Entertaining Americans

A very social day today; had lunch with Chris C as the brothers were off doing a show together. The Mulberry Bush wasn’t quite up to its usual standard as my Thai fishcakes starter and the goat’s cheese and spinach pie main course were both over cooked. He bemoaned the fact that there are no decent shopping opportunities left in Central London; Oxford Street is now largely chain stores and cheap tourist-tat souvenir shops and he wants stuff for Carter that doesn’t come from Baby Gap (which he could buy back in the States!)

Work was pretty productive. I finally nailed down a problem with some email accounts in Santiago, got the backups working in San Juan again and finally started making serious plans for a major re-jig in the Comms Room here in London; something which has been outstanding for months now.

This evening we were meeting Curtis for dinner as he is in town for a few days visiting friends. I’d booked the Laughing Gravy on Blackfriars Road again – we ate there the last time he was in town. Rod & Jess were already there when Brett and I arrived. Jess seems well recovered from her recent operation, has lost a lot of weight and, on the whole, looked very well. They had brought me an early birthday present too! Lovely!

Curtis arrived shortly after seven, somewhat flustered having rushed from dealing with a plumbing emergency at his hotel. He too is looking very well. He’s recently spent a week in Costa Rica and had lots of stories to tell about the beauty of the island. He also has promised to put pictures online, so I shall look forward to those.

Bruce and Rosie were both late, arriving within five minutes of each other from their respective pre-dinner appointments but it just meant we’d that much longer to catch up with Rod and Jess and Curtis.

He is planning a bit of a round the world trip with his mum in the autumn and wants to bring her to London so hopefully we’ll see him again soon – and I’ll get to meet his mother after fifteen years of hearing about her.

Bruce was at the far end of the table, so I didn’t get to talk to him really until we were on the train home and even then it was mostly wine and restaurants talk. He’s looking forward to a Diplomacy day, as are Rod and Jess, so we must get around to finally organising it!