{"id":37002,"date":"2017-07-20T13:31:40","date_gmt":"2017-07-20T17:31:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/?p=37002"},"modified":"2017-07-20T13:31:40","modified_gmt":"2017-07-20T17:31:40","slug":"monika-reports-on-the-young-royals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/monika-reports-on-the-young-royals\/","title":{"rendered":"Monika Reports on the Young Royals"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This is random, but too exciting not to share: When <a href=\"http:\/\/people.com\/royals\/william-kate-george-charlotte-poland-royal-tour\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Prince William and Princess Kate visited Poland this week<\/a>, my Warsaw-based friend Monika was part of the crowd that turned out to greet them. Okay, anyone can join a big crowd, right? But not just anyone can get to the front of the crowd, shake the prince&#8217;s hand, and take pictures like this!<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/william1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-37003\" src=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/william1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"498\" height=\"885\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/william1.jpg 540w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/william1-169x300.jpg 169w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/william1-300x533.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 498px) 100vw, 498px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>When I first saw Monika&#8217;s photos, I thought they were from an agency.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/william2.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-37004\" src=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/william2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"498\" height=\"885\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/william2.jpg 540w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/william2-169x300.jpg 169w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/william2-300x533.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 498px) 100vw, 498px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Monika reports that the &#8220;royal handshake was very, very soft.&#8221; Hmmm. Maybe when you have to shake hundreds of hands in a short span of time, it&#8217;s best to discourage a lot of pressure.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s Kate, who Monika said was wearing &#8221; &#8220;very tiny jewelry, very conservative.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/kate1.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-37005\" src=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/kate1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"498\" height=\"885\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/kate1.jpg 540w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/kate1-169x300.jpg 169w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/kate1-300x533.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 498px) 100vw, 498px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Apparently, we have to be invited to a state dinner to see <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/style\/2017\/07\/kate-middleton-tiara-princess-diana-state-banquet-spain\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Kate wearing Princess Diana&#8217;s tiara and the queen&#8217;s necklace<\/a>. I&#8217;ll be waiting by the mailbox for my formal invitation.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/kate2.jpg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-37006\" src=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/kate2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"498\" height=\"885\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/kate2.jpg 540w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/kate2-169x300.jpg 169w, https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/kate2-300x533.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 498px) 100vw, 498px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Actually, looking at the photo above, Kate&#8217;s pendant &#8212; if it&#8217;s a ruby of good quality &#8212; would be an impressive size on a non-royal. It&#8217;s not what one would think of as &#8220;queen-size&#8221; though, and the style is as conservative as you can get. You can see the matching ring in Monika&#8217;s photo, and <a href=\"http:\/\/whatkatewore.com\/2017\/07\/17\/the-duchess-wears-alexander-mcqueen-for-poland-arrival-charlotte-george-cute-as-can-be\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">there were matching earrings as well<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>If Monika were living in New York, I&#8217;d make her come with me to all the general-admission concerts to help me secure <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2017\/04\/who-wendy-saw-coachella-2017\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">front-row spots<\/a>. &#8220;I had to fight hard&#8221; to get the pictures, she told me, and I know it&#8217;s true. Getting up close to a royal in a public place must put getting to the front row of a Lana del Rey concert to shame, and <a href=\"http:\/\/wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2015\/06\/musical-interlude-marina-bjork-and-lana-del-rey\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">those Lana fans will kick your ass<\/a>. Don&#8217;t underestimate them merely because they&#8217;re emo.<\/p>\n<p>Years ago, I had an easier time of it when MrB and I were somehow invited to a party attended by Prince Charles and Camilla. I believe it was before they were married in 2005. We did get handshakes and exchanged a few pleasantries. I confess that I couldn&#8217;t understand a word Camilla said, though I could easily understand Charles. Does that mean she has the more upper-crust accent? When we got to the front of the crowd around her she said a few words and laughed a little and MrB and I nodded in agreement and chuckled politely, hoping that was the appropriate response. We also chatted to Sting that night. Out of all the famous people there, the one that I was too scared to approach was Yoko Ono.\u00a0 Maybe it&#8217;s the hats and sunglasses, but she&#8217;s intimidating!  <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is random, but too exciting not to share: When Prince William and Princess Kate visited Poland this week, my Warsaw-based friend Monika was part of the crowd that turned out to greet them. Okay, anyone can join a big crowd, right? But not just anyone can get to the front of the crowd, shake&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/monika-reports-on-the-young-royals\/\">Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37003,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,49,37,607],"tags":[1376,1377,1378],"class_list":["post-37002","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","category-in-the-news","category-queens","category-throwback-thursday","tag-prince-william","tag-princess-kate","tag-royal-family","entry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37002","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37002"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37002\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37009,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37002\/revisions\/37009"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37003"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37002"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37002"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wendybrandes.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37002"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}