Saqib Ahmed Mir ( Zak) is my daughter’s godfather and one of my few friends. He is also the most unreliable man on this planet and it is entirely his fault that this will be a light blogging day. You see he was meant to pop in to Real Man Pizza for a quick glass of wine at around six last night. By the time he actually pitched up it was 11 PM, I had already had a few glasses to while away the time and was finding it hard not to pen a third article comparing the accuracy of shots by the woeful England football team and the laudable Israeli Defence Forces.
By the time Zak left, our mutual pal Alpesh Patel was heading off for a 5 AM TV appointment despite my misguided efforts to persuade him to pop into Real Man for a quick drink instead. Alpesh being a sensible fellow says he will pop in another time. Having collapsed onto a sofa at Real Man I am now. 210 minutes later, back at my desk. I am, as you may imagine, not feeling very well this morning.
This will be a light blogging day.
Zak is, for now, still working over at t1ps.com, the company I founded 12 years ago but left in September. He was keen to distance himself from the “comments” penned about me on that website by the young men who now write it.
I always enjoyed working with Zak. He is a delightfully right wing fellow. I cannot imagine that many of his fellow Glaswegian Muslims share his political views. While totally illiterate ( a result of his Harrow education) he is a clever fellow. He is one of the few folks who can push me close at Trivial Pursuit and shares my love of good pop and rock music ( i.e. nothing produced after 1995). Hence he could name nearly all the artists on the Real Man play list (stumped only by the Long Riders) as we polished off another bottle.
The conversation was wide ranging. And I remember some of it.