Delayed update: Christmas Lunch

Having taken all day to do something that could have taken 1-2 hours had I wanted to work harder, I now sit here again spewing my thoughts onto cyberspace.

So here is my delayed update on the Christmas Lunch that I was so worried about attending.

The hotel was very very swish indeed! When I got dropped off in front of the hotel, someone hurried up to open the car door for me! I clip-clopped around in uncomfy but pretty shoes trying to find the place where the function was...got there about half and hour late when people had already finished pre-lunch drinks and mingling (thank God, because I wouldn't have had anyone to talk to!). I was seated on a table of pupils and other my age people, next to the pupil from my section. Introduced myself to everyone on the table (introductions are useless around here- they still act like they don't know you after you've introduced yourself- but more of that gripe later). Conversation was actually not bad, except for a few times when everyone else was talking to someone else, but at least I could just sit there and eat!

Hehehehe...they had funny party favours. Everyone had a colourful plastic hat (I was trying to figure out if they really thought people would wear them!) and a little package of colour themed noise makers- whistles, those honker things which unfurl when you blow them, party poppers (no one popped theirs...boo!) and best of all...CLAPPERS! (Remember...like the Deloittes clapper they gave out a year ago!!) When the managing partner got up to speak everyone clappered him...heheeh. So he spoke for a bit, then someone else talked about the firm charity and showed a video- the highlight being seeing silent dude dressed in a green leotard Peter-Pan-esque get up complete with hat, giving out presents at the orphanage they visited...heee!!

Food was a particularly extravagant buffet. Which was a bit of a shame, because when I'm uncomfortable I can't eat very much. There were prawns, and scallops (none of this peeling business either!), salads, noodles, roasts...the desserts were divine (they were also arranged on this very very cool pillar/stand thingy)- well, except the gingerbread tiramisu- that was suspect.

The bad thing about not knowing anyone is that it was very lonely. No one to go to the buffet with. No one to go to the toilet with (not that I'm a girl who needs a toilet entourage). In fact, when I went to the toilet, I left my bag at the table. When I got back, everyone had left, how rude! When I bumped into them walking around the hotel later, they didn't say hello. In fact, today I bumped into a few people I met at the lunch who I had been chatting quite a bit to, and they acted like they didn't know me.

So all in all, it wasn't too bad at all...and definitely not as bad as I thought it would be.