The previous nine months have involved a number of exciting events for Daniel McKinley, aged nine. It would be hard for him to decide which one he has enjoyed most. They include two memorable meetings with Archbishop Sentamu, a tour of the Houses of Parliament including seeing the Prime Minister, his first rugby international in Paris and the heroic Munster victory in Cardiff in the European Rugby Cup Final.
If you had asked him in January what he was looking forward to most this summer, with the exception of school holidays, he would probably have said the choir trip to Washington in August. However the arrival of a letter in April changed his summer plans. Daniel has been selected to attend the Queen’s 80th birthday party at Buckingham Palace on Sunday 25 June 2006. When the envelope arrived through the post the Buckingham Palace logo lead us to guess the contents and we could not wait for Daniel to rip it open.
All the arrangements for the party have not yet been communicated. Her Majesty and other members of the Royal Family will be at the party. Guests will include J K Rowling, Daniel Radcliffe (the actor who plays Harry Potter) and other people who will appeal to children. The event will be televised by the BBC and ends with a stage show. Before that, every one is given a Jamie Oliver picnic in a souvenir Cool Box. To cater for both sunshine and showers every one is given a baseball hat and rain poncho. Daniel can have two guests - an adult and a child. He will be accompanied by his grandmother and cousin Luke, aged eight.
Daniel is very excited and knows how lucky he was to be selected at random from what must have been a very large number of applicants from Birmingham. In the next few weeks we will be coaching him in camera techniques because his grandmother has shown a consistent ability to ignore heads when taking a photograph or to point in slightly the wrong direction. We do not want our photo album to contain headless people and views of a shrub with a person’s arm and hand.
The only thing that remains is to offer Daniel’s apology to Mick Perrier, “Sorry Mick, I won’t be able to sing at Evensong on 25 June; I’m visiting the Queen at Buckingham Palace.” Now that’s an excuse Mick won’t hear very often.