Lansdowne Club

My office HR Christmas party was this evening, although a friend of mine from my Oxford days, who had moved back to Australia several months ago, was arriving and needed a place to stay. So I agreed that he could stay with me, although I had to hope that he managed to get to my place from the airport before I needed to leave for the party in the evening!

Luckily he did make it with no problems, actually arriving somewhat early, which then totally threw me for a loop as I hadn't finished doing my hair (again trying out the hairstyle that I want to do for the ball next week, although with just a hairclip of roses in it instead of real fresh flowers). Still he arrived and I gave him my keys, finished getting ready, and went off to the Lansdowne Club.

The club was in the same general area that my club is, although going in, it seemed a touch more modern than my club. My club really relies on old gilt embellishments, big leather chairs, and crystal chandeliers everywhere, while this club had more of a 1920's feel to it. So not exactly modern in an art-deco sort of sense, but definitely more modern than mine, yet still a nice and lovely place.

When I arrived, I ended up talking to Liz Hopkins, who was the Senior Executive from Human Capital Strategy I had interviewed with ages ago, and who had failed to hire me. All water under the bridge however, and she took the time to introduce me to Shirley Adams, another Senior Executive who told me some very funny Tiger Woods jokes. They both seemed absolutely fascinated by my hairstyle, and were amazed that I had done it myself, but I pointed out that it was not overly complicated to do. (Yes, kind of aweird conversation to be having with Senior Executives, but so it goes). Indeed, as I looked around, I saw that there was only one other girl there who had properly styled her hair, making me wonder when on earth doing your hair went out of style?

I also ran into Ramsey Mira, a Senior Executive who I doubted would even remember my name, so I was totally blown out of the water when he not only remembered my name, but also mentioned to everyone that I have a new role and asked how it was going. I guess it really goes to show that little social graces like remembering people's names are truly they keys to success!!

I then made the rounds talking to a few other people I knew, and even saw a chap wearing a Hawk's Club bow-tie (dark maroon with gold stripes), but I never got to ask him if he indeed went to Cambridge.

I sat down at a table with a few people I recognized, most from the compensation team, I think. It was really striking how different people looked when all dressed up in black tie.

For dinner, we had a vegetarian starter of some sort of quiche pie that was absolutely delicious, then a heavenly rare steak (it was like they had just barely touched it to the grill, my favourite way to do it), and then we finally finished with a cheesecake and a chocolate box with fruits in it. The coolest part was how we were served however, as all of the waters would gather around the table with the dishes, and then on some pre-arranged signal, serve us all at once in one coordinated motion with crossed arms. Kind of bizarre, but also really cool, and also nice in that you didn't have to wait for ages for one last person to be served, you could all tuck into your meal immediately!


As we were finishing our meal, this waitress got up to the microphone, apologized for interrupting our meal, and said she'd been challenged on a bet to sing a song, and so started shyly and awkwardly singing a song. Then a guy in a chef's hat came out, applauded her and said they didn't think she would actually do it, and started singing too. When she joined in again and they started singing opera, you realised that these were much more accomplished singers than we might have thought!

They then sang "Nessun Dorma", which absolutely gave me chills running down my spine. How I love opera, and I really need to go more!

Then, to get the crowds involved, they sang the "That's Amore" song, as well as "Summer Nights" from Grease. Then they had us all raise our glasses for the "loyal toast", but just as we were about to say, "To the Queen!", the band Queen started playing, and they went on with "We are the Champions" and "I'm Having Such a Good Time". Finally at the end, they stood on chairs and took their costumes off, to reveal t-shirts with the name of their group, "Incognito", underneath. Although an unusual bit of entertainment, it definitely was different and got everyone on their feet. So a good act, I think!

After dinner, the band began playing, but it was too loud inside, so I went to stand outside with the smokers (despite the fact that it was absolutely freezing outside). I met a girl who turned out to have gone to Oriel, Oxford, and we had a good time chatting, so I offered to take her to dinner at the O&C at some point in January. (Much to my amazement, I actually remembered her name and remembered to e-mail her when I got home).

Then finally as it was getting late and Tom was leaving too, I walked home with him, and as we got to talking about clubs and fancy dinners, I suggested that we do dinner at the O&C as well, along with his wife and Princess. That would make a nice little foursome, don't you think? Given that I remembered to e-mail all of them the next day as well, I guess I hadn't had as much wine as I had feared. Also it probably helped that Tom bought me a water at the little corner shop in the station as we headed home, so now I definitely need to take them out to dinner!