Had to accompany 'imself to Parents Evening up at the school last night to be told that the Littley's organisation skills were comparable to Eddie the Eagle's commanding grasp on world class skiing.
You'll appreciate that this did not come as a great surprise. Blimey. I just hate Parents Evenings; it isn't so much having to be polite to the other mummies (thankfully, altogether less yummy, now we've hit secondary school, which is something of a relief) although that's bad enough.
But, worse, I'm always on the back foot as the working mother and always come away with another serious bout of BMF (bad mother feeling). Last night was no exception: starting this weekend I am going to get that kid organised if it kills me! Whew! It is knackering being me.
It also meant I had to miss the Mishcon de Reya party which was a bit of a blow as it's always a good bash and, as I keep asserting, we are - none of us - having anything like enough fun and we need to take our pleasures where we can.
I'd written to Susan Freeman (my fellow blogger) to tell her I wasn't able to do it and we agreed to hook up in MIPIM but I still resented it. Susan runs a super stylish party: I like a decent flute of champagne and the chance to rub shoulders with the heady mixture of property establishment and high net worth individuals that she blends together (although you do have to be careful not to get photographed next to Susan as she is too beautiful and thin to be seen with).
My resentment heightened as I got a text this morning from the lovely Lesley Fletcher which read "saw Sue Brown she told me you were doing your mother bit....rotten night but Mishcon always packs them in! Lxxxxx" so that really cheered me up. Not.
I first met Susan Freeman on a study tour, that Pat Brown of Central London Partnership had put together for about 20 of us to look at the Business Improvement Districts in New York in 2000 (this was before we imported them to London of course).
I'd never been to New York before and was fairly well captivated as you may imagine. Susan of course, being one the most glamorous entities to stalk this earth, was an old hand at New York, quite blasé in fact and, indeed, flew her husband and children out to join her at the end of the visit, which I just thought was the height of sophistication!
That was a great study visit, we genuinely learned a lot and it had its share of comic moments. Mark Boyes (then of Burford, now at Lend Lease of course) and I were in next door berths in the new BA flatbed business class seats (he'd paid £3k for his, Pat had kindly got BA to sponsor mine as my little Regeneration Partnership had no budget - he was fuming!) and ever since we have always claimed that we have slept together (sooooo childish).
Actually we didn't sleep much, just drank a lot of champagne. There was one cracking evening when a small group of us ran up a bill for $200 in half an hour in some poncy bar on two rounds of gin martinis. There weren't that many of us involved, it was just an uber-expensive gaff.
Ken Dytor (then at Urban Catalyst) was certainly there, as was Sid Sporle (by that point, no longer at Westminster City Council and I can't really remember why he was there but we were all jolly glad he was, as he came at the whole thing as if he was in a "Carry On" film). Tony Bickmore (then at the Crown, now at TfL) may have been involved, as he was certainly on the tour, as was the lovely Alistair Subba Row of Farebrother and my old pal, Sandra Eyre of Creative Town Planning . But there were only four or five of us on that particular occasion although I think it is fair to say they were rather large martinis....
There are also poignant memories of that visit; Pat is nothing if not well connected and she had pulled enormous strings to get the Port of New York Authority to host a dinner for us with the Deputy Mayor of New York on the 107th floor of the south tower of the Twin Towers. It was an amazing night and, as must be the case for anyone who ever say it, I will never forget the view. But it is salutary to remember that not many of the fine officers of the Port of New York Authority (who entertained us so royally that evening and who were such a great laugh) would have survived 9/11 - just a year later - as their office was a few dozen floors beneath the room in which we had the dinner. It is a sobering thought. I can still picture their faces.
This is a rather long winded way of explaining that Susan and I are good mates and have been for over ten years. She'll forgive me for not being at her party last night.
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