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Tuesday, April 27, 2010

My Dad's Day at Buckingham Palace

Last friday the 23rd of April was St. George's Day and my dad went to Buckingham Place to be made a Member of tht British Empire ( MBE ), from The Prince of Wales (Charles!). Dad got his medal for charity work for the RAF.
We had a great day at the Buckingham Palace and l have the images to prove it!Hax. I was not allowed to take my camera into the Palce, which was a shame. My mother is in a wheelchair, so we went into the palace through areas others don't normally see. For example, my mother went up in a chair lift, which originally was installed for the Queen Mother. We were sat at the front of the crowd and then were out first as well! Well done mum!
The night before, Tony polished his shoes..as usual!..and also polished his old Army RCT hat...all will be revealed in the image below!



Your chaffeur driven car awaits you Mr W E J Kelley MBE!
Forget the fact that it is St. George's Day and it was also the Marathon at the weekend...the flags were there for dad weren't they?Ha!
This was one of the wonderful views my parents and sister had from our car, while we waited in the queue to get into the Palace grounds. Each car was checked inside and out, we had to have all the correct paper work and proof of who we were. Then we had a sticker, with of all things on it, a bike, to say we had passed all the checks. We also had large "V" sign on our windscreen, to tell the police we had a wheelchair user inside the car and so had to go to another entrance. In other words..the back door! My mum was issued with her own royal chair-pusher, in a beautiful uniform too!
It did seem strange to see all these people standing on the other side of the Palace railings, waving and calling to us. It made my mum and sister feel very important and made them laught!! Last time my parents came to The Palace, which was for a Summer Garden Party and when driving in, my dad had really upset my mum, by telling the tourist crowd waiting at the gate and entrance to The Palace..."It's ok, she is just the cleaner!".

After being in the palace, we all came out to have our offical photographs taken and meet friends or family waiting outside.  The next image shows the newspaper photographers praticing taking images before the crowds come out. Actually they were quite upset because nothing went wrong and nothing really happened that was worth filming! Shame!!

And here is the man himself! Doesn't he look smart and very happy?x Well done dad! 
We had offical images taken and also we have a video coming too. The funny thing is, that because of mum being in the wheelchair and at the front of the crowd...we will be in EVERYONE ELSE'S video's..what a hoot!

The next few images are of other people who were at the Palace to receive medals ect.






The young lady in the image below, was so sweet. It was her Military father, that was the person receiving an award and she was making the most of it. She had a permanent smile on her face and was taking images of EVERYTHING insight..what an experience for her.
And finally....ME! I love hats!
From the Palace, we took my parents and sister to the Thai Bridge in Putney. It over looks the River Thames and we arranged to have a window table and they did us proud. My sister was not impressed but Mum and Dad loved it . i thought the food was great, the staff were sweet and they didn't rush us, even though we were the last customers!



The last image is the reason for the meal..well done again dad.


13 comments:

Beach House Living said...

Absolutely well done! Many congratulations to your father.

What a happy and fine day for you all.

Kind regards,
Rita

Caterina Giglio said...

what great photos you got inspite of the circumstances! congrats to your dad and you look gorgeous!

DayPhoto said...

Wonderful post! I felt like I was there. All the way there..in England and land far, far, far away from me.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. I have book marked you and will visit often.

Linda
http://coloradofarmlife.wordpress.com

Lesa said...

Hello-- grabbed your url off of a Ruby Tuesday comment thread--- I thought this was the RT post since most of the photos have gorgeous splashes of red-- then I found the real RT post. What an interesting blog you have-- I'm now following!

Lynda Howells said...

thank you everyone for your great commentsx

LifeRamblings said...

way to go. congrats to your father.

Dianne said...

how exciting!!
I love that your mum got to use the lift used by the queen mum, that just makes me smile

congrats

GardenOfDaisies said...

What an honor! You must be so proud of your Dad!!
I would love to meet the Prince of Wales.

Your Dad must have a great sense of humor, even if you mum didn't think so at that Garden Party! :-)
How does one get invited to a garden party anyway? Do they ever invite American ladies who used to live in Canada and still sing "God Save The Queen" ? LOL.

GardenOfDaisies said...

OH! And I almost forgot to say that you look great in your hat!

Rajesh said...

The place is very nicely covered. Beautiful shots.

Unknown said...

Congratulations to your dad, more power to him. You have an amazing series of photos here. thanks for your kind comments...

Sallie (FullTime-Life) said...

Well Done indeed! Thank you for sharing with us. Three years ago this month we had the pleasure of starting a three month stay in London -- to celebrate our Golden Wedding anniversary -- a once in a lifetime experience I had only dreamed of and w'll never forget. I loved reading this! Congratulations to your Dad (and Mom).

Marice said...

wow amazing shots of an amazing place! thanks for tagging us along in your wonderful trip :)

u may view mine too here