I’ve had several drives into Central London this week. The first trip, at the crack of dawn on Wednesday was to deliver 12 table arrangements to Shoreditch Town Hall for the Forward Institute’s event and dinner. I’d never heard of The Forward Institute before so googled them and read that they partner with major organisations in the private, public and social sectors to help them revitalise their cultures, enhance their leadership and act better for society. They wanted to work with a florist with social purpose and I was delighted to be asked but I had a very tight deadline as they only contacted me on Monday. I’ve mentioned in previous posts the nightmare of dropping off arrangements in Central London and my fear of parking tickets, well, Wednesday morning was a classic. I was still reeling from the £9 I’d just spent on 2 average coffees when it dawned on me that the only way I was going to unload the arrangements was by parking in a suspended bus lane on a red route. My fingers were crossed the whole time and the Forward Institute’s staff were tremendous at ferrying the flowers inside the venue, only time will tell if the camera on the red route was also suspended! My second trip into town was to the Imperial War Museum late on Thursday night to collect flowers from the Urban Land Institute’s annual dinner and the whole trip was filmed by my daughter. It’s Episode 1 of “Behind the Stem” which films me from collecting the flowers to using them, she’s uploaded the reel to my Instagram account @the_flowerbank so please take a look. We’ll be filming Episode 2 later as we’re off to pick up flowers from a Swatch installation at 180 The Strand, next to Somerset House. The flowers and foliage will be used throughout the week at a family event at Noah’s Ark hospice on Tuesday and a wedding at Fulham Palace on Thursday. Have a great week. Ursula