LIKE 17 - Posh Picnic

It is a testament to the success of LIKE that members flocked to a picnic on a wet August evening when the only entertainment on offer was each other's company.

And that proved to be more than enough.

The meeting point was the Gordon Ramsay branded York & Albany pub strategically situated on the edge of The Regent's Park.

Trapped inside by the bad weather, it seemed churlish not to try some of the many cocktails on offer so I chose one wisely on the grounds that it had a cool name and had mint in it.

We still had the picnic that we had ordered but were banished to the basement to have it.


The food was what you would expect from a branded restaurant, small portions, hideously expensive but delicious enough to overcome those sins.

I had one of the vegetarian options, a fritatta which, to be honest, I had to Google beforehand to find out what it was. It's a sort of omelet apparently.

The conversations flowed easily and naturally and the wet weather and subterranean location were quickly irrelevant. A find-the-person-who bingo game was played to encourage mixing and to introduce the first-timers to the other members group. Jennifer gets a big thanks for doing this and doing the research on the attendees to come up with the questions.

Food and bingo over, we bid adieu to the Albany & York and went round the corner to the Edinburgh Castle where the conversations flowed even more strongly and in the next couple of hours I talked about subjects as diverse and unexpected as falconry and swimwear.

In the end the clock won and it was time to consult Google Maps to find a way to the legendary Mornington Crescent and the tube south and home.

And LIKE meetings look like getting even better with the move in September to a bigger venue. Good news all round.