Our first British Work Party

Last night, we attended Jim's work party. And what a party! The Brits take their office parties very seriously. Whether or not your office party is a success, is, apparently, a reflection on your business as a whole. So, there was dinner, dancing, and DJ, and lots of booze. I was horrified at the debauchery going on around us. There was groping, inappropriate dancing, make out sessions, and all kinds of stuff that you don't usually see happening at a work party. It was great...almost like being out in a club! One guy, in particular, was making his rounds with the scantily clad younger ladies. This afternoon, we were talking to our cab driver about it and he said that his first three passengers had been still drunk from their office parties the night before and that one of them, who was the boss, had a big bump on his nose and didn't know how he got it. So I guess what happens in the office party, stays in the office party. Being new at this, we were on our best behavior. We placidly ate our Christmas Pudding (SO GROSS) and only danced to songs that were appropriate (not Beyonce..but Scissor Sisters were ok!) We left the party at 11:45 so that we could catch the last train home and it was still going strong.

Jim looking dapper in front of our oh so velvety red curtain (which is in our temporary flat's living room)


And me, dressed up for my first London party.


Christmas pudding is a bread pudding type concoction, except it contains treacle, which is really thick and sweet and all those dried fruits that make up fruit cake. It's served with brandy sauce. Personally, I am not a fan. Nor am I a fan of mince pie, which is a pie with mushed up fruit from fruit cakes inside it (and, in some cases, mince, which is ground meat). In the interest of being diplomatic and not ethnocentric, I will say that these desserts are different than what I am used to. Traditional English Christmas dinner is a lot like our Thanksgiving dinner--turkey, a stuffing type paste, roast potatoes, and vegetables, all smothered in gravy (BROWN gravy, it was pointed out to me, not WHITE like the Americans!)


We didn'tknow many people at the party, but we did know these good people--Jim's new co-workers! They are all very nice and fun and some are Americans and some are Brits. None of them were groping each other or acting inappropriately.


Jim with his Christmas Cracker crown and Christmas Popper graffitti! Christmas Crackers are this fun little packages that pop open when you pull them. They contain a surprise (like a game or, in one case, some fingernail clippers), a crown, and a joke. Christmas poppers shoot confetti strings out with a pop when you pull their strings.


Dancing by myself to some acceptable song...Jim wasn't in the dancing mood. The couple to my left were alternating between groping each other while dancing and lying on top of each other at their table.


Waiting for the tube. Moments later, on the tube, Jim stepped in vomit. Then a very loud, Italian woman(we think), teetered onto the train, slipped in the vomit, and toppled onto an unsuspecting man, seated below her. There's lots of drama on the drunk train.

Waiting for the Docklands Light Rail (DLR), the last leg of our long trip home.


Jim concentrates on the last DLR of the night(which was full of even more drunk people than the tube), as the doors close behind him.