First Snow
Sonnet and I to Lizzie and Ferdie's wedding party .. or is it Lizzie's 40th ? Who knows. They have been together a long time - long enough to have children, ages 7 and five, and married last year. Ferdie at an Italian bank where he was head of risk; now he is doing more operational and balance sheet work. His view : The world coming to an end, but let us not focus on that. Lizzie and Sonnet former colleagues at the V & A and fast friends : Lizzie being one of the few people I know who can make Sonnet laugh with abandon. Lizzie's parents Dons at Oxford while she went to Cambridge.
One of Lizzie's party friends, Julie, an attractive 28 or 29 - enough to catch an eye and worth a conversation : the more intriguing when I learn she has a Cabinet Job , and responsible for security during, and running up to, the summer Olympics. Her staff of 42 coordinates with The Met Office, military and other protective forces (she: "I will be in a silo off Downing St during the games."). After earning a PhD, Julie "worked on " the 2002 foot-and-mouth crisis when Britain slaughtered over 100,000 cattle. She joined govt, with a shrug, instead of profit-making schemes, like The City, to have an impact and I think : Kennedy or Clinton, when young people chose public service over their purse. She now briefs the Prime Minister, David Cameron, weekly. Julie tells me "He likes to take decisions , unlike Gordon Brown." She would know.
