From the Red Lights of Amsterdam to the Reform Club

So I suppose I should tell you where I've been and put you out of your misery. Well the lucky winner is Ken, who guessed correctly that I have spent the weekend in Amsterdam. Of course now I'm just waiting for all the comments about red light districts and smoking pot... An American friend of mine, Daniel Forrester, is attending a government security conference there this week and as I hadn't seen him for 5 years I thought it would be a good opportunity to catch up on Washington gossip. Well that's my story and I'm sticking to it. I have to say that Amsterdam hasn't improved in the fifteen years since my last visit. And it's even more full of English people. Everywhere I went was just full of them/us. The highlight, or lowlight, of the visit came last night when Daniel and I were in a bar, which over the weekend we had adopted as our 'local' and we were recording a piece for my first Podcast (watch this space) and suddenly I saw a mouse run across the floor. I'm afraid I had a Chantelle moment and started repeating "Oh my God" over and over again. It rather disrupted the flow of the Podcast but makes hilarious listening! Hopefully it will be ready for transmission in a few days time. Anyway, I'm back in England now and about to go for lunch at the Reform Club with a journalist from Times and then it's off to the RAC for a drink with one of my favourite authors, Michael Dobbs. Tomorrow I suppose I had better do some work. In the meantime I shall be contemplating our beloved Prime Minister consulting with the Almighty about what he should do with his Culture Secretary. But I suspect she will save him the trouble.

PS Would Ken like to email me, so I can send him his wondrous prize?