Party With A Dinosaur
Yesterday was our company Christmas party and despite the many rumours floating around that it was going to be at The Shard, we found out in the morning that it was to be held at the Natural History Museum.
After work a few of us headed over to South Kensington for a beer at a nearby pub while we waited for the doors to the museum to open. When it was time, there was a champagne reception waiting for us with enough time before dinner for all of the women to compliment each other on their outfits, before we headed into the main room for the event itself.
The Hintze Hall was spectacularly decorated and all of our tables were set up around Dippy the Diplodocus, the 110 year-old life size cast of the Diplodocus discovered in the US in 1898.
Somehow I’d been split up from my colleagues for dinner and had to endure the annoying, slightly drunk conversation with a colleague I didn’t know who, while new to the company, kept saying how she was keeping her options open. Not really the time or place to talk like this, especially to someone you don’t know!
Dinner itself was the regular fare of Christmas dinner bookended by a ham hock starter and trio of desserts and it was during the latter that our CEO gave his speech, thanked us for our hard work, announced we’d all get a small bonus and the raffle was drawn.
The raffle is the highlight of the Christmas party as the prizes are usually holidays and extra time off to take them. In past years they have tended to start off with a lavish week’s holiday somewhere nice like the Bahamas, with the next two prizes being smaller vacations, ending with a long weekend in Dublin, Paris or suchlike. This year though the prizes were all of a similar value, being week holidays to Munich, Barcelona and Prague. Still, not to be sniffed at.
After dinner there was a DJ and then a pretty decent band playing to get the now drunker crowd dancing. Not long after this I had to leave to make the dreary journey home but it had been a good night. The stories when I get back in the office tomorrow could be interesting.