A Huge Fabulous Floral Hat & A Fabulously Fragrant Man
We Must Admit Hearing That The King Had Arrived At The Chelsea Flower Show And Was About To Make His Appearance Did Engender A Sense of Excitement. Perhaps It’s The Idea of Being In Real Royal Presence Or Witnessing In Real Time How Royal’s Do Things. And Indeed, What It Makes Other People Do And Watching Their Reactions. And Perhaps There’s Just Something Enigmatic About The Man Himself. @clarencehouse
When The Buzz Started Going Around That The King Was In The House (Well, Gardens…) Like Most Other People We Decided It Was Time To Positon Ourselves And Watch As King Charles III (On His Debut RHS Chelsea Flower Show Majestic Walkabout) Walked The Line of Dignitries, Guests And Gardeners. We’d Heard Earlier That The Word On The Street Was There’d Be A Royal Division of Labour And Camilla Queen Consort Was Going To Do The Honours Inside The Grounds Whilst The King Would The Walk Outside. We’d Been Inside From The Start For A Long While Now, Wondering Around Observing Things, So We Decided To Head Outside Once Again And Get Some Fresh Air. @rhschelsea
We Love Likeable Bold Characters Here At TO.P (TheOrator.Press & TheOrator.Press.on.Insta) And We Couldn’t Find Anywhere To Stand Comfortably Until We Saw This Adorable Looking Lady In A Large Stunning Floral Hat. She Was At The End of A Line Which Had A Natural Break In It (On One Side Of Two Lines, Opposite To Each Other, As Is Often The Case On Royal Walkabouts). So We Decided To Go Join Her & Have A Chat. She Was Bold, Bubbly, Charismatic, Friendly And Funny. Our Kind of Woman Just As We Figured She Might Be.
As The King’s Entourage Came Closer Into View She Ran Over To The Other Line Directly Opposite. Fair Enough. But We Decided To Stay Where We Were, Confident This Was A Good Spot No Matter What.
She’d Made The Right Decision Because Alas The King Did Not Come To Our Side of Lines But We Were Close Enough To Witness His Encounter With Our New Floral Headdressed Friend Who’d Repositioned Herself Just In Time.
It Was The Hat. We Knew It. He Duly Remarked On It. Laughing And Joking He Said It Should Have Won A Prize.
The King Was So Close That Royalty Was Literally In The Air And We Got A Waft of His Aftershave Which Had A Regal Foral Scent of Combined Nobleman, Wealth, Status, Class And Immaculate Grooming. This Was The King And There Was No Mistaking It. His Scent Alone Said Royalty. If Mary Archer Was “A Fragrant Woman” (As So Declared By A Judge During The Trial of Her Husband Lord (Jeffery Archer). The King Is Unmistakeably A Fragrant Man.
Although The King Did Not Come To Our Side, We Were Happy That He Confirmed Our Powers of Perception. Again, Have We Got An Eye or What? We Thought (We’d Been Drawn To Displays And People All Day Who Subsequently Won Awards The Next Day or Where Simply Fabulous (You Know Who You Are!) As Per Our Picture Posts On Instagram (@TheOrator.Press.on.Insta) Again We Were Drawn To This Lady And She Turned Out To Be A Winner. Not Just Regally But officially As She Won The Top Prize For Her Floral Stand The Next Day.
It Was A Double Win For Her Because She Later Said of Meeting The King It Was “The Most Amazing Moment of My Life”. She Was Giddy On A Natural High. High On His Highness!
It Was A Magical Moment For Us Too As We Saw The King In The Flesh, Up Close And Personal And Could Not Help But Smell His MaJestic Presence As His Cologne Caught The Air And Wafted On By (Even Though We Were Across The Way In The Other Line) As He Continued On His Fragrant Way. What An Unforgettably Fragrant Moment. That Moment Re-Set The Standard.
A Little White Lie, An Inaccurate Claim And A Royal Pardon!
A Fabulously Floral Festive Tree @dahliabeach
Pretty In Pink. And In The Times (Video Opposite)
The King & I
Later On, It Was Only After Watching The Video Back Afterwards That The Most Fascinating Element of The Royal Exchange Revealed Itself To Us, Having Not Heard The Conversation Before – Even Though We’d Seen It. Our New Floral Friend Had Casually Told ‘His Majesty’ ‘His Royal Highness’ ‘The King of England’ ‘King Charle III’ That She’d Made The Hat Herself.
Yet She’d Told Us Her Friend Had Made It.
And On Looking At Her Insta. She’d Already Posted The Actual Truth Online (Being The Prolific Professional Poster That She Is – As A Former TV Executive). And She’d Described Her Friend As Her “New Girl Crush” Because She Was So Impressed With Her Hatmaking Skills And Abilities.
Indeed Her Friend Herself Had Also Made It Clear That She Was The Designer of This And Many Other Such Hats As The Two of Them Played Around In A Promo Video Just Days Before.
So Why Did The Wonderfully Named Andi McDowell (Not To Be Confused With Andie McDowell of Four Weddings And A Funeral Fame) Lose Her Head?
Of Course In 2023 She Did Not Literally Lose Her Head In The Tower of London Sense Despite Her Royal Faux Pas, But One Wonders Whether or Not In The Dark Ages She Would Have Been Sent To The Tower For This Right Royal Fib Upon A Flower To Such A Man of Honour. And Also For Not Addressing His Highness As HRH or Your Majesty When Engaged In Conversation With Him (During Which She Also Continued To Speak To Him Before He Spoke To Her – Which Is A Commonly Known Serious Breach of Royal Protocol – Notwithstanding He Did Compliment Her First).
And of Course There’s The Business of Claiming Her New Best Friend’s Intellectual Property And Momentarily Denying Her Royal Recognition During A Once In A Lifetime Majestic Moment.
However, Happily The King Looked And Seemed Amongst The Most Relaxed, Amenable And Convivial As Anyone In The Public At Large Has Ever Seen Him.
The Abandonment of Royal Protocol And Decorum Appeared To Be of Absolutely No Concern To Him. And @daliahbeech Made The Times The Next Day With Indeed @u.fl.olondon (The Actual Hat maker) Reposting Andi’s Post Which Said;
“It Doesn’t Get Better Than This Right Although Not Sure Flower Bonnet Is The Look We Were Going For. We’re Making It Big This Year Sophie”
Apparently Sophie Too Was Equally Unconcerned About The Momentary Misplacement of Her Intellectual Property. But Clearly Words Were Had Somewhere As The Award-Winning Andi Published A Correction On Her Instagram Within A Couple of Days Just As Casually As She Made The Original Mistake, With A Minimalistic Confession Stating:
“Although I Definitely Didn’t Make It, Sophie From @U.Fl.O.London Did.”
A Floral Example of Why STEM Is So Important
It’s Fascinating To Us Here At TO.P That What Can Be Politely Played Down As A Mistake By Human Error In The Physical World (As Witnessed In Real Time) Can Be Simultaneously Captured On Video Using Ubiquitous Handheld Technology In The Digital World. (This Reality Is Documented By The Transgressor’s Own Hand, In The Form of Her Own Posts On Instagram Around This Time). Such Contrasts Can Potentially Trigger At Least Two Very Different Narratives And Perspectives of What Happened At The Same Event.
Suffice To Say Not All Casual Little White Lies Have Such Happy Endings But Little White Lies Are Notably Commonplace. Less Is More In Some Cases And Sometimes The Facts Speak For Themselves. Under The Circumstances This Maybe One Such Time. But It’s Remains A Very Interesting Experience Nonetheless. It Really Reminded Us of The Importance of STEM. Once Again And How The Sciences Are So Important – Even In The Fragrant World of Gardening. Science. Technology. Engineering. Mathmatics. It’s Something Michelle Obama Was Really Hot On During Her Time In Government As First Lady, Along With A Long List of Celebrities Including Alicia Keys, Tyler Perry And Hilary Swank @aliciakeys @tylerperry @hilaryswank @michelleobama44
Coincidentally, Funnily Enough, We Have Recently Found Ourselves Writing Alot About S.T.E.M. On This Chelsea Debut And How Gardening Is A Great Way To Get Into It. As There Is So Much Talk About AI & Identity Right Now It Seems Very Prevalent And Relevant. And Particularly In This Age of Social Justice Reform.
Indeed The Importance of Technology To The Afro-Caribbean Community Is Something We Wrote About In Our Launch Issue September 2020. This Was The Historical And Tumultuous Year That Saw Megx-it – January 2020), Covid Lockdown (March 2020) And The Police Brutality Murder of George Floyd (May 2020). George Is of Course A Martyr Now (As His Killers Languish In Jail) Because It Was After This Murder That Brought The Whole Social Justice Reform And Heightened D.E.I (Diversity, Equity & Equality) Awareness About. Notably Technology, A Ubiquitous Handheld Device Is What Brought The Truth of That Murder To Light And Helped Reveal The Whole Truth In Court.
Amen To S.T.E.M!
Hats Off To Hazel As Miss Gardiner Chats Chelsea 2023 on Channel 4 With Steph At Lunchtime
Meantime Hats off To Award-Winning Designer Hazel Gardiner Who Appeared On Steph’s Packed Lunch During Chelsea Week This Month Talking About Her Own Stand At The Most Royal of Flower Shows 2023.
Below She’s Photographed BBC Chelsea Flower Show Presenter Angelica Bell.
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