The Very Cool Set.

So, I was invited to be my Other Best Friend's plus 1 (who says I can't have two best friends?!) last night at a chi-chi photography exhibition opening in a bargehouse behind the OXO tower.

The exhibition was for Jude Edginton, who has just won "Picture Editor's Magazine Photographer of the Year" and yes, the photos were really quite good.

Upstairs on the second floor of the bargehouse was the bar area.

Free champagne, burlesque door bitch, fantastic venue, great DJs - what more could you ask for, I hear you say? The thing is, that at events like this, it never really seems to go anywhere.

Invites are sent out to all these people in 'the industry' and then they all converge in their little cliques and stand talking to one other. No-one talks to anyone they don't know (why would you do that?!); anyone acting remotely interesting (like the guy who started dancing to PJ Harvey's "Down by the Water" in a rythmic yet staccato fashion very early in the evening) gets stared at, and not in a good way; the singles scout avidly for potential partners (but definitely don't speak to anyone they think looks interesting).

So after an hour spent in the very cool bar at the very cool exhibition in the very cool bargehouse, OBF (Other Best Friend) and I left. And went down by the river to drink a couple of pints. So cool.