Yes, all went well.
I arranged to meet kneehighs at Waterloo station from the Paris Eurostar. Sitting on the balcony of the Reef Bar, I was surprised to see Fogborgenv and his wife joining me. Kneehighs appeared shortly afterwards and we went to Euston Novotel to book him in and drop off his luggage.
Kneehighs wondered about the Harvey Nichols ad on the tube, so we Brits had to explain subtlety to him. Oh, BTW, with the characteristic British subtlety comes the reticence. .... KH, your compliment about arranging the event for the 13th especially because I said I was free was noted and much appreciated, even if I didn't show it very obviously.
Lots of mobile phone calls later, the use of the expression 'where are you?' became tiresome after a while, organised the total meeting of 18 attendees outside a pub off Oxford street. After more drinking and group photos the need to feed became more pressing, especially in Fogborgenv's wife who has an impressively healthy appetite. We eventually repared to Paradiso, the Italian restaurant which we monopolised for the next couple of hours. They're normally used to me appearing there wearing heels for lunch, by myself, and were quite surprised to see a huge bunch of heelies there.
Fogborgenv suggested that we have informal lunch meetings there, in the week, every now and again. Yep, I'm up for that.
Various people departed to do some more shopping, but many returned to the Novotel bar for an evening relaxing. Louis needed to catch up on some sleep before some serious clubbing. OH WOW, Louis, that outfit you came back downstairs wearing, the corset, the jacket, the metal-tipped boots, you wear it well man.
I hope you night birds had fun on the town, but me, a country boy had had enough of the city racket for one day, so decided to wander home.
For those who want the pics, Kneehighs has plenty on his video camera, so I guess these will appear when he gets to somewhere he can download them.
Best wishes, all, in the hope that there are many more meets like this.
Xa |