The lottery of getting there

Whilst Ros was handing out awards, I was enjoying the company of our table.

Amongst those gathered with Alan Dedicot, the voice of the National Lottery (he was working as the disembodied emcee) and, unexpectedly, Tamsin Dunwoody, recipient of this year's worst political hospital pass. Tamsin was there to collect a posthumous award to her mother, Gwyneth, for services to transport, and was in quite expansive form. I've remarked in the past that the media create very two-dimensional images of people in the news, and Tamsin was not really as I had expected her to be.

Alan was an interesting character too, and was telling us about the Routemaster bus that he and some friends are restoring for use for weddings and such. He couldn't have been surrounded by a more interested group of people if he'd tried...

It's curious, because I generally didn't enjoy these types of events in the past. My capacity for small talk was not great, and I tended to feel a bit isolated. Now, however, I've learned to relax a bit, and go with the flow. As I've discovered, most people tend to feel as I did, and having someone introduce themselves and break the ice makes it rather more enjoyable.