Drinks with Sir X

In the interest of preserving privacy, we'll just talk about Sir X here.

We got to the wine tasting, hoping for good things (a survey of Italian wines), but quickly worrying that it wouldn't be.  The girl running the tasting was on her own to teach and to pour.  The 2 girls sitting to our left seemed a bit timid and we guessed not very wine-aware.  The 2 guys on the right seemed like business people and barely smiled to acknowledge us when we sat down.

But, after the 2nd glass of wine I got to talking to the one on my side of the table.  Most of the people we've met have been EXTREMELY polite and interested in helping us as tourists.  He quickly became one of those people.  Made a couple suggestions about things we might do, even taking out a pen to write them down (including nearest tube stop -- people are helpful).  He mentioned the idea of going to Parliament to see "the questions".  I was proud to report to him that we'd already done that.  And he mentioned that he'd been to Parliament recently for a cocktail event.  I asked what kind, and he just said a charity thing.  Purely out of curiosity I asked him if it had required the same sort of security that we'd gone through to get into Parliament.  He paused, then told me that actually he was a Lord.  I was surprised and though that he was kidding me.  I guess he felt that he needed to prove it, so he pulled out a card and did.  Got the conversation going in a whole new direction.

The House of Lords is like, for the U.S., the Senate.  The difference being that they are not elected -- at all.  We knew that there were either appointed (by the Prime Minister, in which case they have the title for life) or hereditary (meaning that somewhere in their past their family had a lot of land and power).  So, I asked.  And this guy, Sir X, was a hereditary Lord.  Many more questions followed.  Easy person to talk to.  And very interested in helping out with ideas so that we'd enjoy our time in London!

Aside from pulling out a card to prove it, he showed me pictures on his iPhone of him with Camilla Bowles and also him with Prince Philip.  And said that he was going to a lunch (500 people at it) with the Queen for her Jubilee next month.

His wine tasting partner was someone who worked at Fox (not saying more out of privacy).  As we all said goodnight at the end of the tasting, we got both their business cards.  I don't know if I'm doing a good job conveying how interesting this was, but if not, trust me, it was.

And, to further make it clear, I've subsequently asked 3 British people about meeting a member of the House of Lords.  Here's a summary of what I learned.

First off, there are less than 800 of them for the entire country, and only about 100 are hereditary.  Not (according to the people I talked to) someone you'd typically just meet, let alone meet at a wine tasting (I guess possibly you'd meet at a political or charity event).  I sort of got the sense that none of these people I'd asked had ever met one, let alone spent 2 hours talking to one.