Wednesday, May 23, 2007

Reporting live from Manchester (or not)

I went to see John Simpson last night, the BBC Foreign Correspondent, speaking at the Pro -dot - Manchester annual dinner at the Midland Hotel. However, though I was invited (and accepted), there was no seat for me. Apparently I was to be sat with company "B", or was it company "E"? Despite being invited by company "M" on behalf of organisation "P". And having turned down a further invite from company H.

I was offered a seat by someone who would then have had to sit on the floor and eat stale loaves, which was kind, but I'm not the sort of person to come over all Russell Crowe.

When I heard the traditional buck passers answer of "there's been a breakdown in communication" I suddenly saw a vision of a nice comfortable sofa with my beautiful wife and a cheeky glass of Pinot Grigio.

Here's a report:

"John had some amusing anecdotes and spoke quite openly about his experiences and answered questions well, even the more stupid ones! He even went into discussing how he has recently had a baby thanks to the box of Viagra sat on his bedroom table!"

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