A husband and wife from Aberfeldy celebrated the Jubilee weekend in central London after winning tickets to the Party at the Palace.
Back in February Jennie Macintyre (seen above) put in a ballot application for her and husband Andy to go and be at the Platinum Jubilee festivities at Buckingham Palace, never dreaming they would get so lucky.
They did, and last Friday, June 3, they went by train from Pitlochry right to the heart of London arriving in party mood at King’s Cross station.
“In late April we found out we had tickets in the ballot,” explained mum-of-two Jennie.
“There were only 5000 pairs issued for the whole of the UK so we were really fortunate. We hadn’t told many people we were going and hardly anyone I knew had managed to get tickets.
“When I heard we were in, I was panic-stricken at first, because leaving Highland Perthshire for this kind of whirlwind weekend would involve travel risks, with all the flight and rail cancellations there have been recently.
“Having school-age children meant we were needed back in Aberfeldy for Monday at Breadalbane Academy and there was a normal office day too so we couldn’t hang about in London, we had to get the 12pm train on Sunday, missing the pageant which was a bit of a shame.
“But our rail journey went like clockwork and the train got us home safe and on time on Sunday too, so we count our lucky stars.”
She added: “The actual Party at the Palace was quite spectacular to be at.
“Andrea Bocelli was sensational, totally amazing. He sang an unforgettable Nessun Dorma, real goosebumps stuff. We loved seeing Alicia Keys and Diana Ross.
“While the English National Ballet was on the main stage, we noticed two young ballet dancers jumping and dancing round a tree near us.
“There was so much going on, I don’t think other people really clocked they were with English National Ballet. But we were really close and they were just great.
The 70ft living sculpture, The Tree of Trees, looked fabulous lit up as darkness fell.
“And the projections of the flag on the Palace walls was really effective. We had fantastic weather – when showers had been forecast – and the highlight for us was in the afternoon on Saturday watching Queen ‘warm up’ right in front of us for their later performance as we sat on the grass in the sun at Green Park. I think we got an amazing deal with that!”
