Balcony barbecue

We'd been invited to a barbecue (on a penthouse balcony in Ballsbridge) by friends who used be part of the Grand Prix lunch scene. We haven't had one of these since our pal Niall died last year, and today's hosts were adamant that we weren't invited to watch the race. Not to worry: we watched the British Grand Prix in Carl's Kino on his big screen, so it was better than it would have been with the barbecuers anyway.

We'd been invited for 4.00 pm, and were sufficiently fashionably late for a big gang to be there where we arrived. We had a good crack even allowing for the changeable weather which chased us indoors now and again. Still, it was all very enjoyable and we got to meet lots of new people who wouldn't have been part of the crowd if we'd had a GP lunch.

We allowed ourselves to be persuaded to wait and be the last to leave, but still managed to get back to Carl's at a reasonable hour.