Category: Parties

Art and options

On By Conversations with StrangersIn Art, PartiesLeave a comment

7.30pm on a warm August night. I jumped out of the cab in King St,  and headed for the door from where I could see a throng of people mingling inside in the good doctor’s living room – cleared to provide a space to rival any London gallery, and showcasing my friend G’s latest work.

The room was packed, with B slaving over a hot stove to produce delicious Thai nibbles and the art around the walls framing a lush garden and the Sussex hills behind.

The music provided a party vibe, the wine flowed and I was put on topping up duty.

I got chatting to J about living in the country vs living in the city.  ‘I just feel cooped up sometimes’ I said,  ‘I guess I love the outdoors so much that it does my head in to be surrounded by city streets – but I do like the energy and buzz of London’.  ‘It’s all in your head’, he replied, then: ‘It’s about feeling content with what you’re doing’.

I wondered about that. ‘More white wine?’ I said to a ruddy faced man, ‘Yeah, it’s free isn’t it?  Keep it coming! ‘  I asked him how he liked living in the country.  ‘Well, I used to live in Amsterdam and I travelled for work a lot.  Now I’m here and I haven’t travelled for two months – I feel  really cooped up’. He gestured towards the wall in front of us: ‘ I think I might buy that painting though’.

‘Red or white?’ I said to another art partyer and asked for her views on the subject:  ‘Oh, I really miss London’ she said, ‘I miss the diversity of it all, I live here  but I really get cabin fever sometimes’. ‘ By the way’ she continued, ‘Are you around next Sunday, I’m having a Ploughman’s lunch as part of the festival – would you like to come?’ ‘Oh!’ I replied, ‘Thank you, but I’m not sure if I’ll be here then’.  ‘That’s fine.  Excuse me but there’s the man delivering my cheese, I must say hello’ .

I got talking to John and Jim.  ‘We love it here – we go out to eat and everyone knows you.  We’re real foodies, but, we also love the anonymity of London.  We have a place there and we just found a  little restaurant to go to where all they do is steak and frites – that’s it, that’s all they do; it’s fabulous!’

As midnight came and went, it was time to go.  ‘Nice to see you again’ said the doctor, ‘Are you sticking around?’ It struck me as an unusual question and as I looked at him I thought  about what that meant and wondered what made the sticking around worth sticking around for.

Cosmic Disco

On By Conversations with StrangersIn London, Parties1 Comment

‘A, it looks like a model bomb exploded in here tonight – where did you get all these beautiful people from?! Don’t tell me, you chartered a plane and flew them all in from Miami!’ A laughed.  To him this was just a normal night, a night full of his friends and their friends and the inevitable great tunes that get you shaking your booty, courtesy of Cosmic Disco.

Any radio station that plays ‘If you wanna ride, don’t ride the white horse’ five times in two hours is onto a winner in my books. It’s pure Eivissa. But there was something even more cosmic about this evening.

As we drank in the atmosphere and checked out our fellow party goers a man came up to me and said ‘hey, lovely to see you again, how are you?’ and we kiss kissed.  I’d never seen him before in my life, but given that he looked like Marcus Schenkenberg (MS), that didn’t seem important.  Then a really cosmic thing happened; as he said his name by way of introduction and I said mine,  he simultaneously turned over his arm to reveal my name tattooed there.

We all got chatting – his friend, his girlfriend then we went inside to get more drinks.  My friend decided she might leave but I said ‘no, wait, isn’t the scenery more attractive here than your four walls at home’?  She had to agree.  But I knew what she was thinking – this isn’t for me, these people are not my people, I’d rather keep it real.  The fact that the two girls standing beside us each had a chiwawa didn’t help matters (oh for the life of the average chiwawa; parties, makeovers,pink baskets to be transported in!).

The chiwawa girls were delightful.  We took them outside and introduced them to MS and at the same time asked him where he was from.  From tattoo to this:  ‘Well, I’m half Swedish, half Thai’.  The chiwawa girls were Swedish too! So, there ensued a delightful connection of fellow countrymen meeting each other in a strange land.  How lovely and unexpected that was for all involved.

More beautiful people arrived,  but the earthy energy of cosmic souls connecting rose to the surface and what appeared initially to be brittle and affected, proved to be the very opposite.  All it took was a willingness to make the connection and not judge the book by its cover.