Last Christmas my boss promised to have a Christmas drinks party for his direct reports. It got postponed until January 2007 since every one's diaries were rather full during the holiday season. In May we were still waiting. A colleague, James, and I decided this just wasn't good enough and took the proverbial bull by the horns and scheduled the party and told our boss he was paying. This worked. And last night we had our Christmas drinks party.
11 of us were scheduled to meet up at The Orange Tree pub in Richmond at 6:30 pm. James and I were meant to take the train from Windsor to Richmond but when I spoke to him he informed that he would be catching the 18:23 train. I'm not entirely sure in what world James thinks a 18:23 train will get him to Richmond by 18:30 but I didn't want to leave my colleague, Carol, waiting alone at the pub so Marc agreed to drive me the alleged 25 minute journey so I could be sure to get there by the time Carol's cab was due to arrive.
We left the house just before 6 pm. The traffic was gridlocked all the way there and I was the second to last to arrive followed by Carol whose cab was stuck in similar traffic! Even James arrived long before I did at 7:15.
It was meant to be a gorgeous summer evening but of course the weather wouldn't cooperate and we were dodged with rain the entire evening. Luckily, it did stop each time we moved pubs. We enjoyed a few drinks at a pub on the river Thames and had dinner at Strada. the food was OK but I wouldn't recommend it to a friend and I doubt I'd go back.
We had loads of fun chatting and getting to know each other a little better. We all tend to work hard and in dispersed office locations. We really only get together as a team for one 1/2 hour meeting weekly. These tend to be all business. Short and sweet. So it was nice to chat with colleagues outside that serious setting and have a laugh.
I work with a good group of people. They are very clever and passionate about their work. They make me better than I would be without them.
I arrived home far too late to be called sensible!
3 comments:
A Christmas party in June means you won't have to wait so long for the next Christmas party - great idea!
J
Better late than never.
Sue
Speaking of unusual parties, I want to have a "Wedding Party" at some point in the next few years...everyone has to wear their original wedding gowns.(No cheating with a bigger gown from the second-hand shop!) Two good outcomes: 1) we get to enjoy our gowns again 2) we have to be the same size as the gown in order to wear it again. Can you be in town for this event? I have two sizes to lose...and based on Steph's recent post, she has a few sizes to shed as well.
The men can wear PJs -- they rented their wedding clothes anyway.
p.s. Joe needs his own blog. Have you seen what he's done to mine lately? Next he'll be arguing what "is" is. ;-)
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