I was at Embankment Tube yesterday waiting for the Northern Line, on my way to Kentish Town to see Gomez. I sat on one of those seats and then thought, I think I know the guy sitting next to me! I looked (surreptitiously) and thought, he looks like Anthony Browne, who used to be Times correspondent in Brussels. The tube arrived, he got on and I didn’t, and seeing him face on I realised it was indeed Anthony, but it was too late. When I came in today, I thought I’d google him to see if he is still at the Times, but it turns out he’s just started as Policy Director for Boris Johnson! So if you’ve got a web alert set up for your name, Anthony, and it spews up this post – congratulations on the new job and it’d be nice to get in touch!
It was a day of renewing old friendships. As I say I was at the gig where Gomez played their Bring It On album, which won the Mercury Music Prize in 1998. Hearing each song was like rediscovering an old mate. Appropriate, because I was there with Jane, who I was at school with and until I moved back to London, hadn’t seen for about 15 years!
I’ve signed up to man our stall at the Thames Festival for a few hours next Sunday. Sounds like a fun event – as long as the weather holds. At least I’ll be under cover!
Just for information, I’ve started an events page – we support a lot of cultural events and I thought it would be good to let people know what is going on. I’ll do my best to update it regularly.
Talking about the EU 