It's all good

Well unsurprisingly I survived the 'corporate bash' on Friday and though amusingly it was worse than expected, the dire-ness of it all made it slightly more entertaining!

You know how these places are, portion control principles and portion control standards, a posh hotel that assumes we minions will be suitably impressed by the name and that they need not make the usual efforts they know their day to day customers would demand.

It transpired that the party was being held in a marquee, granted a big, professional marquee but still, in the high winds of Friday evening, a tent by any other name. It was cold, very draughty and in usual money gabbling way it was stuffed to the gunnels with way too many tables, gold painted, faux elegant, plastic chairs and low end decor. The lighting was straight out of a 70's disco and hung on such low gantry's we all spent the night trying to shield our eyes from green and red spotlight glare, the food was less than average and the 'entertainment' appeared to be a disco with a DJ who was mostly promoting a local radio station! The whole thing was reminiscent of a low budget wedding, only the appalling speeches were missing!

But, it's very tackiness was mildly entertaining in itself and we all made the best of it. As luck would have it we were seated with all our usual gang of friends and a considerable distance from the boss' so things could have been worse, the beer was free, no-one required issuing with an ASBO and the taxi turned up prompt at 12.30 to effect our escape for another year!

Yesterday evening however was a whole different story. We had a long standing invitation to dinner with a colleague of Fletch's who moved to the area recently and lives just around the corner. We had met him of course but not his wife so it was with a little apprehension that we set off in the evening to their house wondering how well it would all go.

We needn't have worried, it was a lovely night, good food, good wine, excellent coffee, excellent cheese and most importantly excellent company, we all got on like a house on fire! It was chilled, comfortable and a real pleasure. Their daughter, who is to celebrate her first birthday on Christmas day was an absolute delight (even to me who doesn't 'do' children) and the evening just flew by, none of that sneaky clock watching of the previous evening!

It's all good, 'K' is a stay at home mum and new to the area so she knows even fewer people than I do. We have plans to meet up for a coffee and a gossip now and then and we have an open invite back for dinner etc.....you never know if these things will turn into lifetime friendships or just occasional pleasant evening but it got off to a good start and it will be nice at least to have someone close by to share the odd cup of coffee and a natter with.

So that was our weekend. We had also managed to squish in an hour or so with Punctuation for a coffee and a chat yesterday which was cool (more on that another day) and now today we are recovering from the two late nights and the surfeit of last nights feasting, before tomorrow sees the start of manic parcel wrapping and a final shopping trip in readiness for the big day!