I am supposed to be out this Wednesday evening.
It’s a big work do. There will be about 750 of us ‘staff’ at a black tie ‘end of year and awards dinner’ in a hotel conference centre in west London.
I don’t know what time dinner will be served, but we’ve been told the bar will be open from 18.30 to 23.30.
So if I stick with it I need to sort myself out with a monkey suit for Wednesday evening. And if I stay until… erm… 23.00 I might get home by 02.00. And then get up at 05.00 to go to work the next day.
Hmmmm…
None of this is very attractive.
But it might be a shrewd diplomatic move to go, to see and be seen.
As you might guess from the numbers, it’s just a staff night out; wives, husbands, girlfriends and boyfriends aren’t invited because that would double the already seriously large number.
The meal, I should imagine, would be served on a production line model with staff running around like worker ants under the burden of many plates.
I’m secretly dreading it.
But feel that I should go.
I just know that they’ll cock up my vegetarian meal order – with 750 folk on the roll I’ll be in the minority and will get pushed to the back of the queue. So instead of cold shoulder I’ll probably be dining on a cold non-meat dish.
Ho hum.
I am also supposed to be out next Wednesday evening for the yard Christmas meal. Much prettier, much younger company and no talk about work but much chat about equine-related things.
Gosh, it’s so hard to compare the qualities of the two evenings!
B.
Are they the same night? or is the yard do the following week?
I remember going on our Christmas do when I worked in Hemel. For some reason that was on a Wednesday too.
I had to get a taxi from Luton to Hemel (15 quid). We then caught a coach that the company had laid on, into London. The function itself was OK, nothing special, and finished about midnight. The coach got us back to Hemel for 02:00 and I then had to pay 25 quid for a taxi back to Luton. And it took an hour to arrive.
I got to bed about four and had to be up again at seven to go back to work.
The following year’s do was also on a Wednesday. I never went. Again. Ever.
Maybe Wednesdays are the cheapest day of the week to book a function room.
Hi Sally. They’re different weeks. One is this Wednesday the other is next.
Masher, you paint the kind of picture I’m keen to avoid. I’m half playing with the idea of getting a hotel room in town.
I would definitely stay in London that night, otherwise the travelling might just be too much especially if you have a hangover.