Nigel Hits Belgravia

It isn't just Darrell who has interesting friends in London ..... Nigel is currently in London with his friend Stephane, who he met at one of Hugh's (Darrell's best friend and mentor in all that is fabbbbbuuuuulous) bijoux coffee mornings. 

They hit it off straight away, finding they shared many interests, including finding interesting things in the street (except Stephane tends to take a lot of his finds home, as the good people of Belgravia  seem to gravitate to leaving some very excellent, unwanted items on their streets, including whole dinner services and the odd, real painting and sculpture)  ....... so when Stephane asked Nigel over for brunch, Nigel was on the train before you could say mais oui!

Stephane is every bit as exotic as Hugh.  He is French, a trained lumberjack and is, so Nigel tells me, the lead singer of an avant-garde, rock cabaret band called sLapPer  -http://slapper.band/content/about-slapper

It wasn't too hard for Nigel to find Stephane's flat, in fact Nigel arrived an hour early, but not wishing to look presumptuous, walked around the block a couple of times before finally ringing Stephane's bell.

On entering he instinctively picked up a copy of  Belgravia magazine from the foyer, knowing that Darrell would read it from cover to cover. It's really the equivalent to our own Wychavon magazine, but an awful lot posher, being printed in black and white, which posh people seem to prefer.

Then he made his way up in the lift .......

...... noting that posh people's lifts don't smell like some of the other lifts he's travelled in, if you know what I mean.

Stephane welcomed Nigel with open arms and traditional French kisses to his checks, telling him to kick off his shoes, loosen his belt and that Brunch was almost ready in his wonderful, lilting French accent.  Nigel was in seventh heaven.

Brunch did not disappoint, served with real, not pretend, Bucks Fizz and cooked with French precision, he tried hard not to woof it down as I had advised him, but it was so delicious. In the end Stephane had to tell him that six "mercy buttercups" was more than enough thanks yous.

Nigel observed that Anglo French Belgravian salt ......

....... and pepper were just as glamorous as he thought they would be and made a note for possible gift ideas for Darrell, who loves such erotica exotica!

And then there was pudding a light palate cleanser ..........  a small scoop of sorbet drenched in Stephane's mum's homemade and exceeding potent orange liqueur!

So potent that Nigel forgot his carefully rehearsed manners and like Oliver Cromwell Twist asked for more.  Well, Stephane was naturally delighted of course, but went a little more carefully with said liqueur the second time around  ...... telling Nigel that he should, perhaps, take a little nap in the afternoon, instead of hitting the charity shops of Belgravia as they had originally planned.  What is Nigel like?