Masquerade Ball

Tonight was the Winter Masquerade Ball at my club, which I'd been looking forward to for some time. I'd managed to pick up a really beautiful purple mask at a carinval shop last week, so I was all set to go to the ball.

Unfortunately, it was a busy day at work, which meant that I ended up spending my last conference call desperately trying to talk on the call, while at the same time doing my hair. Hence I didn't manage to style my hair nearly as well as I would have liked, but I suppose these are the things you have to deal with when you're going to a ball on a Friday night.

I arrived at the club and immediately ran into Emily and Toby, a married couple that I'm friends with, basically after we kept running into each other at all of the various parties we go to. Emily is about seven months pregnant, but still amazes me in how she is an absolute regular presence on the party circuit! I guess some people just take easily to pregnancy!

I had simply carried my mask with me on the Tube, figuring that I would put it on when I arrived, so I was surprised when I got to the club to see that most everyone was already wearing their masks. Hence I had to try to put mine on straight away, although 'twas hard without a mirror. Had to run down to the ladies powder room to sort that one out after a bit!

After I handed over my coat, I was told that my cocktail reception was in the Upper Drawing Room, as opposed to the Smoking Room, but when we got there, there was almost nobody there! Hence, Emily, Toby and I stood around with a few other people and took a few pictures, before we dedided, "This is ridiculous!" and went over to the Smoking Room to join the rest of the crowds. I almost wondered if the waiters standing around with the champagne would take us to task for going to the "wrong" cocktail reception, but I credit Toby with pointing out, "This is our club and we paid money to come to this event, we can do whatever we want!"

So we walked back over to the other side of the club, and I must admit it was really cool and spooky, how they had people wearing huge feathered masks, black lipstick, and all dressed up, standing on the stairs and holding large candles. Perhaps a bit odd that we use people as decorations, but it definitely looked like something a bit out of "Eyes Wide Shut", and so gave you a little shiver up your spine.

I can see why they had decided to try and split the champagne receptions, because the Smoking Room was definitely over-crowded. But Emily deftly made her way through the crowds, until we recognized more people we knew. I saw James Manning, a chap who I used to go hunting with when I was at Cambridge, and greeted him, even though I did have to tell him who I was, as I guess the masks obscure our features more than you might think! He then thanked me for rescuing me from a dreadfully dull conversation with a lawyer, saying my timing couldn't have been more impeccable. I guess sometimes I really do interrupt at the right moments!

After an hour at the cocktail reception, the majordomo came in, rapped his gavel and announced, "Ladies and gentlemen, dinner is served!" So we all made our way down in to dinner.

The Younger Members were all dining in the Princess Margaret Louise Room, so I made my way there. I had originally been excited to see that I was at the same table as Emily and Toby, but there was a seating plan, and I found myself at the opposite end of the table from them!

Even worse, whoever had done both the table design and the seating plan really had no idea what they were doing. For some reason, they had decided to arrange the tables in an "E" shape, with one long table down the side, and then multiple short tables in rows down the side of the room. This meant that people on the long table down the side all sat only on one side of the table, meaning there was nobody across from me to talk to, so I was limited for conversational companions to the people on my left and my right. Yet even worse, the person seated to my left decided not to show up! Hence, the poor girl on my right was subject to all of my conversational attentions...

And yes, there was a girl to my right. Knowing how upset I can get about people who fail to adhere to the standard boy-girl-boy-girl arrangement in seating, you can imagine that this didn't go over well with me. And I suppose I would understand more if the numbers were odd, and a few girls had to be squashed together at the end to make it work, but when I looked around the room there were clusters of all men sitting together, and then clusters of all women. Who on earth had done this seating plan? It was a wreck!

So the starters were all out when we sat down (I realise, a concession to being short-staffed and the large numbers, but I never really approve of food sitting out like that), and so we all sat around for ages staring out our salmon terrines, unsure if there was going to be a grace or what was going to give us the go-ahead to start. Particularly as there were chairs still empty (like the one to my left), implying that there were people yet to arrive, nobody wanted to inappropriately dig in too early. Everyone picked at their bread (the only food you can start in early on, under the pretense that you're just buttering it), and I think everyone actually ate their entire roll without touching their terrine as we continued to wait for the signal to start. So I think we must have sat around for a good 15-20 minutes, staring at our food, before slowly everybody realised that there was going to be no official start to the meal, we just needed to eat at some point.

The main was then a rather measley small pheasant, and then a white chocolate champagne bomb for dessert, which was actually incredibly rich and quite decadent. Yet, I was so miserably bored at dinner (and still recovering from the night before, to be honest) that I figured I would probably be heading home early.

Still, when I met up with Emily and Toby again (freed from the miserable seating plan), they suggested that we go to the bar, which I figured we might as well check out. Toby got me a G&T, and then I ended up in a random conversation with a girl who was trying to find a girl to set her male friend up with. It was so weird, because I was standing near two girls who were guests for the evening, and upon discovering that they were not club members, she dismissed them so quickly that it made my head spin. Yet, equally alarming was how, after discovering that I was a member of the club, she quickly managed to trap me in conversation with her male friend.

He turned out to be a nice enough chap, a mathemetician from Trinity, and we actually ended up making jokes about standard deviations. (Yes, I am such a geek that I can actually laugh at stuff like that). Yet, it wasn't quite like the conversation with the 25-year old that had actually intrigued me with his intelligence, it was just a conversation with a nice-enough guy. Although, even as I was starting to think I should think about this one, he said to me, "Excuse me, but I really need to go take a piss." Ummm....wow. Thanks for telling me. I think I suddenly understand why you are single.

Then across the room I recognized a girl whom I had met at the ceilidh at the Caledonian Club a few months ago. I couldn't remember her name, and of course like an idiot, when I asked her again, promptly forgot it again. Still, we had a lovely time talking, as I complimented her hairstyle, which seemed to really charm her. Honestly I did like it, as in a room of people with absolutely flat and dull hairstyles, this girl had a dramatic 1940's style pinned wave, and bright red lips, making for a stunning, unique look that really stood out. Not sure if I could carry it off myself, but I was definitely impressed.

So we ended up chatting a bit about whether we had spied any boys worth our time in the room, and she cracked me up with her blithe dismissal of most of the boys there. I took a bit more forgiving view of the men there, saying that there was always potential to be found, even if you had to dig a bit to get there, but I agreed with her that with all the options out there, was one ready to be "caught" quite yet? Of course, the old joke is that when a girl is interested in a guy, she should "chase him until he catches you", but really there are points where I'm not sure I want to be caught, even in an honest-to-goodness pursuit. There really is a genuine fear of settling too early, of not fully exploring all of the options first.

Then Toby found me again and suggested that we go up to the library terrace, at which point I said, "For cigars?" He hadn't been thinking of that, but then said, "That's an excellent idea! Why don't you go up with Emily and I'll get the cigars!"

So we went up to the terrace, and while I had some trouble getting my cigar going, I got it eventually. Admittedly it was odd to be up there smoking cigars right next to a woman who is seven months pregnant, but she was chain-smoking her cigarettes while we were there, so it didn't really seem like the cigars her husband and I were smoking were going to make things much worse.

Toby and Emily are an interesting couple that way, in that they seem determined to not let children get in the way of their lifestyle at all. Emily actually already has a three-year old (I don't know the backstory, but I have to admit I'm curious), yet I see her out at parties all of the time. I asked her about it briefly, and she said, "Well, he goes to bed at 7 PM anyway, so why shouldn't we go out after he's in bed? What are we going to do just sitting around while he's asleep? And fortunately for us he loves his nanny, so I don't have to worry about leaving him with her."

So Emily continues to smoke and drink throughout her pregnancy, and seems absolutely unflagging at 7 months pregnant, staying out until 2 AM with no apparent difficulty. And she assures me that even after the baby is born, I will continue to see her out at parties, and I believe her on that one. Already she and Toby talk about how their children will go to boarding school as though it's the most natural and obvious thing to do, and I realise that this is quite simply how some people regard raising their children. My dinner companion as well was a graduate of Cheltenham Ladies, and joked a bit about how she never got to see the town, as only her parents were allowed outside of the school when they visited. But this is the way some people grow up, I guess...

From what I can gather, Emily is from a landed and monied family, whilst Toby's is a bit more "unusual", in that his father is gay and constantly cavorting around with some 20-year old lover. Yet, Toby has made buckets of money despite coming from not much himself, which works for his wife, who is pleased to be able to continue living in the same lifestyle that she grew up in. They are tremendously sweet with one another and rub on remarkably well, and while they have a relationship that must seem incredibly strange to any outsider, I can actually see why they married. Who else would ever be so well suited to one another?

So they told me a bit about a friend of theirs that they want to set me up with when I'm coming to theirs for lunch next week, and I laughed and promised to keep an open mind. I'm sure any friend of theirs would definitely be interesting!

We then decided to head back inside as we'd finished our cigars (ah, the pleasures of smoking a cigar!) and Emily wanted to try her hand at some blackjack in the casino. Toby and I had no interest in gambling however, so we just sat in some of the big old leather chairs and talked about buying houses, and the various places they had been looking at living.

We then realised that it was 1:30 AM, and so time for breakfast. Hence we went down to the Princess Margaret Louise Room and had some pastries, coffee and danishes, and just talked a bit more about secondary schools and their importance in people's lives. Joined a few other friends who were also still managing to survive until breakfast, and we all started joking about how we all no longer had the stamina of May Balls, where we had to make it until 6 AM to be in the survivor's photograph, with breakfast not until 4 AM!

Finally, we had one last dance in the ballroom, before it was definitely time for those carriages at 2 AM. And to think I'd been talking about going home early! So I went and found my coat, went outside and hailed a taxi, and was finally home in my own bed by 3 AM. Whew, these balls are exhausting!