At Easter I received a phone call from Merry at the stroke association to say that they had been allocated some tickets to the Queens Diamond Jubilee concert and wanted to know if I would like to go. I said yes straight away as I love music and mostly because I knew Jessie J was playing but I didn’t really know how lucky I was to have a pair of tickets. I wanted to take my mum as she had applied for tickets in the ballot but were unsuccessful and i thought she deserved it as she’s been pretty epic for the last 15 months and well the rest of my 22years. I had also found out that Joanie and Sarah Scott were going and we have all been talking for a while and been keen to meet. Sarah had a stroke when she was 18 and although our strokes affected us very differently we have very similar attitudes towards what’s happened to us (look her up on YouTube!)
We were very lucky as not only did we get tickets to the concert but also to the picnic in the palace gardens.
I’ll give you a little run through of the day.
The first treat of the day was a hair cut and style and the Toni & Guy concept store in Sloane Square. This was complimentary from the stroke association as Toni of Toni and Guy has previously had a stroke and wanted to give something back to the charity. We met Sarah and Joanie there which was just lovely and we had our hair glammed. As we were in Sloane Square I of course pretended I was in Made in Chelsea. I opted for a messy doughnut up do as it is something I can’t do by myself with one hand. I loved it.
Afterwards we grabbed a quick lunch and made our way to Buckingham Palace to join the queues for the picnic. The gates opened at about 3pm and we had to go through heaps of security before reaching the front of the palace. It felt very surreal being stood behind the gate that I’ve previously stood on the otherside of being a tourist. We then walked through a courtyard to collect our picnic baskets which there were piles and piles of before walking through three rooms of Buckingham palace before getting into the garden. The three rooms we walked through we’re absolutely stunning and the carpets were incredible, so soft and bouncy I really just wanted to throw myself on the floor and stay there for a while. We were some of the first into the garden where they had a steel drum band playing loads of classics. We grabbed some seats and collected our complimentary champagne which me and Sarah both knocked over. Both really were my fault and I’d like to call this the Cobb curse. The picnic was delicious although I wasn’t too keen on the cold soup…
Mum and Joanie fangirl’d over some of the royals greeting people in the garden whilst me and Sarah ate icecream in the rain. I’m sure it would have been different if it was prince Harry as I now have a mega crush on him, but they were following sophie of Wessex and prince Edward, whoever they are
At about 5pm we we’re asked to make our way to the concert area, our seats were right I’m front of the royal box (perfect perving spot for Harry) and David Walliams was a couple of rows behind us! I’m sure most of you saw it on TV so I won’t go into it too much, my mum loved Robbie Williams and Jessie J was obviously my highlight, I spotted her before she was even on stage I’m such a geek! The common wealth band gave me goosebumps singing ‘sing’ and Elton John singing ‘Your Song’ was incredible as its one of my all time daves and apparently mum used to sing it to me when I was a baby so that was nice and sentimental!
It was such an incredible night and I feel very privelidged to have had this once in a lifetime experience and to have seen so many incredible artists that I never imagined I would get a chance too! Cheryl cole, I could have lived without.
Afterwards I was very tired and there were no taxi’s so we made one of those men on bikes with carriages take us back to our hotel. His legs must be made of steel!!
Absolutely fabulous day, Thank you Elizabeth & The Stroke Association
