Swimming's Golden Couple

Now I don't usually get the chance to meet famous people, I suppose my biggest claim to fame was accidentally having dinner with Royalty, a feat never likely to be repeated given their ever increasing security. But I did, very much by mistake and no doubt to the horror of the Prince, sit and eat my roast beef and Yorkshire puds at his table. It had crossed my mind as I homed in on the spare seat that the man opposite was vaguely familiar, then again we were on a Royal Navy base, HMS Osprey, so lots of faces passed by every day. It was only when I asked him to pass the salt that I realised I had in fact sat in front of Prince Andrew, who, to coin a phrase of one of his ancestors, was not amused. Neither were my colleagues who had also made the same faux pas.

They had wandered into the ward room after me and sat at what they thought was my table not having seen me called over to the stewards to explain why members of my dining party were so scruffy. I soothed the ruffled feathers of the jobsworth stewards and joined my colleagues who were sat in what can only be termed stunned silence. They had seen Prince Andrew's bottle green blazer, like the one I was was wearing although I suspect his didn't come from Primark and rushed to get a seat. Realising their mistakes they decided to bluff it out rather than depart en masse making the Prince feel like Billy no mates.

The situation was made even worse when one of the group who lacked a vast array of social skills tried to engage him in conversation which I swear went exactly as follows.

Commoner "Whats your role here then Sir"

Prince "Helicopter pilot" (some what gruffly)

Commoner "Cor, that must be very interesting"

Prince "Yes it is"

Commoner "Gosh, what a fantastic job, imagine, helicopter pilot"

Prince "In fact I'm the chief helicopter pilot on the base." (warming slightly)

Commoner "Wow, how exciting"

Prince "Yes. It is." (beaming)

Commoner "Do you know, I hope you don't mind me saying it, but you do look just like Prince Andrew"

All. (Stunned silence, clatter of cutlery on plates)

Prince "Is your mate for real?"

Me. "Afraid so Sir, pass the salt please"

Fully expecting to be clapped in irons we missed the sweet course and fled before his body guards turned up and things got nasty.

Anyway, last night I got to meet two really famous people who were somehow persuaded to present awards at the HGTA ceremony. Sascha Kinsted and Nyree Lewis are both gold winning team GB Paralympic swimmers who have represented us in several games and are now working hard to get in shape for 2012.

We were there to receive awards for various training courses undertaken over the last 12 months, I say we as there was quite a number from our office up for accolades. What made the evening, apart from the free food and wine, was the opportunity to speak to these two inspirational people. Sascha gave a talk on how he overcame adversity to become an elite athlete whilst Nyree had the harder job of presenting all the awards and shaking hands with all the happy recipients. It was clear from talking to them both that they are very happy, very down to earth people who have not let all the fame and attention they get affect them, Sascha even let us play with his Gold Medal which, given the amount of effort taken to win one, letting us get our grubby paws on it was a very nice gesture.

And you can see the effect it had below, this man is hardly ever seen smiling, yet here he would beat the Cheshire Cat!