As I'm sure most (if not all) of you know, it's that time of year. Being a recent group transplant, this means two 'group' holiday dinners and one company Christmas party in 8 days. Now the development group dinner and the company party are on successive Fridays, which I personally find a bold scheduling move, but nobody seems to be complaining. And then squeezed in the middle on Tuesday there was my 'new' group dinner. Having been in the public sector in the US, I never was able to actually experience an American company party, but I did attend a few dinners involving the female types from my floor and some group lunches.
So here is a run down on what is involved in a group Christmas dinner: everyone leaves work and goes to the pub, have a pint or two and then continue towards dinner. The development dinner was a booked 'Christmas' meal at a soul food restaurant called Harlem. Such a 'Christmas' meal generally means you make your selections for a fixed price menu and there are poppers for everyone. This, as in the film 'About a Boy', results in everyone sitting around wearing a tissue paper crown for at least 15 minutes. My second group dinner was not a 'Christmas' meal and was at an Italian restaurant, so we were allowed to choose from the entire menu. It was a bit overwhelming.
Now, the real gusto behind these 'meals' seems to be to drink copious amounts of alcohol. At Tuesday's meal, between 24 people, estimates of the amount of wine consumed have reached 25 bottles. Sadly, I was limited to two glasses as my wine glass disappeared when I got up from the table after we had eaten. Alas, it was probably for the best, I was the first person in the office the next morning (at 9:30!). Both of these meals were followed up by dancing, both meals conveniently taking place at venues with dance floors and DJs. And of course the dancing was followed by people trying to figure out where to find a night bus (or if you're me, you leave when the trains are still running).
Now tomorrow is the company party. It really is along the same lines, with trip to the pub followed by dinner and dancing. Only as there are so many folks, we have a conference facility booked at a nearby hotel. And by nearby, I mean nearby. It's at the end Paddington Hilton at the end of our street. We secretly think they want to people to work as late as possible, as the party doesn't start until 6:30!
Additional notes: people all go to these events by themselves. Outsiders don't dine, but a few might drift in afterwards. The company contributes towards the cost of group dinners (apparently £12 per head), and higher ups usually pay considerable amounts out of their own pockets. The development dinner cost me £10 and the other one cost me £12. The holiday party is free, but they limit the amount of alcohol and then start charging for it after dinner is over!
For your enjoyment, and in what I have come to believe to be in the fine English spirit of making yourself look silly as often as possible at this time of year, I have included a picture of myself dancing with a train taken at Tuesday's dinner. And as a note - everyone had to dance with the train at some point! Oh, and yes, I got some salad dressing on my skirt.
3 comments:
Sigh, I remember non-government jobs in the travel industry. One year stands out because the party was at Tavern on the Green (yes, New York) including travel and lodging. I didn't go, because I didn't want to leave my then baby for even a long weekend. Silly me.
Now it's the pot luck in the conference room. This year very few brought dishes but everyone showed up. We got SWAG. I snagged a light-up pen that says 'Cisco' on it. Now I can write in the dark.
Our company party was a little different this year. It was scaled back to a cocktail party from 5 to 7 pm. We were told we were going to have surprise entertainment. This didn't go over well. We should have been told. The entertainment was a group of actors who were doing a murder-mystery type thing, only we didn't realize it. We would be chatting in groups, and then a strange person would butt in very forcibly and start making us do card tricks or take our picture, or rattle on about something, making conversation impossible. Many people just left while others were hiding out in the corner. Not only that, the room was so cold I finally put on my coat. A lot of people went out afterwards, but we didn't have any invitations, nor did we invite anyone out. We just went home, had dessert, and watched a movie. I think we were in bed by 10 pm. It was all very strange. Dad's company party the night before was very nice--blue cosmos, sit-down dinner, dancing, and flip books. We danced for our flip book.
my office party was last night...was a bit bizare to tell the truth. first of all there was a champagne reception in a room that had been drapped in while clothes and a girl singing in the cornor - looked really spooky and very odd. then we went downstairs for the food that was a buffet - now being a traditionalist i expected turkey potatoes and gravy - but we had steak (in a chocolate sauce) or salmon, potatoes, a roll and cabbage oh and some lettice - i can confirm that chocolate and lettice do not mix well! it was very random - but someone said it was traditional but ive never heard of it! oh and the food ran out because the servers gave out more food than they should of! comedy!
then there was live music and dancing...i fell asleep in the tube on the way home and had to get a taxi back to the flat as i was nearly at heathrow and was on the last train going west!
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