Good vibes: Manga Banga is themed for the famous Japanese comics
(Picture: Daniel Hambury/Stella Pictures Ltd)Pride comes before a fall — or in my case, being mugged two nights on the bounce. I know what you’re thinking: some guys have all the luck. Landing from Corfu last Monday, pleased to be browned and with a freshly-detoxed liver, the night after I had a watch torn from my wrist. No harm done, really, but the next afternoon I headed for a cheering-up lunch, left a Soho club at eight o’clock, and was swiftly clobbered by a movie heavy who nicked another watch, knocked the stuffing out of me and then took off with that too. Oh, and he did a thing to my eye that means I’ve had to keep telling people in pubs that I’m not about to ask them for money.
I’ve chalked up my disappeared tan to him for good measure. But, well, I’ve had worse runs. And while the Met were actually very good, friends have been astonishing. There have been offers of tea, beer, wine, limoncello, margaritas, Martinis; some taken, some not. Packages turned up unbidden: Panzer’s Deli, Five Guys, Amorino. I ate at the French House (a favourite), the expert El Pastor, the rackety Firebird, and Bellamy’s — where it’s impossible to feel unsafe (a man on the table next to ours insisted that I take his painkillers, which gives you the measure of the place. No wonder the Queen eats there). And then there has been the thoughtful outpouring of threats of retribution on my behalf, drill bits through the knuckles and so on. People can be so sweet sometimes.
