... Charles and me, or was it Charles and one ...
I have only met Prince Charles once, which was when I was working at the Pathway Further Education Centre, Southall - which was in the borough of Ealing. The centre was a specialist centre to help refugees and people whose first language was not English. I set up the computer training centre.
He was a little bit late, but he had a heavy visit in other parts of Southall. He looked around and concentrated on talking to the students, where they were able to show off their computing skills.. One of my students had spent weeks getting a printer to print Prince Charles portraight in characters.
Pride of place was a viewdata terminal which used what was probably the first ever Hindi, Punjabi and Gujerat viewdata scripts, developed by my students. We were probably the first group to develop these script in a computersied format in Europe.
He went on.
The mayor of Ealing and his friends
Before the visit an equerry visited the centre. Prince Charles agreed to have tea with the Mayor of Ealing and a couple of his sidekicks. We had to provide tea, Chinese of course, and cucumber sandwiches cut diagonally with the crusts removed. (I must point out that I did not sign the official secrets act to cover these state secrets)
The centre kept on being badgered by the Mayor's department. The numbers grew three, six, eleven, fifteen and finally the entire hall was to be occupied by the Mayor, Lady Mayor, counselors, cronies, local authority officials ad nauseam - an advertisement I don't wish to see.
Anyway Charles visited the centre, talked to the students, looked at things, played with things, talked to our community project and then walked through the building.
By this time the Mayor et al - well that's not completely true - they sat with their cups of Chinese tea and sandwiches and waited for the great event.
Charles walked outside and greeted the mob - waving flags - allowed an old Asian lady hug him and kiss him on the cheek - ruffled a couple of kid's hair and then walked over to his car. He left.
The Mayor sat. The Lady Mayor Sat. The counselors sat. The officials sat. The cronies sat. and waited ... and waited ... and waited. It was at least 25 minutes before they got up and realised that Charles was not coming. That they would not shake his hand. That they had not seen him. It was at this stage that I felt I should got in the room and tell them what a nice man he was and how interested he was in the students. Sadly they did not seem interested and very sulkily left.
So a few cups of Chinese tea and too many cucumber sandwiches later I went home.
He was a little bit late, but he had a heavy visit in other parts of Southall. He looked around and concentrated on talking to the students, where they were able to show off their computing skills.. One of my students had spent weeks getting a printer to print Prince Charles portraight in characters.
Pride of place was a viewdata terminal which used what was probably the first ever Hindi, Punjabi and Gujerat viewdata scripts, developed by my students. We were probably the first group to develop these script in a computersied format in Europe.
He went on.
The mayor of Ealing and his friends
Before the visit an equerry visited the centre. Prince Charles agreed to have tea with the Mayor of Ealing and a couple of his sidekicks. We had to provide tea, Chinese of course, and cucumber sandwiches cut diagonally with the crusts removed. (I must point out that I did not sign the official secrets act to cover these state secrets)
The centre kept on being badgered by the Mayor's department. The numbers grew three, six, eleven, fifteen and finally the entire hall was to be occupied by the Mayor, Lady Mayor, counselors, cronies, local authority officials ad nauseam - an advertisement I don't wish to see.
Anyway Charles visited the centre, talked to the students, looked at things, played with things, talked to our community project and then walked through the building.
By this time the Mayor et al - well that's not completely true - they sat with their cups of Chinese tea and sandwiches and waited for the great event.
Charles walked outside and greeted the mob - waving flags - allowed an old Asian lady hug him and kiss him on the cheek - ruffled a couple of kid's hair and then walked over to his car. He left.
The Mayor sat. The Lady Mayor Sat. The counselors sat. The officials sat. The cronies sat. and waited ... and waited ... and waited. It was at least 25 minutes before they got up and realised that Charles was not coming. That they would not shake his hand. That they had not seen him. It was at this stage that I felt I should got in the room and tell them what a nice man he was and how interested he was in the students. Sadly they did not seem interested and very sulkily left.
So a few cups of Chinese tea and too many cucumber sandwiches later I went home.
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