Well actually it was only a little better than pants, but the main thing was that Ady showed his face and we were there 🙂
It started badly, we pulled up at the place Ady was sure it was being held at and there were no signs of life (I should probably explain at this point that the company he works for grows and supplies bedding plants and the like to big multiples such as B&Q, so the party was being held in a cleared out greenhouse – one of the huge, big as a warehouse type ones all bedecked with tinsel and patio heaters and the like), so he decided he had got it all wrong and it must be being held where he actually works (a further 10 miles or so on from the 10 we have already driven from home), so off we set. We arrive there for further no signs of life and it is by now 9pm, we decide to return to the first venue by a slightly different route past a couple of other greenhouses and if we find nothing resembling a Christmas party then to return home! We pulled up, a mere hour and a half and 50 odd miles later back where we started to find the party at 9.30pm 🙂 Actually that was okay – we quite enjoyed being coocooned in Ady’s little car driving along chatting without small people in the back interupting and we also sang along to our favourite Christmas songs without being forced to listen to Rudolph the red nosed reindeer 27 times (for the record we listened to Fairytale of New York about 6 times, Shakin Stevens Merry Christmas Everyone 3 times, (and yes we did sing along very loudly to the ‘haa – aa – ving fun), I Believe by Robson and Jerome and The Power of Love (FGTH) twice – which we also discovered the actual words to as both of us had always thought they were something else (the line ‘burns the soul’ – I always thought it was ‘birds of soul’ and Ady thought it was ‘hurts me so’ !) so we were quite happy about it all really.
We got there, I got introduced to a couple of people as ‘and this is my wife Nicola’ and shook a couple of hands (some firm, some limp, some of the variety where they clearly feel they have something to prove and nearly take your arm off!). I chatted and laughed merrily, I ate cheap sausage rolls and twiglets which probably would contain traces of 37 diferent urines if sent for lab testing given the fact they were in a bowl which everyone had rumaged in, laughed with Ady about the ‘seamless’ merging of the DJ from ‘hey Baby’ (ooh, arh!) into ‘Step into Christmas’ and stood around a fair bit smiling inanley at people who were not even sure who Ady was let alone me – cos he works mainly ‘on the road’ and only actually goes into the office for a couple of hours on a Monday morning although he has been there 6 months in terms of being a work colleague he has been in the office for about a fortnight so is still the new boy. I chatted for a while with the MD who comes from the next town to where we lived in Manchester and tried very hard to talk to the wife of Ady’s ‘best work friend’ but as she had some high powered office job and lists shooting and horse riding amoung her hobbies I did struggle a little:-)
We were also viewed as odd as Miranda (our old boss & actually a very close friend despite my occassional whinge about her) is the daughter of the owner of the company and everyone knows that so they are cagey around us.
So we did our ‘have to get back for the babysitter’ routine and home we came. My mum apparantly had about 5 minutes between Davies going to sleep and Scarlett waking up (judging by the crying induced blotchiness of her face she’s been awake for some while) so she gladly handed over a now giggling cos Daddy was home child and left!
Anyway, this was to be a brief update on Christmas parties and now its rambled on. Jax has emailed me with possibly the best idea ever so expect a surprise addition to my blog someday soon and also expect a rant from me about Santas Grottos tomorrow too 🙂 Night all x
I’m glad you liked the idea 😉
Comment by jax — 18 December 2004 @ 1:11 am
ooh ooh, what is it?!!!
Comment by Sarah — 18 December 2004 @ 7:48 am
I always thought it was ‘purge the soul’
Comment by Jan — 18 December 2004 @ 11:14 am
She’s gonna start charging us to read it, £1 a word …..
Comment by Chris — 18 December 2004 @ 12:18 pm
Yep, it is purge the soul, I just googled it 🙂
Nah a quid a word would make me loads of dosh if anyone was prepared to pay it given how much I write, but I think that would be a very speedy way of having nobody reading anything I blog about ever again! Besides, how could you think that Jax would have such a mercenary idea 🙂
Comment by Nic — 18 December 2004 @ 4:49 pm
Tell us then come on you two – whispering in corners LOL Nic I just blogged that LC’s pressie has arrived – thank you and it will go under our very festive tree until the day.
Comment by Karen b — 18 December 2004 @ 6:30 pm
Can’t tell atm, want it to be a surprise! But I will just say Hanging Gardens of Babylon 🙂
Comment by Nic — 18 December 2004 @ 7:14 pm
if that doesn’t give it away nothing will!
Comment by jax — 18 December 2004 @ 10:32 pm
I was just waiting for that! I was in an advertising meeting yesterday, and the account exec was giving me the old luvvie stuff, and he said”I’m seeing, like, you know, the Hanging Gardens of Babylon” Cue me rolling under the table in hysterical laughter.
Comment by Joyce — 18 December 2004 @ 10:46 pm
D’you know if I achieve nothing else in all my life if I can say that for a small group of very select people the mere mention of one of the wonders of the ancient world can bring me to mind, then my dears, I have done what I was put here to do!
Very, very drunk and have had a relapse of flu (hence mixing of alcohol and the evil tablets has made me incapable of sensible blogging) will return tomorrow xxx
Comment by Nic — 18 December 2004 @ 11:08 pm
(((Nic))) hope you got a decent amount of sleep and that you’re feeling better by the time you read this – you owe us a grotto rant don’t you?
Comment by jax — 19 December 2004 @ 8:31 am