Palace fun with Clare O

6 June

I met Clare O. with no plans other than to meet in the city and "do something". We had lunch at ________ ( a grocery store that I forgot the name of) which had an eatery upstairs with lots of different choices (I had a Mexican salad, Clare opted for pizza). Then we headed to _____ (okay, this was some time ago and the details are failing me obviously!) via American Apparel (as Clare hadn't been in a while and wanted to look for something. Clare was shocked that I'd never heard of it nor been in it - I am American after all. I spent some time explaining that Paris, Texas, is no L.A. in shopping terms. We had WalMart, not American Apparel. I was shocked at the clothing in American Apparel - very bright, very 80s, very loud.

I was highly amazed by some, no, most of the clothing / accessories, and couldn't resist taking the mick out of it!

We then continued on to _____ (wherever it is that we had decided to go) and passed through Kennisington Palace grounds. I had never been to Kennsington Palace and was quite excited by this. Clare mentioned the sea of flowers left there when Princess Diana died and I was shocked to see how big the grounds where and how many flowers that must have been!!! We then decided that since neither of us had been in the Palace to see if we could tour it.

There was an exhibition on at the palace (which was the only way we could tour around it) so we decided to do the tour. The exhibition (can't remember the proper title) was of clothing styles over the ages.

Not great photo quality, the lighting was pretty shocking (that's my story and I'm sticking to it!) Looking at hand made fabric here

Isn't it good that our taste in clothes has changed over the centuries!!

Then there was a small bit where you toured parts of the palace.

Looking at a big clock. It looks like Clare is holding a phone to her head but it's actually a talking guide headset thingy (yes, that is the proper name of it).

And there was an "add on" section about the life of the debutant's. Part of this section had you trying out walking in a line with a book on your head and teaching yourself how to dance, etc. I caught Clare giving the dancing section a go. Fun times!