Celebrities, Strawberries, Clowns, and a Lemur

So we’re back from our little sojourn by the Black Sea, having drunk a wider range of cocktails involving Martini than we previously knew existed. The most important thing to say is that we survived. Ali, Andrew and Paul flew to Moscow early for a bit of sightseeing, while Ivor, Rusty and I were still slaving away in our day jobs, which meant we had to fly through the night, cross Moscow in a rickety minivan (with a bar across the seats like you get on a rollercoaster) and then hang around in another airport for a few hours.

We eventually got to Sochi, and eventually managed to check in and I got some sleep. Meanwhile Ivor was hard at work (he’s never out of the office), Paul took a dip in the Black Sea, and Rusty was getting on the vodka, having power-napped at various points in the journey.

We were playing at the Elle magazine aftershow party for Russia’s biggest film festival, along with a masterclass from the dancers from the Russian equivalent of Strictly Come Dancing.

The doors opened, and the beautiful people came in to get their hands on the food and the booze – a giant ball of strawberries, disconcerting fruit/meat combinations, and cocktails involving Martini. But no beer. I guess it isn’t very glamourous to drink beer.

Everywhere we looked, paparazzi were bombarding people with flashbulbs. The only trouble was that we had no idea who the famous people were. Apparently Martin Scorsese had been there earlier in the week, but we had to be told by a helpful British actor that the people in front of us in the queue for the free booze were “Russia’s equivalent of Pamela Anderson” and a clown.

Needless to say, they’d finished off the booze by the time we got off stage, but thanks to the editor of Elle we managed to wangle ourselves past the security into the after-aftershow, where there was even more Martini, and a pool. When the booze ran out there, it was time for bed, then back to Moscow, where we just about had time to spot a lemur in Red Square before getting an early night, so we could get a scary 4am taxi to the airport and back to Heathrow.

Malcolm