The King and I

well, not quite... but I did shake hands with King Albert II, and stood shoulder to shoulder with Queen Paola. Didn't quite manage to shake her hand, though. I'm not pushy enough! There was quite a crowd there, at the Belgian Ambassador's residence, as all these Belgians came out of the woodwork to meet the King and Queen, who had expressed the wish to meet their citizens while on their State visit to Ireland.

Brendan kindly agreed to go with me, and we stood there in the Ambassador's back garden for about an hour and a half, with about 200 other Belgians. There was plenty of champagne going around (we stuck to orange juice and coca cola!) and sad little appetizers. But we did get a mini-box of Leonidas on our way out, so it was all worth it.

Brendan took all the pictures, with the result that I don't have a single picture of him there! Hopefully he'll make it to the screen (there were 3 or 4 TV crews, so watch out for us - I'm the one with the green top and the big grin on her face!!)

Me and the King. That's my back you see, as I shook hands with him and told him how delighted I was to meet him, and was his leg better!!! I couldn't think of anything else to say! My parents had told me he had fallen down the stairs at the palace a while back and was still limping.

Me and the Queen. I would say that I was driving the body guards mad, as I kept creeping forward in my feeble attempts to shake hands and say Hello. We should definitely have hired a child for the day - those with children definitely got the attention!

And, No, not a Ferrero Rocher in sight! Sorry to disappoint you!