I have written this in a hotel room, a bus, sitting on a kerb, on a phone during a security screening, balancing a laptop on a fire hydrant, cross-legged on the floor, and with pickle juice leaking from the packet lunch box provided over my keyboard.
It is a whirlwind, but that is all part of the fun of a royal tour.
To be grand for a moment, it is a front-row seat to history. Very often, it is a very silly caper through the weird and wonderful parts of the world we would never get to see in normal life.
Here, there is a bluegrass band playing in the background, and the sun is out. One of the team has just realised she is accidentally sitting on the King’s cushion, which was left on a normal office chair in the visitors’ centre while we waited for the royal arrival.
The visit, on the ground, feels like a triumph but it very often does – we call it “tour fever” for a reason.
But reaction from others – here and back home in Britain – suggests that this time we may be right. The King’s speech has landed like no other I’ve seen before. There seems to have been something in there for everyone.
For the first time on an overseas tour, the King’s words have not felt overshadowed by the memory of Queen Elizabeth II. Her late Majesty was mentioned, of course, but the president ensured that the King was the star of the show.
It is the moment he has been training for.
Before the trip, friends of the King described him as “Britain’s greatest ambassador”.
Now the world can finally see what they mean.
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.telegraph.co.uk ’
