Wonderful sunny spring weather yesterday and again today.

I rarely go to charity lunches, but all my Book Club friends were going and it was a very good cause – Maggie’s Centres – where anyone affected by cancer can drop in. Vicky Greenley is on the Committee and I wanted to support her.

It was at the Bluebird café on the Kings Road in Chelsea. It was a glam venue with a lot of glam people. I knew that I had to paint and decorate with a little more care than usual. They say that women dress for other women! Of course not all women do, but there was evidence of visits to the hairdressers for blow dries and pedi/manicures. 

Rory Bremner, the political satirist, was the speaker and ran the auction. He is a local. When I lived around the corner in Limerston Street, I would often see him with his laundry tucked under his arm on the way to the dry cleaner or working on his laptop in cafes.

When Geoff was CEO of Centaur Media, I would be invited to award events for their main publications. The Lawyer magazine always put on fun events at great venues and sometimes I would see my old colleagues from Clyde & Co, if they were up for an award. The publisher always seated me next to the presenter if they wanted to have a meal. Sometimes they just stayed in their dressing room during dinner. Rory was one of the presenters who happily ate dinner with the guests and I was next to him. His wife is a sculptor. He told me she had an exhibition at the Natural History Museum. I had not done my homework and said that I must buy tickets to it. I later found out that entrance was free and they were not inside with the dinosaurs, but placed in the forecourt garden. I remember a large hippo.

I also sat next to Piers Morgan before he got really big. He told me that he was not fond of Cherie Blair and Elizabeth Hurley. When he went to Downing Street on Daily Mirror business, Tony Blair would be in his jeans and strumming his guitar. Say no more. William Hague, the former foreign secretary, was fascinating, He was also a good laugh. Casino Royale had just come out (2006) and he joked that they microchipped British spies, just like Daniel Craig playing James Bond. Michael McIntyre was hilarious. It was before he was as famous. You could see he would make it to the top. Jonathan Ross stayed back stage.  He had a lot of charisma. Jenny Agutter of the The Railway Children sat next to Geoff. He was smitten.

Today I am going to hit the garden and then take the dog to see if we can find some blue bells. The woods will be carpeted with them. Domino loves our frolics in the country side. And then up to London for dinner in Clapham.