Friday

Wild garden in bloom - the tall things are the artichokes.


Great fun having dinner last night at Bob Bob Ricard. Art deco booths and very attentive service. Julian's birthday and cocktails were drunk: mine was rhubarb gin and tonic, which seemed to be gin and tonic with rhubarb juice in - delicious. I shared a leg of lamb with Dorothy, while Julian had a delicious crab cake, and we ended with super puds: souffles and a strawberry meringue thingy. We shared a small glass of Chateau d'Yquem, which was a great treat.

We do seem to be fated when we go into the West End, last week it was Gay Pride and last night the Harry Potter opening, so we had to return home by a rather circuitous route.

Sorry to hear about the death of Major-General Sir Roy Redgrave. He was a member of the theatrical Redgrave family. My memories are of when he came to visit me in the CHC office in Hammersmith. He had just returned from Hong Kong to take up the running of Hammersmith and Fulham DHA. I found him very funny, and like a breath of fresh air at the meetings, during which he was totally politically incorrect, referring to 'the ladies' which irritated them greatly, and once, when informed of a possible strike, he suggested that the union leaders might like to be dropped over Hammersmith Bridge to take a swim and cool down a bit. A frozen silence greeted this suggestion. After a few months, he pitched up at my office. I had heard that he was being replaced at the health authority on radio 4 news that morning. I asked him about this and he said the first he had heard about it was on the news that day. Rather rude of them, I thought. And a bit of a pity, since he was the only colourful character around.

Today, Evon and Kate came around with their ideas. Evon had made a journal about some medical treatment she had undergone, and Kate had done some photography and made some cards during the week. We are going to meet at Kate's in two weeks, to draw each other. Meanwhile we will attempt to do some drawing in our sketchbooks. We also decided to go to First Thursday, where exhibitions are held all over the place in Spitalfields on the first Thursday of the month. Kate had been to one last night, which sounded quite interesting. We are also going to try and decide on a name for our group.