I neglected to mention that we also bought ten boxes of fake flowers – at least 2,000 of them – and some fake shrubs as well to decorate the barn for the party. They were all very cheap so when I got back and found out the price of these things on the net I thought maybe we should sell a few. Do we really need that many flowers?
It was the Hacks Reunion yesterday in Bristol. I met Hilary at Tiverton Station where chaos ruled. There were engineering works on the line from Plymouth so the passengers were being bussed in. Unfortunately the station manager allowed the London train to leave as the coaches were arriving. Result outraged customers, huge queues for the loo and ticket office and panicky station staff. I couldn’t get a ticket but H got us (a TV director and husband as well) organised, sent us smartly into first class and dealt with the ticket inspector.
She did exactly the same at the hotel where the hacks were meeting up when faced with truly incompetent bar staff. It took them decades to deliver coffee so H steamed in and got the champagne organised pronto. The Daily Mirror (all of us were on the Mirror Group Training Scheme for baby journallists) had put