V & A

I met my old pal, Dave, at the V&A yesterday. He was in London with his wife, Judy, and eldest son, Shawn to be at Shawn's award of Fellowship of the Royal College of Radiologists. He is already a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Shawn can now look forward to getting a Consultant post in Oncology. It was great to have the opportunity to congratulate him personally and add even greater significance to my visit to the National Theatre in the evening to see 'Nye', a celebration of the founding father of the NHS. I've known Dave since October 1968 when we shared the same student accommodation on starting our degree courses at what is now Bournemouth University. Dave had a career teaching English as a foreign language which took him to different parts of the world before taking up a Senior Lecturer role at Manchester University and returning to Merseyside (he's an Evertonian). Dave has always been a brilliant musician, able to play any song you requested on the piano. We used to write songs together and the extra is of us giving a rendition of 'Even Though I Laugh, There's A Tear In My Eye', a song we wrote 55 years ago with Ken Dodd in mind. It remains an unpublished masterpiece! I'm not sure the other diners in the V & A cafe were that impressed, though. The cafe is an art deco extravaganza as the main photo aims to show. The other extra is of the wall fresco that is happily just above table height.