Up to South Kilburn on Tuesday morning for the launch of the Granville New Homes development (pictured) with Brent Housing Partnership; guest of honour being Richard McCarthy CBE, director general at the CLG.
And - despite the rain - what a very jolly affair it was too!
It was lovely to see Richard, who I first knew when he was on the PRP Board at Paddington (and chief executive of the Peabody Trust) and who, later, when I was in the Thames Gateway at Kent Thameside and he was at the then-ODPM, was our senior report in government.
By this point (which must have been about 2005, I guess) Richard was held in such reverence in Kent circles that I was once - seriously - formally reprimanded for behaving "inappropriately with a civil servant at MIPIM" (a reference to an incident when I had kissed the blessed McCarthy on the top of his head as I was leaving a dinner and, yes, of course I had partaken of a glass or two of Vimto, although I would have done the self same thing had I been sober!).
The first thing for 