Friday 3rd January 2014
So a New Year is ushered in but Poor Little Rich Gays sweep on. No time to gather and replenish, the relentless round of lunches, teas and dinners unceasing. I’m refurbishing at once (Miroslav is in the bedroom as we speak) double lunching and dining today, back to back dining and lunching Saturday and Sunday.
Every function requires an outfit.
As well as the Sales, of course, and new bath mats to think of.
We pray at this year Poor Little Rich Gays will have fewer opinions but remain impossible.
New Year was at Conrad and Valèry’s. More to come. It was massive. The talk! The outfits! On Monday we lunched in Brighton with Marcus Cargill, England’s leading clock restorer, and Hamish McCory. One Poor Little Rich Gay (big in the gold world) had been given a half-full bottle of gin for Christmas. There was outrage because I took an already opened box of chocs. Horace Sophy, the bond dealer, on the other hand, provided a tin of caviar reputed to have cost £600. Luckily the cat only got it when it was almost finished.
How the Gays talked in Brighton! Such life!
Over Christmas the Gay Mother and I lunched in the North Lodge of the Abbey and dined in the South. The Abbey itself is National Trust. We also lunched by the sea but actual Christmas Day was with Aunt Smidge and Cousin Smurry. Aunt Smidge said the Christmas cards had been awful this year. She meant the look. Cousin Smurry did Ottolenghi’s chicken with clementines and arak which the Gay Mother adored. She really is brewing up to plunge into Ottolenghi at nearly 90.
I gave a selection of perfumes by Frederic Malle, supposed to be the world’s best. I decided to upgrade from Jo Malone which I usually give. Aunt Lavinia said, ‘Is this Jo Malone?’ when opening hers. ‘I so liked the Jo Malone,’ she added.
I specially selected a lily of valley based fume for her and the Gay Mother. Neither have taken to it as yet.
The Multis dined here on Saturday and gave Sauce Beneden and their own 1st pressing of apple juice from their new desmesne. Or ape juice as Miroslav calls it. As it happens I can mix it with the strange Polish vodka he gave me for Christmas.
Other big news is that Joshua Baring brought off the wedding cake for his brother Bovver’s wedding on 21st December. Surely he would have won the Great British Bake Awff, if entered which is unlikely. There is a graph but it’s low res and disorders my posts. Also, to add to the glory, he’s had a very good sales: shoes at Bott Ven, two trews at Paul and Joe as well as knitwear.
He leaves for New York, you know. Four months initially. Patrick Lockyer is threatening to actually become American. A whole generation of younger Poor Little Rich Gays could be wiped out.