The wife is about to abandon me again and dash off on a mercy trip to French France to help out the eldest daughter and the Anglo/oz offspring with a house move. Thus once again Huttonian is exposed to coping with life in the raw, the shopping, the housework, tree felling or at least log splitting, fire clearing and laying, bird feeding-the list goes on and on. One event which I can't pin on her is a trip to Eyemouth Golf Club to talk about my experiences in the Diplomatic Service to the local Rotary. I am sure to be quizzed about my distinguished colleague Sir C Meyer whose 'controversial' (his word) serialised memoirs DC Confidential have taken the readers of the Grudgian and Daily Mail by storm to the benefit of Meyer's Privy Purse by the sum of £150,000 plus . (Some one said £300,000) Good work if you can get it. Even changing my talk to 'TD15 Confidential' is not going to raise a brass farthing but at least I'll get a very nice supper. I have raised £86.50p from a silver collection at three talks on the Middle East at the University of the Third Age, also in Eyemouth-and this is not beer money but for our charity Cerebral Palsy Africa, the brainchild of the Wife. I note that half of the Meyer's cash is going to his wife's charity dealing with the problems of abducted children by estranged fathers and this will allow the organisation to pay Lady Meyer £30,000 a year for her executive directorship. ( I am endebted to the media for this gen) Sadly CPA can't afford that kind of specie, neither for the wife nor the chairman of the Trustees and I am told that Rotary will not accept a plea for cash from its visiting speakers for any cause, however deserving. So I sup, I sing, I go.
Mind you I have a few kiss and tell tales of my own-probably not worth one fifty or three hundred grand-how many Ambassadors can claim to have been trodden on by Lady Thatcher at a Buckingham Palace reception: 'Sorry Young Man' she said making me a disciple for life. Not Sir C you can be sure.
More startling revelations later if (a) I am spared and (b) my agent (Hutton Think Tank, Media Section) agree.
