'I'm no royalist... but I queued all night to meet King Charles - only for him to tell me I shouldn't have'

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

The last few weeks have been monumental for the UK and have seen communities across the the country - and beyond - band together to remember the life of the longest-reigning British monarch. Queen Elizabeth II died on Thursday September 8 age 96 at her Balmoral residence.

The UK has since entered a 10-day period of mourning, with processions and ceremonies taking place across the four nations and the Commonwealth to honour the late Queen. But it's Elizabeth's lying-in-state at Westminster Hall that has most captured the British public's imagination, with hundreds of thousands of people queuing for around 14 hours to see the Queen's coffin.

Even celebrities have got involved, with David Beckham among those joining the line to pay their respects. Friday (September 16) saw Charles III make his first visit to Wales since becoming king, as he and the Queen Consort travelled to Llandaff Cathedral for a memorial service for Queen Elizabeth II.

He then visited the Senedd in Cardiff Bay where he received a motion of condolence, before ending the trip at Cardiff Castle, where around 2,000 members of the public were there to welcome him back to the capital. WalesOnline's John Jones decided to get in on the action and camped outside Cardiff Castle on Thursday night to be in with a chance of meeting the new monarch. We'll hand over to him now, as he details his unique brush with royalty...

Let me just state for the record, I'm no royalist, nor am I a staunch anti-monarchist. I'm largely indifferent to the Royal Family in most respects, but having watched Royal weddings and Jubilee celebrations, I'd always wondered if I was missing out on the Royal bug. Those die-hard monarchists always seem so full of life on TV, and I