 60s in London, would know about this, so I emailed her. Not saying it was me, I asked if someone was having lunch with the Queen, would she need to wear a hat? She replied instantly, "No, but you need to eat the food." She knows my non-processed food diet well, and she also knows the type of meal that would be served. The lunch was held in the Great Hall, which is the center of Manchester's government houses, fashioned after Parliament. It was quite extraordinary in size and architecture. The guests were excited, and crowds outside were all anticipating the Queen's arrival. This moment actually made me understand more about how fortunate I was to be witnessing a piece of history. The Queen, in fact is history, and this was the launch of her 60th anniversary Jubilee tour. We sat at the table next to the Queen, and ate our lunch no more than 12 feet away from her. She looked just like she does in photographs- dressed in pink- her hat, her suit, all of it in pink. Her Lady in Waiting sat at our table, and her card did not have a name on it- simply read: the Lady in Waiting. The Queen is 86 years old, and energetically met people at hospitals, gardens, children, as well as a couple who married in the same building all that same day she had lunch. Then she was off in her royal train to her next stop. Prince Phillip is quite cool and chatty, and that is great to know that she has had a longtime mate to enjoy life with. God save the Queen. |
