The Queen's Royal Garden Party

Well, Lara Gulp reminded me today that when she was 5 we all went to London to see the Queen.

It was almost a year ago now and was the last trip away that we had as a family prior to my returning to work after maternity leave. We had so much fun but the central reason for the trip was that I'd been given an invitation to the Queen's Garden Party.

It still blows my mind to think of it. I mean I was born and brought up on a Bradford council estate and it's just not something that you ever imagine happening.

I wanted to do Bradford proud by looking my best so I had a dress made me for me. It was just a cream cotton summer dress with a full skirt, from a 1950's style Vogue pattern, with red polka dots. I wore it with a pair of beige court shoes, a red hat and red soft jacket.

The day was unbelievably hot and as we were staying in Central London, near Broadcasting House in Great Portland Street, I decided to get a bus to the Palace so that I could stand and not wrinkle my dress:)

The other guests from Bradford were my ward colleague and the Lord Mayor and his daughter. We met up and had such an absolute blast, enjoying the most amazing finger sandwiches, pastries and tea. We then had a lovely walk in the grounds enjoying the heat of the day and the incredible sights, scents and colours of one of the most incredible gardens I had ever been in. We also took plenty of photographs of our day.

When we lined up for the entrance of the Royal party there was such an incredible air of anticipation that it was almost tangible and all that was running through my head was that I was about to be in the presence of Majesty, the highest citizen in the land. It felt amazing but didn't faze me at all. I also wondered what Oma (my grandmother would have thought). She was Canadian and a complete royalist so would totally have got a blast out of it.

There was a certain amount of jostling but at the sound of the trumpets announcing the Queen's arrival, a stillness descended. The Queen made her away along the line and stopped to speak briefly with selected people, Olympic athletes, charity workers and public servants of one sort or another and was for quite a while stood right in front of me at only slightly over 1 1/2 arms length or so.

I was struck by a couple of things, one was her height as she was so much smaller than I had expected her to be and the other was her incredible teeth. (Just as an aside, one of many things that I have been trying to do since I entered politics is to get improved oral health and access to dentists for all the people of the Bradford District. I've been banging on about it for 2 years but getting what I believe Bradford District needs is like pushing water uphill but I shall carry on working on this.) Believe it or not this thought about Bradford's oral health and access to dentists was in my mind as I looked upon the Queen and her immaculately straight, white teeth.

The Queen then went into the Royal tea tent while we enjoyed the afternoon and the pleasant atmosphere. We were served copious amounts of cold drinks as desired, and because it really was a perfect hot English summer day we were also served ice cream.

We all queued up again as the Royal party left and this time I found myself right at the very front.

The best part of the day was just the beautifully relaxed and dare I say, chilled out atmosphere. I've been to many events through work etc where there are many people who can be rather full of their own self importance, and seeking to ensure that others are under no illusion of what "their place" is and I almost anticipated that the Royal Garden party would be quite like that. Whereas, it was in fact, the total opposite.

We had a really grand day out at Buckingham Palace as guests of HM Queen Elizabeth and I enjoyed a lovely afternoon tea with friends.