Oops

A bit of a let-down - the reader (hello you) may have noticed where I say something about my friend Polly having babysat for the Voisin family. After the rather good Roger Voisin tribute today, Roger was far too surrounded with famous people for me to say hello so I went and said hello to Peter instead and congratulated him on his talk, his coping with the frequent tech hitches (Powerpoint nightmare!) , etc. All absolutely fine till I tried to explain my Polly connection - total blank. Maybe even a bit of "I'm going to look past you over your shoulder till I find someone better/easier to talk to then I am out of here."

So I felt a bit of a d*ck (clue: not a duck, dock, nor deck) really. Either Polly has inadvertently exaggerated her relationship with the Voisin family (seems highly unlikely), or I have misremembered what she said (also seems unlikely - it was only last week and I am not quite that gaga yet) or Peter has had a stroke and can't remember things (don't know him well enough to guess), or he remembers perfectly well but thinks I am some unpleasant weirdo and does not wish to discuss my knowing his dad's former neighbours, babysitters, etc (hmm maybe that's the one?). Or perhaps he was just stressed out over the talk or could not understand my bizarre accent or something ... Whichever way, it was not a good moment and the only thing I was grateful about was that others were not there to witness my mortification. I slunk off.

Come to think of it, I have been making a tw*t out of myself a lot this conference. Almost any time I speak to someone they are not who I think they are, or they claim never to have met me though we talked yesterday, or I say something to them which reveals that I am completely confused. (Real-life example: Reinhardt not Reinhart: victim, Murray Greig. Murray now thinks I am nuts too.) It might be easier if I just said nothing, ever.