Yesterday I had my DofE gold presentation. Now I’m not going to lie, I wasn’t particularly looking forward to going perhaps because I was being lazy as it’s a bit of a pain to travel to London and back in a day but also because its a lot of faff just to get a handshake and a certificate. But you know what? I actually really enjoyed myself (my feet did not- but more on that later). The palace gardens were beautiful and the talks were actually really entertaining. The speaker for my group was Alex Bescoby who was a funny man who was scared of cows and specialises in Burma’s history (here’s a link if you’re interested:https://prospectburma.org/prospect-blog/alex-bescoby-burmas-lost-royals/ )

I also got to say hello to Princess Ann which was pretty cool. That’s now two royals I’ve seen up close (the first was the Duke of Edinburgh himself when he was at Ten Tors a few years ago).

Anyways here are the obligatory photos of me dressed up in Buckingham palace gardens:

Also we saw the cutest geeselings in the garden! (probably a highlight of the day)

I have to say, it felt very weird going from 4 days on Dartmoor wearing dirty leggings, and grubby socks, and muddy walking boots, to then being dressed up in nice clothes with make up on, and heels on. My feet are definitely meant for walking boots not heels! My feet hurt so bad on the way back to Victoria bus station we had to stop off in New look and pick up some cheap flat shoes…. I’m not wearing heels again any time soon that’s for sure. Thankfully my feet are okay today and didn’t bother me in today’s driving lesson.

Cheeky side note: I am planning on doing a short post on my few days on Dartmoor if you’d be interested in seeing that. So keep an eye out on the blog in the next few days (it will be a nice break from essay writing).

Thanks for reading and looking at my cringing face from the amount of photos I had taken of me over the day. Enjoy the rest of your week x