To celebrate my birthday, I decided to co-opt an Inter-Club event, the Royal Overseas League Centenary Ball that was happening the day before my birthday. I went with my flatmate and my friend Dr T, as well as having the great folks in the crowd there to celebrate with.
It was a black-tie ball, so I wore this flowing blue-and-green dress that I'd bought on a whim in Australia. Although I almost didn't wear at the last-minute because I was having such trouble finding a bra that worked with it. (Seriously, I almost thought I was going to have to resort to duct tape. Yet, with a bit of ingenuity, I came up with a pretty nifty engineering solution). Probably worth it, because the entire time everyone kept saying, "I LOVE your dress". My flatmate even said that when she was trying to point out who she had come with, all she had to say was, "I'm with the girl in that dress" and people would just reply, "Oh my goodness, that's such a beautiful dress!" Although the annoying part is, it's such a distinctive dress, next time I wear it, everyone will undoubtedly remember it!
I was probably the world's worst hostess to my guests, as when we arrived I kept seeing people I knew and so just abandoning them to go talk to all of my other friends who were at the ball. Yet that's why I had brought Dr T, as he's just about the perfect guy. Charming, handsome, and supremely self-confident. (Seriously, we've been out in pubs together, and he's managed to convince random strangers to buy drinks for us. He's amazing).
They had a magician to entertain us, and I will say that I was really impressed by one of his tricks where he had me write my name on a card and he kept making it reappear in various places. Even though I was the key person involved in the trick, I couldn't figure out how he did it.
Dinner itself was fantastic, really excellent quality food. After dinner, they even called me up to the front of the ballroom and had about all 200 guests sing "Happy Birthday" to me.
After dinner, we retired downstairs, although it was funny how a large group of the girls got stuck in the loo listening to this American female academic in a sari talk about her life in India in the 1970's. She was absolutely fascinating.
There was a band, but most of us just spent our time in the bar, chatting to each other, and catching up on all of the various company. Then at midnight (when it was properly my birthday), my flatmate had the clever idea to suggest a champagne toast, at which point, everyone sang Happy Birthday to me again.
Continuing my role as a terrible hostess however, I lost Dr T somewhere along the line, and later got a message from him that he couldn't find me and was headed home. Oh dear! But I stayed for one last glass of champagne (bought for me by this Navy doctor in uniform, who also happened to be named "Adrian", it was quite bizarre), until finally Emily and I decided to head home too at around 2 AM. A good evening out, but as is becoming my custom now that I'm older, I just wanted to go home and go to bed!
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