Boris Bikes are Bonza

So here you have the Master Marketor about to make her first journey on one of the new Barclays Bicycles which are popping up in blue ranks all over London. I have been longing to have a go for weeks and finally did it last Friday.

(Members of the Marketors may recall that my theme for this year is Sustainability. One leg of sustainability is the environment, but actually I did it for fun too.)

The system has been designed with enormous care and it worked a treat for me. You have to register and get sent your key but once that's done, you're away in seconds. Just plug in the key, pull out the bike and off you go. (I did a practice run up a quiet side street to get the saddle height right and to test the brakes and gears.)

The bikes are stable and easy to ride. There are only 3 Shimano gears - a great relief to those of us brought up on Sturmey Archer clickety clicks, before the days of 21, 24 or even more gears. As you can see there is a "basket" on the front with a bungee to hold on to your bag. The reflective jacket and helmet are my own - strongly recommended but not provided.

So off I spun from CASS Business School, across the City, over the river and back to Waterloo station, parking the bike in a slot beside the Festival Hall - all in less than 20 minutes. Cheaper, healthier and more fun than the tube or bus. And I'm not a regular cyclist.

Our Clerk, Adele Thorpe, is also registered. She is taking advantage of the two hours of bicycle training offered by Westminster Council to residents who want to use the scheme. What a brilliant idea the whole thing is.

Note for ladies - definitely a trouser and flat shoes activity. Narrow skirts a no no, and I don't think you'll catch me doing this late at night in an evening dress either.

Back in the saddle

August was quiet for external events, but internally our Clerk, Adele Thorpe, and the committee have been working hard on the preparations for the Charter event in October. She also organised our first walk through of the ceremony at Guildhall, together with the (helpful and encouraging) Equerry-in-waiting to HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, who will be presenting the Royal Charter to us.

1st September and the Livery world wakes up again. A conference on World Class Cities: World Class Universities was hosted at CASS Business School. Speakers included Professor Tony Travers of the London School of Economics, Dame Judith Mayhew Jonas, formerly Chairman of the Corporation of London's Policy Committee, and Angela Knight of the British Bankers Association. Lots of interesting snippets that I can use for my own forthcoming presentation to the Wardens' and Court Assistants' City Course on 20th September.

2nd September and I witnessed Court Assistant Peter Rees delivering a tour-de-force presentation on marketing planning to a 10-strong team from the Guildhall Libraries. In a little over 2 hours he took them through a structured, joined-up approach that they could do for themselves. Supported by Michael Harrison and Sue Garland Worthington, all very well received. This is part of our highly active Outreach work - more than 60 projects being supported by Marketors who give their time pro bono to charities and others. I have asked for an estimate of the financial value delivered by this great team - I bet it's more than we give in cash terms to charities and educational awards.

A beery summer interlude

Last week, in conversation with members of another Livery Company, I mentioned that our members were going on a pub crawl that evening, suitably presented under the title, "A City Walk: including traditional taverns of Smithfield and Clerkenwell". "Ah", they replied, "that's marketing for you!"

You may well laugh, but on a mid-August, mid-week evening, no fewer than 46 members heard Murray Craig (who does professional City guiding occasionally alongside his day job as Clerk of the Chamberlain's Court - the man who conducts the City of London Freedom ceremonies) telling us the history of Smithfield - ecclesiastical, poetic, poignant, occasionally bloody and frequently beery. Did you know that the Bishop's Finger was a signpost on the Pilgrims' Way pointing towards Canterbury?

And there was our own Freeman, Richard Teideman, handing out vouchers, good for a round at each of our tavern stops on the way. (Did you ever refer to five pound notes as "Blue beer vouchers" in your youth? Well there it was, only they were white.)

Despite the on-tap attractions, remarkably, the group stayed together for most of the journey - well done Murray and Richard.

Signing off for the holiday season

Tomorrow we have our third Great Event of the year, the Lord Mayor's Banquet at Mansion House. I am personally looking forward to it very much.

Afterwards, many members will be going on holiday, although the preparations for our Charter event in October will continue throughout the summer.

If you want some light holiday reading, try C J Sansom's "Dark Fire", a mediaeval murder mystery set entirely in the City of London. I have been intrigued by the 1540 map drawn inside the front cover, showing so many of today's streets with the same names, the Fleet River, Smithfield when it was a field etc. It's one of a series but stands alone if you haven't read the others.

Your correspondent will be back in a few weeks' time.

From the old to the new - Thursday 22nd July

Last night with the Basketmakers, founded 1569. Tonight with the Insurers, founded 1979.

While both displayed the common values of the Livery, at one the conversation was mostly social, at the other there was more discussion of a commercial nature. This illustrates the variety among Livery Companies. One could almost segment them into:

• the modern companies, almost entirely made up of professionals from the 'trade';
• the old and wealthy, whose members often join through patrimony, and who spend a great deal of time managing trusts and charitable works;
• the niche, perhaps with an ancient trade that has no modern equivalent;
• the ancient but modernised, who have allied themselves to a new, related trade or profession.

The marketers among you will have spotted that I have fallen into the temptation of segmentation by characteristics rather than by need, but it's only a bit of fun!

The Master Insurer, Graeme King, is a Scot so his excellent dinner was rounded off with a poem from the much-ridiculed poet, William McGonagall, and live bagpipe music.

A basketful of jollity - Wednesday 21st July 2010

Tonight I had dinner with the Basketmakers', whose Clerk is our Past Master, Roger de Pilkyngton.

Every Basketmaker is encouraged to make at least one basket before taking the Livery and there was a display of baskets made by their Yeomen members. I was lucky enough to be given one as a gift - most generous.

One Past Prime Warden (Master in basket-speak) introduced himself to me as "An old Basket" which I am sure is a joke with whiskers on, but nonetheless fun to a new hearer. Another assured me that the Company had been banned from the City of London at one point in history because they were suspected, with their bunches of withies, of starting fires.

The evening was memorable, not least because the Beadle asked my permission to use the table beside me on which to rest his block of wood. He gavelled with such energy, that the china and glass jumped and 'chinged' each time in unison, and on one occasion a chip of wood flew off the block. I purloined it (the chip) as a souvenir.

Modern mediaevalism with the Knights Bachelor - Thursday 15th July

This is the Council of the Imperial Society of Knights Bachelor and, on the right, their breast badge. It is a society committed to upholding the ideals of chivalry and public service. Each year they hold a service in St Faith's Chapel in the crypt of St Paul's Cathedral to which Livery Masters and Clerks are invited.

What a privilege. With its low, arched roof the chapel has a distinctly mediaeval feel. The knights parade with their symbolic sword, spurs and pennons (swallow-tailed flags) and the Council in these glorious robes. Cathedral-standard music and a sermon from the Bishop of London about sustainable societies (and bees) made it a real treat for me.