On July 20th 2021 I met Prince Charles. In fact, the photo above shows him actually talking to me!
It happened at Porthcressa Beach, St Martins, Isles of Scilly.
At 10am we queued up for our wedding anniversary brunch at “Dibble and Grub”. That is a wonderful restaurant and bar in the old fire station building (hence the name, Trumpton fans) – with a fantastic view of the beach and bay, as you eat.
So, we really enjoyed our brunch and took our time. We then noticed a few more people than normal filtering onto the beach and promenade. These extra people also seemed to be unusually dressed for the beach – like in suits and uniforms. A policeman and dog handler sniffed around the bins. Bear in mind that, normally, the Isles of Scilly only has three police staff and a very low crime rate.
“Charles and Camilla will be here later” our waiter informed us, upon enquiry.
So, anyway, we continued enjoying the view as even more people gathered. We then thought we would hang around.
The royal couple arrived around midday and walked down a line of local people such as NHS and care workers and the experts who looked after “Wally the walrus” on his visit to the islands.
My nearest and dearest got very excited and hovered around inside the crowd.
In contrast, I am a Republican and held back in the crowd. I thought I would see if I could get a good picture, though. I started videoing Prince Charles in the hope of getting a good screen shot later. As I held up my mobile phone, I could see that the view of Prince Charles was getting better and better. And then he was standing, more or less, straight in front of me. Then, I heard a familiar voice, somewhat testily, saying:
“Are you going to put down that infernal thing and talk to me?”
I put down my phone, rather stunned but smiling broadly at HRH, as you do.
“Is that a pooper-scooper?”, he asked – gesturing to my dog.
It’s possible that he didn’t say “pooper-scooper”, but I think he did. He meant – is the dog a cross breed, like “cockapoo”?
Because I didn’t really understand what he said – particularly bearing in mind that I was a bit confused because my dog is a pure breed bichon frise, not a cross breed – I just smiled sweetly at him.
He then answered his own question: “Yeauus – I came across a cross of a poddle and a greyhound the other day – ghastly – but not him (gesturing again to my dog) – he’s lovely” and then he walked on.
And that was it. My nearest and dearest was green with envy because she missed the encounter. And we stayed to watch the royal couple working the crowd, which they did brilliantly. They chatted at great length and took their time.