Yesterday we spent the afternoon in Paddington Recreational. Phil made a huge Pimms and gingerbeer cocktail, thick with fruit and mint. He warned me before hand that drinking a bottle of Pimms is the equivalent of a bottle of Gin. Martha had a couple of drinks, Patrick had one or two, Jake, Patrick's sane cousin had none as he was on the motorbike. That means that within no a couple of hours, owing to the heat, Phil and I managed to work our way through the whole lot of it. This happens at least once every summer. You underestimate the Pimms and you end up rolling around, on the safety of the grass, laughing, and laughing some more.

Patrick had us in stitches with stories of his imaginary employees. A couple of years ago, in order to secure a meeting with an important prospective client, he invented an employee called Josephine (followed by a fantastic double-barelled French surname). Josephine teased and flirted in her emails, reeling in the new prospective clients, they would find her irresistible. Once the meeting was secure, Josephine would write and tell them that she was unable to attend the meeting as she was off playing tennis in an exclusive tournament in Lausanne, Switzerland - but her trusty partner, Patrick would be attending the meeting in her place. All the imaginary employees would CC each other in on emails and everyone was involved. Josephine was killed off, and apparently there are still people who inquire as to her whereabouts.

We got to watch all the Australian alpha gorillas throw balls about in the park, thumping their chests while their women looked on. This proved quite entertaining until a man with a dog that retrieved tennis balls turned up, the dog won. And I don't like dogs.

A fine time was had by all.