When I started volunteering for the Kings trust I never thought that I would be honoured or privileged enough to be invited to their 50th year garden party celebration

When I started my first business, Maximum Impact Solutions Ltd in 2001 I knew I was never going to employ anyone as this was going to be a life style, but because I had so many people who took me under the wing, mentored and saw something in me, I knew I wanted to give something back.

As part of my CSR of this company, I wanted to pay forward all the gratitude of the support that I've received in my informative years.  At the time I didn't know what it was but in 2004 I started volunteering for the Kings Trust, formally the Prince's Trust, in their enterprise team, initially as a business mentor and then as time went on, I started delivering some of their training modules and sitting on their funding panel.

In 2026 the Kings Trust celebrates it's 50th year as a charity and I was lucky enough to be invited to the garden party at Buckingham Palace.

I'm not going to lie it didn't fall in a convenient time within my diary, as it was the day before the 3 day Pop up in the Palmhouse Spring Market, but with the historical leaning of this garden party I decided it was too big of an event not to attend, and I could make it work.

I felt really honoured to be one of 5000 volunteers of the Kings trust who were invited and was making our way down to London, I always champion small independent businesses so my outfit was provided by Mark Meila Designs, my go to guy when it comes to my suits and dresses.  In this instance this was a suit that I had made before lockdown as part of my usual capsule designsm but to date had never worn the aline dress because it was slightly too long at the back,  so I went back to Mark to make the necessary adjustments.

The bag which had a nice compliment as it picked up the light blue of the Chelsea check suit was by Knots and Rocks and fitted the bill because we were only allowed a small bag into Buckingham Palace.

Not a fancy hat kind of girl I decided to take up the option of not wearing one, going with less is more especially as I just decided to get my head shaved and I wanted to show that off.

As for the shoes you know I never leave the house without a pair of Dr Martens and I had these grey sparkly heels that are the perfect compliment to the outfit.

There's going to be no guesses as to who was providing the jewellery, Joolzery of course, and I decided to showcase a few new statement pieces while also trialling out a new type of anklet.
 

Those you that know me 9 times out of 10 you'll find me in dungarees, boiler suits or jumpsuits and on a very rare occasions dresses, the only time that you'll get me in heels is at special occasions when I need to really dress up.

i leave the house early on a mission to find an umbrella, as the weather is not looking good for an outdoor event, and had the bright idea of seeing if I can find some aids to comfort the soles of me feet.  I only managed to complete 50% of the mission, and decided to head to the station to catch my train, grabbing an oat milk mocha before boarding, as I already come with a few snacks for the journey.

On reaching Euston Station, you could tell who else was on their way to the Garden party by the outfits and hats. A group from the North West on my train decided to wait for the people on the next train from Liverpool at Euston Tap, a small converted building that has to be the smallest bar/pub that I've ever come across and in the corner they have a cast-iron corkscrew staircase.

I had eaten a croissant and coffee so the idea of me drinking at 12 o'clock in the afternoon wasn't really happening, at some point I felt that I needed to go to the toilet and I was very mindful of this staircase, going up was a breeze but coming down on a staircase that'sextremely tight and uneven in heels took all my concentration as the last thing I wanted to do was fall.
 

Descending the stairs cautiously I was feeling pretty confident and lost concentration on the last stair, and the next thing I knew I've fallen and I'm on all fours on the floor, Luckily for me the only thing that was hurt was my pride and dignity, but the handle of my gorgeous macramé bag fell victim and was cracked, to give it some xtra support we wrapped it up in a plaster.

Looking at the time and the gate openings, once everyone from the second train had joined us we decided to get a taxi to Buckingham Palace.  It's funny that even though I grew up in Kent and London especially Covent Garden, Oxford Street and Tottenham Court Road were my stomping grounds. I never actually been to the Buckingham Palace side of London and I enjoyed looking at the buildings on the way from Euston to the palace.

Eventhough you know there's going to be 5,000 volunteers at the garden party nothing really prepared me for the queues and the crowds of people all trying to get through security of Buckingham Palace, but the atmosphere was exciting, electric and positive, even with the clouds threatening to drench us.

I found the shortest queue and went through security seamlessly, witthem stating that me and my passport photos were twinning, and found myself in the grounds of the palace.  Taking photos of myself by the gates and in front of the building.  This year to enable to invite as many volunteers as possible we were not given +1, so some had come by themselves, or even without a group.  

Whilst I got through security relatively quickly, I waited for the rest of the group by taking copious pictures, before we walked around the side of the palace to enter the gardens.  It was then that I was hit by the amount of people in the place and reminded me why I don't do concerts as I found the whole experience overwhelming and I just wanted to escape.

First point of call was the toilets, and on exciting I was hit by the noise and chaos, so I started seeking refuge from the crowds as the whole energy of the palace was becoming extremely uncomfortable for me, I needed space, moving to a point as far away from the crowds and the palace in the gardens as possible. I spot a brass band playing near the  pond, as music always soothes me and I love the French horn.  Whilst listening and recording the band playing, the water captures my eye and I move towards it to see what life is in and around it.  Taking a few pictures until I sense someone giving me funny looks, which initially I ignore, but with their movements, I actually look at them whilst carrying on recording the pond life.

its at this point I realise it's Brian May and his wife Anita Dobson, I quickly apologise and walk away to a path that leads me away from the garden party. I come across a member of staff and ask if you can walk around the gardens and she says yes, it's an approximate 25 minute walk, to which I thank them and think that's more than enough time to regulate myself to deal with the innate small talk and being socialable.

I look back at everything that was happening, people had already started queueing up on both sides, awaiting the arrival of the King, in the hope that he stops, acknowledges, chats and/or shakes their hands, which leaves me cold and I just didn't want to be part of that melee.

My default position in life has always been someone that never follows a crowd under any circumstances and forges my own path.

I decided to take the opportunity to check out the gardens, I've been lucky enough to be assigned to the golden tent, filled with celebrities, something completely wasted on me has I haven't watched TV at all this year, and the last film is saw was Black Panther 2, which was not going to be open until 4:30 I thought I had plenty of time to kill and check out the gardens and proceeded to take a leisurely walk around, coming across some gorgeous flowers and fauna immaculately kept grounds.

Walking past the tennis courts I saw a little veranda with a couple of chairs and the biggest vase I've seen in my life. I couldn't believe how big it was that I had to take a photo. I'm not even sure it's even called a vase when it's 15ft tall?

On the last bit Rod Steward casually walked past and I came back to the garden party. I was able to access the tent to check out the food.

As as you expect in this location food was top tier and the service was extremely efficient.

I managed to catch up with a couple of volunteers from the north-west that I've met at various meetings and events talk to a few people, including briefly Levi Roots, and the eye candy wasn't too bad.

Before you knew it, the Royal anthem was played and that was our sign to politely vacate the garden.

By the time we all trailed out of the palace, it was 6:20, my train was leaving Euston rain station in less than 45 minutes the group that I had arrived with was in such a disarray and they seemed to have no plans with regards to how they were going to get from the palace back to the station.  I decided that the quickest and most effective way was to go to Green Park tube station and get the tubedirect to Euston, so I hoofed the five minute walk from the palace to the tube station, clomped down the elevators and arrived at Euston with 10 minutes to spare only to find that the trains were running late.

My 19:07 train was delayed by 20 minutes, and now my mind is thinking that if the train is delayed, that means I'm going to be late getting into Liverpool and all the plans that I had to be ready for the market the next day are now going up in smoke.

At this point my feet are beginning to hurt and I realised that since I got off the train at 10:37 this morning I've been on my feet, in heels, but I didn't think much of it.

Eventually, we board the train at 7:26 and we start the two hour and 20 minutes train journey back, I can't really relax as the train is completely packed and I don't really have that much legroom, spicing it up with intermittent cramps in my thighs it was not the most comfortable journey I've ever had.

I was so relieved when we finally arrive back at Lime Street Station Liverpool, I couldn't wait to get off the train, however, my left ankle had other ideas and as soon as I put any weight on it shooting pains travel up my leg so much so I had to hobble off and sit at the nearest seat.

Massaging my ankle trying to coax it into just allowing me to walk from the platform to the taxi, it was having none of it and eventually I had to call over a train driver to ask if I could have some assistance to get to the taxi rank.

He walked back down the platform and explained the situation to station staff, five minutes later they returned with a wheelchair to carry me from the train platform to the taxi rank, helping me into the taxi.

When I arrive home, I had to hop up the stairs and it took all my effort to open the door and get myself in the house, naturally, the first thing I did was fling off the heels and hope that I'd be able to walk barefoot around the house, but unfortunately putting in any weight on my left ankle left me in excruciating pain.
 

The alarm of my house activates as soon as I open 2nd the door giving me 11 seconds to deactivate, back in the day I only needed 11 seconds to run 100m, but the 10m could've been 800m as I was trying to work out how I was going to be able to deactivate the alarm in time.

The only logical thing I could do would be to crawl, and luckily, I was able to do it within the time.  Living in a terrace house everything is on different levels which means stairs and as I'm at the bottom of the stairs are wondering how am I going to get up the stairs?

I know my ankle was not broken, so this is just a really bad strain as I've just gone overboard with all the walking I've done without support in heels, it doesn't appear to be swollen, but I spend the next hour ice packing and soaking it in a Himalyan salt bath to relax and soothe the muscles and reduce any inflammation.

Feeling sorry for myself,  I'm in tears, wondering how am I going to do Pop up in the Palmhouse tomorrow, a three day market, if I can't put any weight on my left ankle, I haven't packed all the boxes that I need for my display or completed all the jewellery pieces I wanted to.  Initially I thought about cancelling but that wasn't really an option, with the amount of money that I spent on on the actual event, considering it took me five years years and 11 applications before I got in on a technicality I didn't want to lose my spot .

Whenever I have an issue or problem that I can't immediately solve, I like to sleep on it, especially at the end of the day what my ankle really needs is a bit of time to heal and recover from the activities of the day.

I wake up the next morning, hopeful that my ankle was willing to pay ball, but it wasn't.

What am I going to do?

Did I make it to the Pop up in the Palmhouse, or did I cancel?

what do you think?

Joolz xxx

May 16, 2026