...Party

Last night was Bill's work Christmas party, this year at the Holiday Inn at Seaton Burn. This is actually not for the staff from his residential home down in Stockton, but for his previous work place, which is up here in Newcastle and therefore more accessible. The managers are all in and out of each other's places for audit and support, training, etc. so he still sees these people fairly regularly. He's going to do the festive manager thing with the lot at Stockton next Friday on his way back up from Hull. I won't be doing that one with him, thankfully.

I have to say that although the food is usually good, I enjoy the dancing and his work colleagues are always very friendly, I was already about partied out. I just fit into the black velvet trousers I bought in Colchester, which have seen me through every party event since that time, but unless the running picks up or the calorie consumption drops off, that won't be the case for much longer.

It's a predictable routine and I could have written this in advance (and I did draft bits of it), but this is the first year I had my handy-dandy camera. Everyone gathers in Naz's room before going doing to dinner and then we all troop down to the dining hall.


We all commented on how packed together the chairs were.


I don't think I've never seen so many people squeezed into a room for a meal.


The food was fine -- nothing special, but pleasant enough. I took pictures of the people I knew from previous years - the lovely Michelle with her step-mom who reminds me a lot of Angelica Houston.


Richie and his girlfriend Karen were good company.


Naz brought her niece and her husband. I didn't meet the niece, but she sure is pretty.



Then the 'band' came on, a tribute (what they call copy cats here) band to Take That. I don't know if I was just too busy when they were 'big' or if they just didn't make it to the US or what, but I never heard of them until I moved here. Has Robbie Williams made it out of the UK? I mean, does anyone in the the US or Australia know who he is? I quite like his music. Apparently he was once part of Take That, which if I'm honest I'd rather Leave It.


Anyhow, Brits are really big on singing along and the dance floor was pretty much just a bunch of girls dancing together and singing along to their favourite hits. The music was OK, but probably not as good as if I'd recognised it.

I did try for some fashion shots (since you liked those, Pat) but truth be known there wasn't much worth capturing. I did notice that tattoos are very popular here.


I danced a few with Bill and then Karen invited me to dance (that's very common here in the UK, girls dancing with girls; I think it's a great custom) and I think I did a couple more with Bill.


About midnight we decided we'd had enough and we went to bed. I don't think we'll be doing that particularly party again next year. I'm sure there are better things to do with the money.