Mood:
accident proneTopic: Elisabeth's Entries
It is 7:52am. I only came home at 3am from a work do in London. Because Stephen was asleep then, is still asleep now, and is sleeping-in at work, I thought it easier to communicate what happened last night through our favourite medium: the blog!
So at 10 o'clock yesterday morning I was told there was a free place at the H & V News Awards
H & V News Awards (Heating and ventilation-oh what an exciting world!) and that they were deciding for me that I was going. Not last minute at all!
Ok...so I slapped on the only dress I have, ironed my hair and waited for the cab to arrive at 4:35. The fellow arrived, picked up a cooworker and the marketing manager (who was up for an award) and we made our way to London. Except, the privite hire driver didn't know where he was going. Strangely reminiscent of the bus driver from Montreal to New York who upon approaching the NYC skyline at 5am yells back into the bus in his German accent "Does anybody know how to get to Manhattan?)
The point of all this being is that all three of us had motion sickness because his driving, much like his sense of direction was crap. Only I ended up succombing to the puke once we reached Westminster. Luckily, a lot of people throw up in this guy's car (might it be the pine-scented air freshener?) and so he had puke bags readily available. Go figure.
I find that once I've puked then that's it. I feel better. But this guy was so hard on his gear box and brakes that I started to feel nauseous all over again. Luckily we made it to the Grosvenor without further incident. But, because there are no bins due to bomb scares, coupled with the fact I did not want to walk into the Grosvenor with a bag of sick, I had to ask the cab driver if he minded taking care of my vomit. So he did. Classy.
Then we met up with the rest of the team and found our way to the champagne reception (perfect for the post-puke stomach...ugh). Lots of suits and schmoozing. Yawn. Eventually we were called down to the main floor for dinner, where the were 100 tables, each with 10 people, each superbly lit.
We ate, I got heckled for being vegetarian (predictable) and then the awards were handed out. Unforutnatly our team was not the winner, but did get runner up. The most interesting part of the evening was that it was hosted by well-known comedian, Jimmy Carr. Jimmy Carr homepage
He seems just as impressed by hosting a heating and ventilation awards do, than I was with being there. He had to tailor his jokes to please the midddle-age, white, businessmen (there were only about 13 women out of 1,000 there...) and so peppered his jokes with sexism, rascism, and laughign at 3rd world debt. He was funny, but I'm not so sure about his audience.
Anyway, after the awards a totally-ignored jazz band played and I was chatted up by a married man who didn't stop chatting to me when I told him I was married. He agreed to let me take his picture for the very purpose of posting it on this blog:
Everyone then headed over to the Dover Street wine bar Dover Street Wine Bar where a really good soul/funk band (Xtatic with Vanessa Haynes) was playing. Thankfully the evening was paid for 'cause it was 12 pounds to get in...and it was packed. I had barely any room to groove.
After being gropped and pushed around, it was time for us to take the cab back. And it was the same damn driver.
Luckily I drank responsibly throughout the evening, or else I would have puked again. He's a terrible driver! Even when I was home lying in bed, I felt the nausea.
So I'm off to work, won't see Stephen for another 30 hours or so and I've eaten carrot cake and toast for breakfast. Should be a fine day.
Here are some other pictures of the evening;
