Across the pond

……..I want to get off.Although we did not leave Dorset until 1.30 PM it should have been a doddle getting to the Andrew Marr lecture last night at Queen Mary Westfield by 6.30 PM. But I underestimated the depths of incompetence I can rise to.

When we reached our Gospel Oak flat Janet said we should start out immediately so she would not stop to change.‘Plenty of time’, I said, ‘I know the route like the back of my hand. Besides I am going to change myself.’ So I fished out my charcoal grey suit and put on my wedding and funeral shoes. And went downstairs to get the rest of the luggage from the car with studied calm. Janet was getting more and more agitated, urging me to hurry.

When we hit our first traffic jam in Kentish Town Road she even suggested turning back and going out to dinner instead.‘We still have ample time’, I insisted, voicing my superior knowledge, ‘this lecture usually starts ten minutes late.’ I turned on the 6 o-clock news to discover what was happening in New Hampshire but the BBC only wanted to tell me about Gordon Brown’s first 2008 press conference. We reached the Angel without further mishap and I directed her to take the turning off City Road to pick up my favourite route through the back streets which avoids rush-hour traffic.

I did not become seriously concerned until I noticed a sign post telling me we were heading towards Highbury! I turned on Sat Nav but that made it worse. I kept pressing the wrong buttons and changing the screen and lost all sense of where we were. We might have ended up in Dover had it not been for a friendly motor cyclist who knocked on the window and said, ‘You look lost, where do you want to go?’ We told him the Mile End Road and he said no problem, just follow me.We waved him goodbye at Stepney Green. It was 7.15 PM when we reached QMW but I had recovered my cool. ‘We’ll go to the pub, have a drink and wander over in time for the party.’

We went in through the main entrance in what I thought was plenty of time, then turned a corner, and literally bumped into Professor Peter Hennessy and Andy Marr leading some hundreds of people to the drinks.I immediately apologized for being late and told Andrew that I would get the transcript and blog in due course.

That was my final mistake. Had I not confessed I could have used my rat-like cunning and done a half way decent blog by finding out from the students and teachers what Andy had said.

However, the evening ended well. When we got back to Gospel Oak we went out to eat at one of our favourite restaurants. The manager was just closing up, but he said no problem. I had the baked mushrooms and the halibut. Janet had the mussels and the sirloin steak. I could have written a restaurant review, except that I find writing and reading about food boring.

Tomorrow, if I manage to get out of bed without falling and breaking a leg, I shall return to matters Presidential on the other side of the pond. According to Newsnight Barack Obama is going to win again for the Democrats and John McCain is going to beat Huckabee to first place on the Republican side. But they are only guessing. They went on air two hours before the polls closed in New Hampshire and exit poll estimates are frequently wrong.