Posh frocks, Ab Fab and emotional awareness

This week is turning out to be quite a swanky one - on Monday I was supping wine in Chelsea with Rosemary Ashe, and last night it was the very, very luxurious - daaaahling! - St Stephen's Club in chi-chi St James's!

John-John and I were in our "posh frocks" again for an evening titled "Meet the Writers", an event that Paul Burston blogged about recently and caught my attention. Basically an upmarket book fair, the premise was for authors to promote and sell their books to the (hopefully) slavering - and rich - upper classes. So we decided to lower the tone a bit...

The main attraction that drew us to attend was not just the fact that Paul was there, but the presence of the wonderful and multi-talented Helen Lederer (one of our favourite comediennes here at Dolores Delargo Towers, not least for her appearances in The Young Ones, Naked Video, and of course Absolutely Fabulous).



And what a wonderful woman she is! Immediately on arrival, she greeted us like old friends, explaining that she was a "bit jet-lagged" and needed wine to make her feel better - and throughout the evening managed to secure quite a few glasses for us and for her "new best friend" Paul!



Speaking of drinking...

Helen Lederer - Be in The Now TV - Drinking

In her words "the only one here without a book", Miss Lederer was promoting her project Be In The Now, a hilarious spoof on godawful trendy "life coaching" gurus that involves a theatre show, a "self-help manual" (to be published later this year) and a series of online "webisodes" where she demonstrates her skills in "Creative Active Counselling"...

Let’s start with a fast track ‘check list’ of emotional awareness – Tick below if you feel a stir on any, either or some

- A) DO YOU FEEL eerily disconnected while watching ‘University Challenge?’
- B) DO YOU FEEL Shamed after being alone with a black forest gateau?
- C) DO YOU FEEL Status anxiety at a party when everyone except you, is more attractive, intelligent and charismatic (but only if they really are – don’t go down that road gratuitously!)
- D) DO YOU FEEL not a little depressed when you discover a new partner likes Nylon sheets, eels and gristle?

Well done –you see it’s not that hard to zone in is it – listen - I have ticked all of the above.

Why don’t you e mail me YOUR top tips that have helped YOU through difficulties
E.G. Queuing in Iceland (the shop, not the country), being dumped on e bay, or putting on weight.

I mention these as they are the UK’s three most empirically proven stressful life events *

But perhaps there are other things that can make you irrationally naked?
(No animal examples here please)

Get clicking – the cognitive message service is here to respond !!

* taken from research in the Lancet “When vicars attack” article by Dr I P Daly 96

Helen Lederer - Be in The Now TV - Visualisation

Hilarious - I love it!

Be In The Now website

We had a whale of a time - taking in the atmosphere in the club's beautiful rear garden, with its sweeping staircase overlooking St James' Park, bantering with the upper echelons of society, trying to get as many free glasses of wine as possible - and among the eccentrics and ever-so-slightly swish set that attended, my eye was strangely drawn by one rather cute photographer...



Paul promises to get Helen Lederer along to a future Polari, which will be fantastic (he also promises us Jonathan Harvey in the very near future, but I digress...) - I can see this particular team is going to run and run!

A brilliant night, and one that John-John and I will be talking about for a long time, no doubt...