"Social Butterfly"

In support of Cancer Research and Horse Welfare,

he encouraged me with a new dress, a new purse, and sent me off to "the ball".

I met some really nice people that evening.

Nice People!

 Arranged at my table, were the Random Man/Men, the Good Girlfriend, the Ingenue, the Young Couple Still in Love, and the Sorority Sisters.  There was a magician who resembled a roughish Hugh Grant.  There was Boris Becker.  There was a raffle to raise more money.

I missed my husband.  All through the night, I felt a strange emptiness in my belly.  If he was here, he would frame me, and I would perhaps be less confusing a guest to everyone who was meeting me for the first time.

I spent the night at the hotel.  Service was excellent.  I wish I could rave about the room I stayed in.  Its size was generous, bathroom cleaned.  But its decor and dust puzzled me.

Dust EVERYWHERE...

HMMMMMMMMMM....

The night before the ball, I had a free moment.  On impulse I called K.  At the same time, K had similar thoughts, so we excitedly agreed to meet in Soho.  On Rupert Street, I stepped into a teeny Japanese joint- the sort of place, I love eating at.  Using my very limited Japanese, and freshly mascara-ed lashes, I scored us counter seats, even as others were being turned away.  But when K came, she crushed the sushi chef's heart.

Then K suggested The Yard, a very popular boys' bar further up the same street.  And here's what I learnt that night.  Unaccompanied by my husband, the safest place for me to have a drink on a London Friday evening, is at a gay bar.  I was not sexually harassed.  I was not objectified.  I did not have to ignore lewd comments, nor sexual slurs.

So I had a great time.

The Yard, 57 Rupert Street

And then on my third glass of dry vino, I thought- hey, on Sunday after "the ball"?  If I got on my usual SQ flight?  I could actually make it back for KS's Monday night bash, and then The Arts House's 10th Year Anniversary!  Besides, I already have something to wear!

Something old, something new, something blue...