The Queen, new friends and I

Bit of a 'Champagne headache' today but otherwise bright and perky. Spent yesterday on my research on Hyperbaric Medicine (which, fingers crossed, is going to plan) then left work at about 3 p.m. to go home to make myself presentable as I had been invited to the 'Palace'. The Invitation stated that guests were to arrive no sooner than 5.15 and no later than 5.50. So 5.30 seemed about right. No panic. Well, there I was standing outside the gates at about 4.45. Me and about 100 others. It was like queuing for School Dinners. Forming an orderly line, I set about making new friends. The Head of the Dental Association and a Procurement Officer from the Devon Ambulance Service (who had once been a numismatist specialising in Greek and Roman Coins - not a big market for that, 'because kids just don't collect things anymore, haven't the patience' so started working for the NHS).
Then let into the Palace (right on time). On entering there were lots of Officials telling us where to go and what to do....basically have a glass of Champagne, put on a name badge and enjoy the place. They went off leaving me to marvel a the Picture Gallery, I and 300 others. Oh, you would have loved the art work...Rembrandt, Canaletto, Vermeer etc. Also there were mini exhibitions, put on to entertain us, from the Queens private collections at Windsor. These included Leonardo Da Vinci anatomical etchings , books and treatise on herbal cures (one was a note book written by Lady Augusta Summer the mistress to George III... and the writing was as fresh as if written yesterday). Here, I made another friend called Emma who is a deputy librarian at Windsor Castle and an expert in 'Arctic Explorers'. I asked her about a Latin text on display which she proceeded to translate leading on to a discussion about the differences in Latin and Germanic Text. She was nice and interesting so when I made another friend, Lady Roberts, (who is the Head Librarian) I put in a good word for Emma (you have to help your friends, you know).

Then, eating canapes,I chatted to NHS representatives from North and South Wales (Paul and ....can't remember) who told me all about new health initiatives in Wales that are 'Client Centred' rather that 'Product Centered' like what they do in England 'Boyo'.

We were asked to get in line and we were shown to another splendid golden room to meet the Queen. An Official took my invitation card and announced me and I shook her hand and then was politely asked to move on. So, that was Her Majesty...a bit of an anticlimax I thought........mistakenly, as it turns out.

So with more Champagne (hence the headache) and canapes I ventured into the Blue Room where there were exhibitions about Military Hospitals, London Hospitals and Eyes and Teeth (there's a theme here I thought). I made my next friend, a Dr. called Julia, who works for the Medicines Regulatory Authority and we talked happily about how nice it was to be here and foreign travel when we were joined by the Duke of Kent. He asked us about what we did and had a little chat about my clients and the importance of regulating 'drugs' and then moved on.

By this time I realised that some other Royals were 'networking' , namely The Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, The Duke of Kent, and Princess Alexandra. All of whom I chatted with at sometime or other. Then off to look at another exhibition about Florence Nightingale and perused her original letters to Queen Victoria from Scutari (Crimea) and about the importance of moving St Thomas' Hospital from it's original site by London Bridge because it was too noisy to a new site (where the Imperial War Museum is now) and then from there to where it is now. She was a bossy boots but the Government did everything she told them to do. Victoria was also encouraged to visit her troops which she agreed to do but only as far as going to see them at Fort Pit Army Hospital at Chatham. On her return the Queen wrote a diary entry and sketched the patients she had met. One was of a soldier with a shattered jaw and another was of Sergeant Scarff of the 17th Lancers who suffered a sabre wound to the face. Splendid, immediate, and childlike drawings.

Then met some RAF paramedics and had a chat about DSMRU Headley Court and then networked with the Head of Clinical Services for the Joint Services.

I moved on. Into another splendid room where I made another friend. This was Dr Trisha.... (can't remember her second name) who is the Deputy editor for the British Medical Journal. It turns out that she lives in the next village. Then I chatted to Princess Alexandra who had a very pretty pink dress on and was jolly chatty. Who were we, what did we do, how nice etc. Looked behind me and there was the Queen!. So our group was discretely dispersed by an equerry from the Coldstream Guards and told where to stand (not the Princess as she knew where to stand). I was formed into a little semicircle with some other Health care Providers and up came the Queen. We chatted about rehab. She has the most beautiful smile. I was quite captivated...I know it's daft but it is the truth.

Then I chatted to somebody about the art works on show. I said that being here and seeing the Queen reminded me of the play 'A Question of Attribution' and Anthony Blunt. She laughed and said I'd better not mention him too loudly and that I might get carted off to the Tower. I had previously wanted to direct this play with actress Jenny Armstrong in the lead part. I swear that she looks more like The Queen than The Queen. In fact that never worked out, but Jenny did play the lead in another play I directed in which she played Coral Browne. In fact Jenny looked like her too. Such chameleon like qualities!!!

Anyway, back to the 'Palace'..

where I re-entered the 'splendid gold room' and rested my 'champagne weary' body on a chair that (if it was in the National Trust it would have had a pine cone on it). Here I met The Director of the South Central Health Strategic somethin' or other....who would love to visit my unit...and so it was arranged. I did this with some other people as well....so the evening wasn't entirely wasted.

Then it was 8.30 and by this time people were filing out so I made my happy way up the Mall to Trafalgar Square on a cold crisp London night . Then home to bed...