The Queen's Surprise Visit

It was just a typical morning for me. Getting up in the morning, though a bit late, had my breakfast, put on my clothes and head off to the hospital. The different thing that happened today was that when I got there, there was already a huge crowd gathering in front of the St. Mary's Children Hospital and Manchester Eye Hospital.

People were rushing and pushing each other as they lined up the shoulder of the road. Great Britain flags with the Royal crest on it was put up all over the place. And everyone was ready with their huge and super-fast DSLR cameras in their hands. I honestly do not have a single clue about what was going on at that time! But from the atmosphere, my mind was thinking that someone special and popular might be in the hospital area right now.

Then there it was! After about 15 minutes wandering around outside the hospital, out of no where, a pack of police officers on their huge BMW motorbike queued up and paraded the small road outside MRI. Following them from behind were few bunch of Mercedes and BMWs. And there was this one special car (it was a Rolls-Royce!) that I noticed a distance away from where I was standing. When this car approaced closer to me, I finally got to see who the special visitor was - it was the Queen!

She was in a pink suit, with the traditional royal pink hat, waving and smiling back to the crowd who cheered for her. At that time she was actually on her way to attend other ceremonies held in Manchester and had to leave the hospital. I quickly took out my phone that was held in my pocket, firmly placed it in my agile hands and snapped few pictures of the queen as her car drove slowly passed me. Now, I have proof that I have seen the Queen after nearly 4 years in the UK.

In all, it was absolutely a great experience to finally met the Queen up close in real life. And definitely a surprising one, though brief! Opportunity like this comes once in a life time, plus you need a bit of luck to along  the way. ;-)

p/s: the pictures are in my phone. i am just being lazy to upload it right now. maybe later!