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Tulips for sale

Major medical congresses in whatever specialty nearly always produce moments of difficulty for the organisers. In 1982 I was secretary to the organising committee of a major medical congress, which was held at the Royal Festival Hall in London. At the time, I was also secretary of the parent organisation—the World Federation of Societies of Anaesthesiologists—and so I knew many of the participants who came from all over the world. One of the principal social events was an evening concert in the Royal Festival Hall itself with a female solo pianist. I visited the area beneath the stage before walking back over the footbridge to the hotel where I was staying. I heard a commotion and found the conductor, Michael Tilsom Thomas, trying to placate the almost hysterical pianist. On inquiry, I discovered that the stage lift had broken down and the big concert Steinway could not be moved up to the stage for the rehearsal. A hurried telephone call produced eight burley men from Steinway who, having removed the legs, carried the piano up the emergency stairs to the stage. This problem having been solved, I walked back across the footbridge intending to try and find a suitably luxurious bouquet to present to the distressed soloist after the performance. 
 
Time was getting on, but, fortunately, there was a flower seller's barrow at the end of the footbridge and I stopped and started to select flowers for a handsome bouquet. I asked the barrow boy if he would be able to wrap it up as a presentation bouquet. “Sorry guv,” came the reply, “all my fancy wrapping materials are in my store up by the Strand and I can't leave the barrow.” I did not have time to find anywhere else so I offered to look after the barrow while he fetched his wrapping materials. He happily accepted this compromise—I was buying a lot of flowers—and for half an hour I sold flowers, ducking down behind the barrow every time I saw congress participants whom I knew coming down the steps from the footbridge. It all had a happy ending as the concert was a great success and the soloist seemed to be delighted with the massive bouquet. Little did she know its provenance.