Evening at a dinner for Luis Pilau, the evangelist. I’m not evangelical myself but I had promised Pastor Nims Obunge (who is just the finest pastor you will ever meet and truly one of kind and originator of the Peace Alliance) that I would come to the dinner as he asked.

Needless to say, it was pretty evangelical. I was sat next to Pastor Agu on my left and Labour council leader (for now) Charles Adje – and had a really interesting evening. Pastor Agu had been a lawyer before he saw the light. I was expounding to him the difficulty I have with making a leap of faith. Can’t do it. Not my thing. But having been to a couple of black evangelical church services – you have to say they have something engaging. You can almost feel the spirit move – even if you are not religious like me. Anyway – Pastor Agu was telling me about his conversion – and how he had had a misspent youth. A young lady (later to be his wife) invited him to one of these churches. Being keen on her he went. And after a few visits thought he would give it the same try that he had given to all the vices when young. He tried them – so he would try this. And it happened for him. I understand from Nims that Pastor Agu can hold 30,000 people in his thrall when he gets going. Very charismatic guy.

Not so struck with Luis Pilau himself. He spoke for over half an hour and it’s just not my thing – but the whole evening was quite interesting and thought provoking.

On the tube on the way home, had a thought about my estate agents idea – instead of having 17 different premises in Highgate Village taken up with estate agents I had speculated about having them share premises. In fact, there is an office block to rent at the bottom of the village. They could all get in there and share service. It would be fabulous for the punters and fabulous for their expenses! Anyway – the point I was mulling over is that there are actually places where different firms share premises already – e.g. in airports – where space is at a premium too! So – not so far fetched after all!