Day 5 - June 4 A Lovely Brunch, the Concert, Paddington Bear and Being in the Right Place at the Right Time

Mikhaila Friel (Insider and I outside Kensington Palace)

It was nice to sleep until 8 a.m.  I needed it.   Today turned out to be one of those - Being in the Right Place at the Right time - days.  More of that later.

First things first:  Brunch at ffiona's on Kensington High Street.   Mikhaila Friel, a reporter with the Insider, invited me for brunch, a lovely treat, as she had come down from Glasgow for the Jubilee.  She has interviewed me several times.   

ffiona's is delightful.  I had the Eggs Benedict and 2 Mimosas.  Yummy.   Mikhaila and I decided to continue our talk in the Kensington Palace Gardens.  We stopped in a souvenir shop on Kensington High Street where Mikhaila bought a Jubilee mug and I bought a Platinum Jubilee Queen Elizabeth II rubber ducky.

https://www.ffionas.com/

the Cambridge apartment is behind the fence on the left.  

Not impressed with statue

Romanian embassy Kensington Palace Gardens road

Norwegian embassy

We also browsed the Kensington Palace shop and then walked up Kensington Palace Gardens, one of the most exclusive streets in the world. The street is private, owned by the Crown Estates.  The residents are embassies, billionaires, and Princess Haya of Jordan, among others.   Photographs are not permitted.   

There is a police presence at the entrance to the street from Bayswater Road.   On the right is the Russian Embassy.  I turned to the police and said would they do anything if I gave the third finger to the building.

The officer said: " I do not see anything."  

So  I turned and faced the embassy, and  I flipped the bird and said: "get the hell out of Ukraine."

Mikhaila and I were walking down Bayswater Road.  She was heading toward her hotel.  I heard a helicopter heading toward Kensington Palace.  I said thanks for brunch, turned quickly, and started running as fast as a 67 & 3/4-year-old woman could run.  

The Cambridges were returning from a Platinum Jubilee event in Cardiff.  The helicopter pad is fully visible to people in the Kensington Palace Gardens.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/royal/1620956/kate-middleton-prince-louis-pictures-kensington-palace-wales-cardiff-jubilee-spt

These photos cannot be copied, stored, or published on blogs, social media, newspapers, magazines, any media without my permission and name.  I am the copyright holder.

I took a photo with my phone of the back of my camera showing one of the photos.  I tweeted it, which set off a frenzy of people wanting more.  Within a few hours, I had agreed to sell 5 photos to the Daily Express for a tidy sum.

I stopped at the Kensington Palace cafe where I had my first look at my photos.  Victorian lemonade and a slice of Victoria Sponge cake.

I happened to be in the right place at the right time.  There were other people snapping away as well.  Still pinching myself.

 Then it was time to head to the Victory Services Club near Lancaster Gate where an American friend was staying,. She treated me to a pre-birthday dinner at The Grill.  A Surrey Ribeye with veggies and chips,  and a Sticky Toffee pudding for dessert.  And a few Baileys.   

Delish .. thanks, Chris.

https://www.vsc.co.uk/?gclid=CjwKCAjwk_WVBhBZEiwAUHQCmX6bn0ORH4whjwOsvO1RIH39Ln-8VlYoaV3j-hukH_VgmCGv9sI3zhoCQRoQAvD_BwE

I had hoped Chris would accompany me to the Mall to watch the Platinum Party at the Palace, but she decided she wanted to watch it on TV.   I headed toward the Lancaster Gate Tube stop with Green Park as my destination.   Once again, we were directed to go down St. James's Street to the Mall.  I sat down on the street with thousands of other people to watch the concert on big screen TVs.  

The concert was held at the Palace, just a few 100 feet down the Mall.     A brilliant surprise from the Queen as the program opened with a video of Her Majesty and Paddington Bear.   The crowd went wild.

Now we know what the Queen has in her handbag.

https://youtu.be/7UfiCa244XE

I am in this crowd

Let's just say here and now  Brian May is one of the greatest guitarists of all time,

Diana Ross was embarrassingly awful

store windows on the way back to the Tube  Green Park was closed so caught a bus to Piccadilly Circus where I got the Piccadilly line to Finsbury Park, then the Victoria Line to Blackhorse Road.

a part of the light show, done by drones