My two seconds of bliss
Wintec journalism student Mereana Austin made her way over to Cambridge on Saturday with the hope of catching a glimpse of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. She got a little more than she expected . . .
Ikept my hand outstretched and was shaking like a chihuahua. Finally Prince William took my hand and shook it for two whole seconds.
But then it was over. A little girl who was about 7 stole the prince’s attention with a card she had made him – how could I compete with that?
My friend, Ashley, and I arrived across the road of the Cambridge Town Hall last Saturday and already there were a lot of people with prime spots around the barriers so we lined up and waited.
A nice middle-aged-man whose wife had dragged him out, slowly kept squeezing me closer until I was in the second row behind the barrier.
I would like to thank him – without him this never would have been possible.
A lot of the crowd around me were elderly. I was worried when the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge arrived people would start pushing and screaming like in a mosh pit at a concert and they would get trampled, but fortunately that didn’t happen.
The only drama I saw was a mother and daughter duo that kept trying to push their way to the front and elbowed some little girl and made her cry.
After three hours of waiting the royals finally arrived. They drove around Cambridge town, got out of the car and walked straight into the town hall.
After a bit more waiting they came out, first to talk to important people who were on the steps of the town hall, then making their way around the crowd.
Kate is beautiful. I was a little disappointed I did not get to see her close up, but thought it was great how she and the prince separated so that they could cover more ground.
The prince was polite, sincere and engaged himself in small conversations. All I managed to say was a high pitched: ‘‘Hi’’.
I was thinking about never washing my right hand again. But later on I patted a dog and it must have smelt royalty on my hand and slobbered all over it.
For those of you who are wondering, the prince’s hand was soft but manly.
All too soon it was over and the duke and duchess were off to the Avantidrome.
And everyone was left to chat about Prince William’s bald spot.