I had expected a brief meet with Lynne, a quick drink and then home for the usual dinner in front of the telly. I hadn't expected to take a surreal journey from one interesting encounter to another.
I was a bit behind schedule to be honest and should have got an earlier train but I would have missed all the fun. On the 14.08 train from Gatwick to Victoria I sat opposite someone clicking away on his MacBook and as you do on London trains we ignored each other. Then at East Croydon another passenger boarded and sat beside me and these two men knew each other and began an interesting conversation about the film Tristan Loraine was making (thats the MacBook guy) and the art Gordon Cheung (the East Croydon passenger and contemporary artist).
As we approached the conversation overflowed to include me and another woman who proudly described herself as an investment consultant which has a certain irony as she was addressing someone who is accusing some of the worlds largest companies of damaging the health of their customers and someone Wikipedia describes as an artist whose work captures the mood of the global collapse of civilization where moral, economic, and environmental crises have spun out of control. I did not own up to working in human resources!
After a bit of the usual at work I set off in the rain to meet Cheryl for our rendezvous. After crossing the road to meet her at Green Park station I turned around to find her standing where I had set off from. Given that poor start its not really surprising that we had two failed attempts to find the University Women's Club but we got there in the end.
We ordered a G&T and then managed to be seated in the corner of the room chatting to the Dove Grey Reader and Susie Partridge chatting about books when a stream of women who were very obviously not English started to arrive. Beautifully made up and coiffed, perfect smiles and stylish clothes were the clues that this was the Daughters of the American Revolution. In their midst was their President General Lynn F Young wearing a glittering sash of diamond and gold badges, like a Brownie on steroids. Compared to these polished creatures I felt like a peahen looking on a peacock displaying and shaking his tail feathers.
I half expected to meet David Suchet on the return journey but that will have to wait for the next time.
Thanks Cheryl for inviting me - I had a most interesting afternoon.
