The Royal Report Brought to You by Changmoh

By Changmoh • Thursday, 13 September 2012 • Brit Stuff, Day Trips, Festivals

Being away from home makes you do all sorts of things you wouldn’t otherwise. Buying brightly coloured earthenware platters trimmed with beaten silver in Morocco is one such example, queuing up to see Wills and Kate on the Singapore leg of their tour when they visited Gardens by the Bay yesterday, is another.

There were 2 important factors to this particular decision: first off, one of the friends I went with is friends with Wills & Kate’s head of press which made us feel we had more than a fleeting chance of a meeting; secondly I have a four year old daughter who was dying to meet a real (future) prince and princess.

As my invitation to the Royal garden party – that also happened yesterday at Eden Hall, the British High Commissioner’s residence, see post below – appeared to have got lost in the post, queuing to see the Royal couple didn’t seem quite as dreadful as it would have been had we been in England (it’s thoroughly non-U dahling).

Plus, I thought – mistakenly – that because we were in Singapore, there would be far less of a crowd.

Wrong.

What a nightmare! We arrived by 9am and followed the signs to where they were going to meet the public: Supertree Grove. Scheduled to make an appearance at 10am, it unfortunately turned out to be nearer 10.45am. Eschewing the instructions from the lovely press chap as to where the best place was to stand for the chance of a meeting (it was in the boiling sun), we opted for the shade (severe sunstroke would otherwise have been the reward which seemed too much to risk for maybe/maybe not meeting them).

The crowd was spectacular and all things Brit were getting yet another airing (Jubilee, Olympics, Kidz Horizon Ball and now this). Never before has a Brit dress been such a good investment (see pic above). I was not in mine, this time hiding beneath a big straw hat.

We settled for a very fleeting glimpse of Wills & Kate, as they drove past us in their buggy, that was met by wails of disappointment from my little one who was focusing on a security guard instead of William.

And then it all went mad. People were taking pictures of people taking pictures of them.

By this stage I had had enough and we cut our losses, heading for home. But I am very proud to say that a stalwart little member of our party didn’t go when we did, braved half an hour of midday sunshine (what do they say about mad dogs and English men?) and was rewarded by actually meeting and speaking to Prince William. And here she is below as he chatted to her:

Images containing members of the Royal Family are courtesy of Catherine McSheehy

Eden Hall: Kate is Her Own Stylist

Just because I didn’t quite make the grade to have tea with the future King of England (due to be shortened any minute – Singapore style – to FKOE I am sure), doesn’t mean I can’t tell you what happened yesterday evening at Eden Hall, 28 Nassim Road, the official residence of the British Ambassador, His Excellency Anthony Phillipson.

My lovely girlfriend, jewellery designer Miss A was there and has the inside story.

The reception/garden party started at 6pm-9.30pm with the royal couple scheduled to depart by 8.30pm. There were about 200 guests, all divided in to four separate rooms. The Royal couple somehow, although God knows how they could have done it, proceeded to speak and shake hands with every single person there. The absolute masters of small talk, (I thought I was pretty good at it but stand corrected) they took about 2 hours to get round everyone.

Miss A took the opportunity to design Kate a pair of earrings (above) she was able to drop off with her security detail; when she was later introduced to Kate, she mentioned what she’d done, adding that she hoped her stylist might allow her to wear them. Kate replied that she doesn’t have a stylist, “This is all me!” she said, gesturing to her clothes…(chiffon, pleated, floral dress paired with light grey heels if you really want to know)