Wednesday

Tonight there will be a book launch celebrating former-Rolling Stones and Grateful Dead tour manager Sam Cutler, specifically his memoir, You Can't Always Get What You Want. As the book is published by one of "my" clients, it falls to me to arrange bits and pieces of the event, as well as travelling down to Notting Hill to sell copies of the book and generally help out. The first part of that is this afternoon, when I head to NatWest in Wood Green to collect change for the float.

The bank is absolutely packed, and I find myself 20th in line. It's a good thing I'm in there "on business" rather than trying to squeeze a bank trip into a lunch break or the like. When people ask the staff what's going on, the curt answer is "oh, it's because of the bank holiday". The fact that that was two days ago - and that bank holidays happen regularly enough that you'd think a bank should be able to recover from their own holiday - doesn't seem to register here. I stand in the queue for 40 minutes before finally getting hold of the coins I came in for and heading back to the office to make up a couple of posters and make sure everything else is in place.

After work I head home to stick a shirt on in an attempt to make myself a little more presentable. The venue in Notting Hill (Beach Blanket Babylon) looks like a bit of a swanky place so I feel it might be a good idea to make even the tiniest effort in this department. I jump on the tube at around 6 and after trudging up from Notting Hill Gate through some of the posher residential parts of this city (and man, the posh people look a bit weird around here - it's all a bit Stepford Wives) I arrive at the bar a little late and a little hot and flustered.

The place is just as posh as I'd expected, gaudily decorated with crazy paintings and presumably expensive gold-edged furniture. It is very much "not for the likes of me", but it's nice to step into places like this once in a while. We set up our little bookstall and meet Sam Cutler, who turns out to be a very charming guy with that look about him that suggests he's seen and done a few things in his time. The place starts to fill up and Claire and I start to sell books to everyone who comes in, while overseeing the signing of the books.

The most notable guest? Well that would probably be Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page, who strolls in to whispers and nudges from the elderly-rocker crowd (I am the youngest person here by at least 20 years) and happily poses for photographs with everyone who asks. There are other crusty musician types around too, but I fail to recognise any of them, ignorance-of-youth style.

A young Lithuanian waitress keeps bringing me glasses of red wine, so by the time we are packing up I'm a little drunk - but I am sure to get Sam to sign a dedication to K in one copy of the book, in which he writes: "To K, I've taught Mat a few rock n' roll tips, he'll be much better in bed now, get ready for a crazy ride! Sam Cutler".

Great work.