{"id":2303,"date":"2011-05-31T12:59:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-31T11:59:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=2303"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:59:01","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T11:59:01","slug":"my-bank-holiday-weekend-shows-the-rich-span-of-poor-little-rich-gay-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/?p=2303","title":{"rendered":"My Bank Holiday Weekend Shows the Rich Span of Poor Little Rich Gay Life"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday 31st<\/sup> May 2011<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t forget \u2013 my great meditation on Wotan and marriage, the other<\/em> PLRG terrace ducklings (Peter Acharya to pamper them this week while terrace owners on cruise), Lord Arrowby, my part-time love interest, all to come.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, I was at L\u2019Anima, near Liverpool Street Station. It\u2019s supposed to have Michelin stars but doesn\u2019t. Absolutely honed environment. The Photo Multi enchanted by way the marble was done in the lavs \u2013 no grout between the slabs. Also marvellous curved marble wall leading to the display wine cellar. No grout there either. The Multis strike up with the staff in the Poor Little Rich Gay way: the Blond to the Latvian Ma\u00eetre d\u2019: \u2018Who owns this restaurant?\u2019 \u2018Is he here now?\u2019 Where does he live?\u2019 \u2018You don\u2019t know. You\u2019d better find out. Could be useful.\u2019<\/p>\n

The Multis are expanding: they\u2019ve been lunching with more banks to gain something called leverage. As you recall, their economy is about the size of a small town\u2019s but it\u2019s just for two Poor Little Rich Gays. They\u2019ve also been on some country visits about which the less said the better. I\u2019m storing for another day.<\/p>\n

Sunday, I set out, with Robert Nevil, for Sandringham St Kil, where youngster PLRG Joshua Baring is establishing a res. Collecting RN, I\u2019m left sitting in his drawing room \u2013 awful dread feeling it might be nicer than mine.<\/p>\n

It occurs to me for the first time that the reason why people live in their own houses and not mine is that they like them better.<\/p>\n

We stop on the way at a nursery near Cambridge (no garden centres for us) and buy rare varieties of rare plants. Robert Nevil wants garden string. I say: \u2018There\u2019s a lovely big ball there.\u2019 \u2018Oh no,\u2019 he arches, \u2018I only have green \u2013 so it can\u2019t be seen.\u2019<\/p>\n

In the car \u2013 the one I\u2019ve been keeping quiet about, but its Xenon driving lights sweep all before \u2013 we discuss our intimate lives. Many fallings-out and scenes \u2013 Poor Little Rich Gays are volatile, of course, and we love difficult people \u2013 but we\u2019re agreed that marriage is absolutely finished, near-marriage much to be preferred.<\/p>\n

Then we gain St Kil \u2013 my God, it\u2019s in the Fens! Fabulous air of menace and all the inhabitants sinister in a way you can\u2019t quite put your finger on. But it\u2019s an architectural gem. So brilliant of Joshua Baring to home in. Soon it\u2019ll be looking very new indeed. 18th<\/sup> century merchants\u2019 houses heeped up beside a muddy river-bank, a great mass of buildings arising apparently out of nothing. I was reminded of Venice\u2019s Riva dei Schiavoni. Unique effect.<\/p>\n

As my private architect, Bruce MacBain, is always pointing out when we take a walk and he briefs me, many 18th<\/sup> century facades are as pared down, minimal and \u2018abstract\u2019 as any Modernist structure.<\/p>\n

Joshua is queening his house, of course. It\u2019s beamy and woody, which I\u2019ve condemned.\u00a0 But now, and with Angus Willis\u2019s outstanding Hastings Tudor House, I can see I\u2019m going to have to re-think.<\/p>\n

So, yesterday, Monday, I ram the rare plants in and tend my three gardens. So much to do before this visit from earnest Islington gardeners on Saturday.\u00a0 In the evening, Prince Dmitri Hersov, top world accountant, dines and I try to reproduce the veal with pistachio rag\u00f9 the Blond Multi had at L\u2019Anima. There was some weird mystery ingredient eluding me: finally, via those ice-creams launched last week by Angus Willis, I have an idea: could it be rose-water? Rose-water with mince? I dash, shattered, to Waitrose. They\u2019ve got it. With the Prince we experiment and taste and decide to risk it. It was good and, I\u2019m fairly sure, what was in the L\u2019Anima version.<\/p>\n

Well done to Waitrose for being open at 6pm on a Bank Holiday and having rose-water.<\/p>\n

\"L'Anima

L'Anima - Fully Honed<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The

The Display Wine Cellar at L'Anima <\/p><\/div>\n

\"The

The sepulcre-style PDR at L'Anima: Note Groutless Walls<\/p><\/div>\n

\"Paint

Paint Samples at Joshua Baring's Res at Sandringham St Kil: This is the Way to Select Your Colour<\/p><\/div>\n

\"The

The Other Wall: Joshua Baring at Sandringham St Kil. A Detailed Approach<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tuesday 31st May 2011 Don\u2019t forget \u2013 my great meditation on Wotan and marriage, the other PLRG terrace ducklings (Peter Acharya to pamper them this week while terrace owners on cruise), Lord Arrowby, my part-time love interest, all to come. On Saturday, I was at L\u2019Anima, near Liverpool Street Station. It\u2019s supposed to have Michelin […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2303","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adrain-edge"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2303","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2303"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2303\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2309,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2303\/revisions\/2309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2303"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2303"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/poorlittlerichgays.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2303"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}