My first Christmas lunch of the year and how I bumped into Jesse Jackson
As part of my work portfolio, I chair the Policy Stakeholder Committee of Nominet, the body which operates the .uk domain name system for the Internet. The pattern is that we have a conference call once a month, we meet in London once a quarter, and we meet at Nominet offices in the Oxford Science Park once a year. So I spent today in Oxford.
None of the Committee members is paid anything so, as a ‘thank you’ for our year’s work, we were taken for lunch to the Randolph Hotel. I chose the traditional Christmas fare and had turkey with all the trimmings followed by Christmas pudding – all of which I love.
After the meal. I was passing through the hotel reception when a big, black guy and I accidentally brushed shoulders. As we each turned to the other to apologise, I realised that he was American civil rights activist Jesse Jackson. Apparently he was in town to address the Oxford Union. Sorry, Jesse.