Wednesday, December 02, 2009

An interesting evening in London


I just came back from a reception from a place I am not allowed to talk about. Or so I was told as it is a private occassion. Kind of unfair because the host herself has a twitter site! Had a few good chats with old and new friends about stuttering. Being re-assured by an important therapist that quantitative research is important to her, too. Had a good look at the interior of the building. Nice painting of Queeen Liz 16th century. Probably never be there again in my whole life. Went to a room I was not supposed to be in after some mind twisting. But that I can definitely not talk about! Frightening how the imagined center of power is nowhere really. Chatted to Magareth Thatcher's former cook / chef / caterer reliving her past. Luckily she stutters, too. Apparently good old Maggie was funny and flirtatious (but not to her of course). Admired the new portrait but not courageous enough to use a big black pen for a nice mustache. She looks at you from all sides. Kind of saying: "Have you paid your poll tax?" Tried to google her nice ex-chef, who is well-known as I was told but I never heard of her, and I can only find sites to "Gordon Ramsey's business is stuttering!" Witnessed members of the charity fighting like animals just to have their picture taken with a door. Now how sad it that? I'll probably post one of me, too. Just to make sure you know I was there. The smiley girl got the police officer with her on the picture. Heard a good honest speech with quite a few blocks. Yes now you know who it feels to stutter. Will you twitter about it? And a very impressive performance from someone who stuttered as a child or so he said. No wonder he became a minister. Hopefully not to close to power not to survive? Using UK diplomatic slang, stuttering is getting some well-needed traction finally. Sorry stammering that is, and no-one knows why it's called stammering. That's British culture. Distinctively stylish and full of contradictions.

2 comments:

Pam said...

I am planning my first ever overseas trip - will visit London in March. So very excited.
I plan to meet up with some stutterers while there. I hope I get enough info to do a post on my own blog about my own interesting evening in London.

Anonymous said...

Hi tom,

Just out of interest - and of course, you do not have to answer this - how did you get an invite to the 10 Downing St party? Are you a Trustee of the BSA? Or is it because of your standing withing the BSA that you were invited to attend?
Just curious!