Starters For Twelve

La V and I were in London last weekend for the annual reunion of the all-conquering Sidney Sussex University Challenge Team. Our heroic captain, the Member for Aylesbury, had cunningly offered to organise dinner in his works' canteen, so we duly donned DJs and ball-gowns and sauntered down Whitehall in hot evening sunshine with Dr John & Mrs Dr John. Getting into the Palace was easier than expected - we were clearly the only thing happening that night and the Met's parliamentary security officers turned out to be big fans of the programme. They even offered to take photographs of us as we posed decorously on the Terrace overlooking the Thames before giving us, at the Member's behest, a guided tour of the Commons. It was rather marvellous to stand on the floor of the House, even when deserted the claustrophobic, confrontational arrangement of the place is jolting. So we made our way back to one of the private dining rooms for a sensationally good meal with our guest and her spouse. Much later, after enjoying a rather hallucinatory view of Big Ben by night from the courtyard outside the Speaker's House, we spilled out onto the pavement opposite College Green. Flashbulbs popped and arms reached out to us. We found ourselves, quite unexpectedly, co-opted into the holiday snaps of some Sudanese tourists. Clearly in years to come there will be a family in Khartoum who will show their friends photographs of the terribly important (and rather drunk) people they met coming out of the Mother Of Parliaments. If only they knew the truth . . .
Photographs of the earlier part of the evening will be added to this blog as soon as I get hold of some . . .