Nothing in the e-mail trail about this. Nothing at all. Not setting it up. Not cancelling it.
The e-mail trail stops with John apologising that he will have to miss my Gresham Lecture a couple of weeks before this date…
…but I know that John came to the lecture because I even wrote him into the script and handed him a bootleg CD as he dashed off to his unavoidable engagement that night.
So I guess we must have spent some time talking to each other on the telephone during those weeks. I remember talking on the telephone. That’s what we used to do to arrange things before e-mail and messaging and things.
Anyway, it was my trusty payments log that helped me solve this one, as I spent a suspiciously John & Ian dinner sum at The Pearl on the very night recorded in my diary.
Pearl At Renaissance Chancery Court – click here for a link.
Here is a review from a year or so before we went.
Review scraped to here just in case – after all, the place is long gone now.
I remember a good but pricey meal. The company, needless to say, was excellent. John must have chosen the place because I paid.
Do you remember anything else about it, John?
I do. A very grand French style restaurant at the hotel. Very good if uninspiring nosh at a slightly elevated price but I think I booked it via one of those deals you can get online. Clearly not a twofer or bog off as the bill clearly had an impact. I remember the lecture well. I was at an exhibition, conference or dinner on the other side of town but realised I could get over to hear all about teleology and deliology (or something similar) before scooting back to whence I came. I was so pleased I did. I sat at the back feeling dead proud of my chum Ian whom I know was beforehand on the edgy side.