Meeting the Princess Royal

In the morning, the plumbing guys working on the heater showed up to finish the work, but otherwise it was a relatively calm day at work. Which then made it silly that I ended up having to dress in a hurry to make it to the reception I was going to, a VSO (Volunteer Service Abroad) panel discussion attended by the Princess Royal. Given that I was going to be meeting royalty, I wore my "Mad Men"-style grey dress, and did my hair up in side-swept rolls and pinned back. Elegant and understated, I hope...

Once I arrived, I was told to go chat to one particular man from the VSO, and I learned from him that we'd been organized into conversational groups, so that when Her Royal Highness came around, he could formally present us to her. Hence, I got sort of stuck in conversation, but ended up chatting to a lovely Indian woman who had actually grown up in South Africa, leading to some interesting chat.

Then HRH arrived. The Princess Royal is generally regarded as one of the hardest working members of the royal family, as she carries out over 700 engagements a year. (Yes, there are only 365 days in a year. Do the math). And I imagine it must be quite a life, constantly coming to receptions like this one, shaking hands, making polite small talk, and giving short speeches. Constantly. What a job!

So as she made her way around the room, I eagerly anticipated my turn. Until someone next to me askes, "So what are you going to say to the Princess Royal?" Oh my goodness, until that moment I hadn't considered at all what I was going to say! So I thought perhaps I would say something about Accenture, until she actually got to our group, and it turned out that there was a chap from Accenture right ahead of me. Hence, he pretty much stole all of my lines, leaving me panicked with fear and nothing clever to say springing to mind as the Princess Royal turned to me.

The chap making the introductions then said, "Your Royal Highness, may I present to you Miss A.... L....?" She put out her hand (gloved, of course, as I hear that the royals end up shaking so many hands they would be constantly dousing themselves in anti-bacterial gel otherwise) and almost sensing my panic, just asked me a question directly. "So you work for Accenture as well, do you? Where abouts do you work?"

I think I must have babbled for a bit about the Old Bailey crown courts, except how I was originally from New York, and how great it was to be able to travel internationally. I was impressed she stayed listening as long as she did, which I think shows how good she is at what she does, making endless polite small talk. (Friends of mine who have met the Queen have said that she is much the same, an absolute ninja master of small talk).

After she finished making her rounds, the Princess Royal gave a short talk, and as she rambled, I wondered how much she had gotten used to making random BS charity talks, because there's no way that she could possibly know about all of the charities for all these events she goes to. Again, what a weird job to have.

We then all filed into another room for a panel discussion which turned out to be as boring as heck. I couldn't wait to get out of there, it was all so hideously dull. Luckily, it ended only 15 minutes late, and I was able to escape and make it up to the hash to see who might still be there.

In a truly fortunate bit of timing, I arrived at the Tube exit just as Matt was going home! He laughed at our extraordinary luck, and so we stopped to chat for a bit, catching up on this and that, although eventually promising to do a more proper catch-up some other time.

I then made my way on to the pub, although there wasn't actually a lot going on, and nobody of particular interest to see. BB, and Australian guy who I often chat with, surprised me by coming over to note that he really liked my hairstyle, which was the most wonderfully random and unexpected compliment ever. Yet, after chatting to people for about an hour, I figured I'd had enough, and went home.