Tag: Michael Mainelli

Z/Yen Team/Old Team Evening At The Jugged Hare, Chiswell Street, 18 February 2015

OK, this is me being complete rubbish.

The only e-mail communication I can find on this evening is the following note from Linda Cook to me and Michael.

Just to let you know I have organised a night out with the team/old team on 18 February if you are about.

Booked a table at Jugged Hare in Chiswell Street (at Steph’s suggestion) http://www.thejuggedhare.com from 18.15.  Expecting about 7/8 people.

Linda

It’s in my diary. I clearly remember going. I remember enjoying the evening a lot. Good size of group, got to talk with more or less everyone who turned up, nice place.

Beyond that, a blank. I need help.

Over to other Z/Yensters (current and alum) to fill in the blanks. Otherwise the blanks will remain.

Update: 

Steph e-mailed in to say:

I’ve got nothing with which to fill the blanks, I’m afraid! I just remember a very pleasant evening and tables made of wine barrels… (I think).

I also spoke with Ben about it and he said more or less the same thing as Steph.

Linda suggests a reason for our poor memories, but then adds some helpful material:

Maybe too much red wine.  Well, I can’t quite remember either…

…Ben, Richard, Ellie, Steph, Mary, you, me…Clive Hyman definitely…

…not sure if Mark, Cristiano and Sonya were there (have acceptances from them but…)

Yes, I recall having a good long chat with Richard and Ellie that evening in particular. But it was one of those evenings when you get to speak with everyone for a while. Like musical chairs but without the music.

Further updates will be gratefully received.

Mr Simpson’s Little Consort, St John’s Smith Square, 12 December 2013

I took my business partner Michael to this lunchtime concert after our December Board meeting.

It wasn’t very crowded, although there was a reasonable audience that lunchtime.

The image below shows the programme we heard.

Click here for a link to the Mr Simpson’s WordPress site:

Below is a recording of this troupe performing a Holborne Pavan and Galliard, which I believe we heard that day:

Below is a sample of Cate McKee singing, but she didn’t sing this beautiful Purcell song that day at SJSS:

We heard a fair bit of Orlando Gibbons that day – perhaps my first time or at least the first time I really noticed how much I like his sound. Here’s a vid of some other people doing another of Gibbons’s viol works:

A Thirst Extinguishing Evening At The Lord’s Indoor School, 29 July 2013

An evening at Lord’s in the nets followed by dinner afterwards with Charley & Chris. Chinese (Goldmine or Four Seasons) if I remember correctly.

Almost everything that needs to be said about the evening (including “how my first thirst extinguisher got its dent”) was in my King Cricket match report – click here or below.

Lord’s Indoor School match report

If anything ever were to go awry with the King Cricket site, click here for a scrape of the page.

Timothy Tiberelli is, of course, Michael Mainelli. I even used that thin disguise when wroting anecdotes about Michael in The Price Of Fish,

Xavier de Maistre, Wigmore Hall, 10 July 2012

We treated the Mainelli family to this concert. Xenia was learning the harp at school at that time.

In any case, it looked like a lovely concert, which indeed it was.

Here is a link to the Wigmore Hall resource for this concert. For some reason the on-line resource says that the first piece was a Handel arrangement – I’m pretty sure it was the Concerto in D minor by Allesandro Marcello, as stated in the programme.

We met and ate in the Wigmore Hall restaurant before the performance – I think possibly taking desert/coffee/drinks at our table during the interval as well.

To get a feel for what this concert sounded like, here is a video of Xavier de Maistre performing Recuerdos de la Alhambra, by Francisco Tárrega, which I recall was a bit of a highlight at our concert.

I think everyone in our party had a jolly good time – the eating, drinking, chatting and of course the music.

Middlesex v Surrey At Lord’s Twenty20 Match, King Cricket Report, 7 July 2011

At some point in the future I might…just might…be able to provide a multi-faceted piece on this particular evening at Lord’s.

At the time of writing (January 2018), only my King Cricket piece, published October 2011, survives to tell the tale.

Yet tell the tale it does, I think – certainly from my perspective. Internationalism, scandal and some improbable, impromptu games…not bad.

Middlesex v Surrey Twenty20 match report

Just in case anything ever happens to the King Cricket site, I have also scraped that report to here.

For those who have the stomach to look (i.e. most often neutrals and Surrey fans for these occasions), actually it looks as thought his was a pretty good match, despite the fact that I must have missed quite a fair chunk of it – click here for the scorecard and reports.

One extra bit of evidence on who, from “Ged Ladd & Co”, attended that time, in addition to “The Tiberellis”, comes from Jez’s e-mail to me a few week’s before the match:

Mark

Monique

Steph

Ben

Rich

David

 

Simon Strez would also like to come as it’s his last chance to see a cricket game in England before returning home to New Zealand. I also have 3 friends that will be coming to the game.

Gresham Society Event At Wilton’s Music Hall & Dinner At Café Spice Namasté After Z/Yen Symposium, 28 February 2011

Wilton’s Music Hall Door in 2010 by James Perry, CC BY-SA 3.0

Just back from our extraordinary trip to India & Sri Lanka –

India and Sri Lanka, 29 January to 26 February 2011, placeholder and links

…my first working day back in fact – we had a Z/Yen team symposium that afternoon followed by an evening of entertainment courtesy of the Gresham Society at Wilton’s Music Hall.

Very convenient for Michael and Elisabeth Mainelli, this, as Wilton’s is next door to them. It is a fabulous venue, steeped in history but, at that time anyway, in a very dilapidated state.

I think this was a proto Gresham Society event, probably connected to the AGM but before the latterly traditional AGM & Dinner. I also think this might have been a prototype of the thing that became the Gresham Society Biennial Soiree, as the first of those recorded in my diary was later that same year.

Anyway, this event, as I recall, was primarily a Gilbert & Sullivan evening, hosted by Professor Robin Wilson (who is an expert on Savoy Operas as well as mathematics) and mostly comprising performers from his associated choirs and musical troupes.

I seem to remember being required to sing along a fair bit and I think this might have been the first time (but certainly not the last time) I heard the Gresham Professor version of “A Policeman’s Lot”, both in English and, naturally, also in Latin.

I don’t remember how many of us retired to Café Spice Namasté after the Gresham Society do – quite a lot of us I think. In those days Café Spice was quite near Wilton’s – in Leman Street I think or at least very near there. I felt very at home in there having just spent a month eating Southern Asian food.

A very good evening – for me a rather jolly way to return to the world of work.

Sir Thomas Gresham Finance Lecture & Dinner With Anne Craine, East Wintergarden, 2 November 2010

Michael Mainelli was organising this prestigious event each year at that time. 2010 was the year of Anne Craine, Minister for the Treasury, Isle of Man.

Here is a link to the Gresham College resources for that lecture.

Below is embedded is the lecture itself.

I was an honoured guest at the dinner with Anne afterwards, which I’m pretty sure was at the Four Seasons Canary Wharf (at the time of writing, April 2020, the Canary Wharf Riverside Plaza).

Good meal and interesting discussion over dinner.

Middlesex v Surrey Day 3, Lords, Stumpfmerde & MTWD Match Report, 30 July 2010

Another day of county championship cricket at Lord’s that needs a bit of explaining.

Michael Mainelli and I had formed a bit of a tradition that, each year, we’d spend a few hours at Lord’s watching first class cricket and chatting strategically/laterally/crazily about our business, Z/Yen.

In earlier years, before such sessions took place at Lord’s, we called them “Stiermerde sessions”, not that bullshit came into it…of course it didn’t. Once such sessions were at Lord’s, we called them “Stumpfmerde sessions” instead.

Michael must have enjoyed it because his e-mail that evening included:

Great Stumpfmerde and thank you…

My response included:

Indeed I have cleared my e-mails and shall down tools. But I couldn’t do so before scribbling and uploading today’s match report.

http://www.cricketnetwork.co.uk/main/middlesex-ccc/s66/st161035/surrey-completely-clerihew-cornered

Very enjoyable day. And productive Stumpfmerdwise and bookwise too.

Oh, and you really did miss lots of excitement by leaving early – 6 wickets in the last hour, five of them to the youngster Toby Roland-Jones who is the product of your charming neighbour’s brother at the Middlesex Academy. What a happy coincidence!

Just in case anything ever goes awry with the MTWD website, I have scraped that strange match report to here.

I must say that it had completely escaped my memory that I witnessed that exceptional breakthrough performance by Toby Roland-Jones on a Stumpfmerde day – in my mind I would have completely separated the two events.

Here is a link to the Cricinfo scorecard for that match.

I’m glad I spotted the star quality that evening. Neville Cardus would not have spotted it better. Nor would Cardus have reported in clerihews.

Dinner At Le Café du Marché With Michael Mainelli & Jeremy Smith, 6 May 2010

We arranged a dinner at Le Café du Marché to celebrate the third anniversary of the sale of Jeremy’s bit of the Z/Yen business to Aon.

We had some e-mail bants about the arrangements; Jeremy to me:

Cafe du Marche booked for 3 at 7:00pm on Thursday 6th May in name of Jeremy Smith…

…me to Jeremy in reply to the calendar invitation inferring that the dinner would start at 19:00 and end at 19:30…

…I’ve accepted your calendar invite only tentatively, as it seems like a lot of effort for a 30 minute chomp!!…

…Jeremy in response…

…OK OK – I’ve changed it  (well the location to a kebab shop – rather than the length)

Fortunately that last bit wasn’t true – Le Café du Marché was and I think still is a very fine restaurant in Smithfeld.

We had a very good meal and it was nice to catch up with Jeremy. At the time of writing (November 2017) we still catch up periodically, although not usually in quite such high-falutin’ locations.

Drinking and Eating, With The Mainelli Family, Hawksmoor Spitalfields, 13 March and with Mum, Perfect Blend Streatham 14 March 2010

No idea where Michael and I had a drink on 10 March, but my diary simply says:

MRM fm 17:00

I’m guessing we wanted to get all the business chat out of the way ahead of the social gathering a few days later – probably on pain of nagging from both Elisabeth and Janie.

MRM to me later that evening (10 March):

Good to chat tonight over a bottle of wine.  Should do it more often.

Asked about our China travel guides, apparently given away…

…Behind the scenes for Saturday – Elisabeth has NOT booked a sitter and thinks Xenia and Maxine are coming.  You might want to chat with Janie.  (1) If that’s fine, then we might as well meet at Hawksmoor.  (2) If that’s not fine, i.e. the girls are in total female communication mode, then I’m happy to put the paternal foot down for a sitter.

Me to Michael fewer than 15 minutes later. I sound a bit stressy. Perhaps just tired and emotional:

Thanks.

Re Saturday, I strongly suggest you get Elisabeth to speak with Janie on this.  The whole point of meeting at yours, as far as Janie is concerned, is that otherwise we won’t see the children.  If I raise this matter, Janie might well go off on one!!  We should either meet at the restaurant at 19:30 six strong or at your house 18:00 with sitter on the way.  Leave it to the girls to decide.  I’m easy either way.

Another boat worth not rocking is the itinerary for the holiday.  There won’t be any holiday unless we simply close on this very soon (5th or is it  6th iteration); and believe me on this occasion I am totally cool about it, other than imploring not to pack the itinerary with so much that we don’t get any rest!!  Stone Forest was inked in on first iteration and won’t budge, I’m sure.

The itinerary in question was the forthcoming trip to Yunnan and Sanya, which all came good in the end.

Janie and I recall that the Saturday event ended up being deferred to 19:30 at Hawksmoor Spitalfields with the Mainelli family complete.

Hawksmoor Spitalfields was (quite probably still is) a cracking good restaurant – absolutely top notch. Janie reckoned it even topped Smith and Wollensky in New York for quality – praise indeed. The Mainelli girls were (quite possibly still are) very well behaved to the point of being good company on a grown up meal out – at that time they were 12 and 10 ish.

The Hawksmoor thing was great for family eating, as you can choose your size of steak/chunk of beef and then share.

Anyway, Saturday 13 March was an excellent evening out.

Probably the last thing Janie and I needed was a big lunch the next day but…

…14 March 2010 was mothering Sunday.

Mum was really into Perfect Blend at that time – a local eatery run by a really nice and friendly family – the son ran the restaurant/cafe, which was across the road from his father’s greengrocer shop, which had been there since the very dawn of time.

Perfect Blend is sill there at the time of writing (October 2017) – well done – but here is a scrape for just in case the above eponymous link doesn’t work.

We liked the place because the staff were all very nice with mum and she felt she was supporting nice local people whom she had sort-of known for a very long time. I vaguely recall the service being a bit below the normal superb standards that day, as most places are on mothering Sunday, as the plethora of demanding mothers needing above average levels of attention spread the service capability a bit thin in even the best places.

Between all these eating and drinking activities, I would have been following the test match from Chittagong – click here.  I’ll guess that we timed lunch and our arrival at the house to ensure that the cricket was over and mum therefore will have noticed no distraction on my part. Mum might have noticed a slightly hungover version of me, though, from the Hawksmoor evening – great wines.

Oh well.