Viva La Revolución! A day of Cuban bookends...

It's been a rather pleasant day, all in all.

I don't, as a rule, have an awful lot of business in London these days, but the need to sort out our visitor cards for our upcoming holiday in Cuba required my personal attention, so I was up bright and relatively early to catch a train from Needham Market on an idyllic winter's morn for the journey to the big city.

Abellio Greater Anglia having graciously supplied not one but two trains on time, I made it to High Holborn, where I was made to feel very welcome by the staff at the Cuban Embassy, and it wasn't long before I was heading off for my next engagement, lunch with an old friend, Daniel Brown, near his office at Canary Wharf.

Daniel and I go way back, nearly thirty years indeed, to our days in the Brent and Harrow Young Liberals, and we were Treasurer and Secretary respectively of the Young Liberal Democrats of England, immediately after the merger of the Liberals and the Social Democrats. But you know how life is, families and work and everything else gets in the way, and suddenly you haven't seen each other for, really, is it that long? So, lunch was a wonderful opportunity to catch up.

But Daniel was working, and time was limited (not unreasonably), and so we promised to do this again, and I headed back into Zone 1 to see my younger (taller and rather better looking) brother over a beer. Kirk very graciously produced children (the lovely Natasha, the equally lovely Imogen, and the surprisingly bouncy Lucas), presumably so that I didn't have to (this is a joke, by the way...). Later, our father joined us for a catch up, which was nice.

Next stop, Westminster, for a bite of dinner before the last engagement of the day, at the residence of the Cuban Ambassador, to celebrate Cuba's National Day, the anniversary of the birth of Cuba's revolutionary hero, José Martí, who was born on this day in 1853. We were greeted by the Ambassador, who seems very friendly, before a leader of the Cuban community here in Britain made a stirring speech to commemorate the 1959 Revolution, with much 'Viva-ing' to follow.

The band played some suitable music, and we mingled a bit at an event that one might describe as a bit 'Corbynista' but a lot of fun. I think that we're going to enjoy our trip...