Two Girls Two Cups

Where to have a quiet drink on a Friday evening? A place where you will actually be able to hear what the other person is saying. A place where no one will spill beer on your skirt. A place where there are no maggots in the beer, or in the toilets.

Voilà! Presenting the Royal Academy of Arts. On a warm night, their courtyard is just about the most glamorous, but quiet, place to be. Think foutains, think full moon, think saxophonist playing outside on the street. Think location, location, location - Picadilly, right opposite Fortnum & Mason. Does it get any more glamorous than that? And the best thing - no one is there. They have a little bar outside, which serves white wine, red wine, rose, champagne and Pimms. Go for the champagne because everything else is served in plastic cups. The sweet, sweet icing on top - it's outside, so you can even smoke.

And we sat there, two girls, one bottle of wine, two cups, a packet of American Spirit cigarettes. You know that bit in Sex and the City where Aidan and Carrie are standing outside next to some fountain, and Carrie is wearing a white dress and Aidan is wearing a tux and he pesters her to marry him? It felt like that kind of a place. Very New York. Very Evening-at-the-Met. Very not-London-at-all. Except no one was asking me to tie the knot, so I inhaled American Spirit and enjoyed the evening in peace. It might have been the last warm summer evening for a long time in this city. I can smell the winter creeping in. No wonder all my friends are leaving.