“No, no, no, we are not watching them!”

Above: the Eleanor cross at Charing Cross. I have never looked at it properly until today when I took this photograph. It seemed a brooding monument, as if resentful of the centuries of grief it commemorates (or it could have just been my mood, or indigestion from the Pret a Manger sandwiches).

Lunchtime and I was bored so I went to see Kim Blacha at her place of work (bridal wear designers in one of the side streets near Charing Cross). It was the first time I had seen her place of work, which comprised showroom/shop on the ground floor, designers above, and admin and PR on the top. I was surprised at how well appointed the place was - obviously there must be a lot of money in bespoke bridal wear.

I took in some sandwiches from Pret a Manger. Kim made some tea. We went into the boardroom where they have an HD television.

We had lunch and talked, while Kim flicked around the music channels, lingering on a series of Abba “classics”. A slight disinterested press of her thumb and Abba were zapped away to be replaced by a Take That revival song (revived band, not revivalist music). This video promo was styled in the form of a Busby Berkeley production from the golden age of Hollywood, with hundreds of Ziegfeldesque dancing girls, images of radio waves, the shorter Take That member dressed as Fred Astair in a tailcoat far too large for him (so that he resembled Mickey Mouse).

The band moved up and down a gigantic staircase in one of the silliest routines I have ever seen. Occasional close-ups showed you professional dimples undiminished in faces that were clearly no longer young. I’m not sure why I found the video disturbing (possibly it reminded me of the uncomfortable fact that I am aging myself), but I grabbed the remote control.

“No, no, no, we are not watching them!” I said.

Take That vanished to be replaced by Andrew Neil’s midday politics show. Keith Vaz, disgraced former Minister, was in a studio discussion with a bland Conservative MP (a man so insubstantial that he fully justified the description “shadow” spokesman) talking about detention periods. Keith Vaz dominated the screen, a beautiful plump serenity pervading his on-screen persona.

Keith Vaz is MP for Leicester. He has been turning up in the media a lot recently, in a worrying indication that he is trying to rehabilitate his career (“look at the hands” I said to Kim, “those are the fingers that were caught in the till”). The re-emergence of Keith Vaz mirrors that of the appalling Jonathan Aitkin, so that you wonder if retro-sleaze is the new political fashion.

“Okay, you win” I said to Kim, “let’s have the Abba classics back on”.