High Life

27 June 2009

Weekend to remember

Things got out of control straight off the bat. With excuses to Joseph Moncure March, ‘Blurred faces swam together locked,/ Red hungry lips, closed eyes,/ Rocked./ White slender throats curved back beneath, attacking mouths that chocked their breath./ They murmured:/ They gasped:/ They lurched and pawed, and grasped.’ A priest-like boy and a girl-like nun lay deep on cushion, locked as one. And all this was before dinner was served: 150 bottles of vodka were consumed that night, more than 55 magnums of red wine and I was too shy to ask my host about the amount of white wine and champagne.

The announcement of the wedding came almost as an afterthought, following the cricket scores. Timmy, who mumbles his words like no other, said something about his daughter Rosie expecting twin boys and that she will marry David sometime this summer. I happened to be sitting next to David, whose full name is David Rocksavage, Marquess of Cholmondeley, pronounced Chumley for any foreign-born Spectator readers. David is the person who walks backwards in front of the Queen during the Opening of Parliament, but last Saturday night he was one of the few who walked straight.

The announcement caught me by surprise. It was as if my little girl had got engaged, so happy was I. The Hanburys went on Bushido for their honeymoon 29 years ago, a smaller, more beautiful Bushido, and I joined them on it in Greece. I am close to them and their three children, and now I had an even better reason for celebrating.

At one in the afternoon the next day, in brilliant sunshine, I was still swilling from a wine bottle, glassy-eyed, unfeeling, a headachey mumble replacing speech once in a while. A friend dragged me away and as I headed for a taxi I could see the pretty girls still dancing, Tom’s music still ringing in my ears. It was a weekend I wouldn’t have missed for anything.

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Bill

June 26th, 2009 6:25am Report this comment

I see. When the poor get pissed they're yobboes; when the rich get pissed it's all jolly good fun, what!

George Kronfli

June 26th, 2009 9:19am Report this comment

So, lots of alcohol and sex. Not very different from the yobs on the train!

Simon Pascian

June 26th, 2009 11:16am Report this comment

Yes, I agree wholeheartedly on this one Mr Kronfi. I fear our esteemed Taki was not thinking it through whilst penning this one. A certain level of hypocricy I would say!