Mary Reid

I was standing in the queue for the Ladies at Buckingham Palace when someone looked at the three salmon on my Mayoral badge and asked me that question.

One of the perks that mayors enjoy is being invited to the Queen's Garden Party. So Ian and I took off in RBK1, with my obligatory hat, to park in The Mall and walk through those famous gates into the forecourt of the palace. Then across the courtyard, under the canopy, past a red carpeted staircase and out onto the terrace.

As you may have seen in today's Evening Standard the famous camomile lawn is brown. But that hardly mattered as it was heaving with several thousand guests all looking as though they were attending a wedding. 

The Yeoman of the Guard arrived and stood very stoically under the sun in the full red Beefeater uniform waiting for the Royal party. Eventually the Queen (in yellow), Prince Philip, Princess Anne, Prince Edward and the Countess of Wessex stood on the steps for the National Anthem.

This was followed by a highly organised walkabout. Lots of people were jostling for places at the front in the hope that they would catch the eye of one of the Palace staff and be brought forward for an introduction.

We wandered off to look around the grounds instead. No cameras were allowed inside I'm afraid.

There are three tea tents.  The smallest is the Royal Tea Tent.  Next is the Diplomatic Tea Tent for ambassadors.  Then finally, the Main Tea Tent, for the rest of us, which stretches for about 100 yards along one side of the lawn.  We were served cucumber sandwiches, with no crusts, and tiny chocolate cakes with a royal crest, plus iced coffee and unlimited (good) lemonade.  There was what I can only describe as a feeding frenzy when the icecreams were brought out on trays.  

Even in Buckingham Palace gardens there are not enough ladies' loos, hence the conversations while we were waiting.  The penny dropped, appropriately. "Mayor of Kingston upon Thames, actually. So which Livery Company are you involved in?"