Doctors and Nurses

It was a hash party this evening, as one guy was having a "flat-warming" (but as with all hash flat-warmings, they just take place at a local pub, rather than the flat itself), as well as another girl was having her birthday party, so to avoid having people choose between the parties, they just combined them both into one. (Such is the problem with hash parties. Although we're all a great group that loves to show up everywhere, we don't like having to choose between parties, hence we force people to combine them!)

They decided to make it a theme party (on a Friday after work?), and the theme was "Doctors and Nurses", so I decided to go with a 40's-inspired nurse's outfit. I looked up "How to Make a Nurse's Cap Out of Paper" on ehow.com, and I have to say I was actually quite pleased with the results, as it was quite convincing. Paired with a white skirt, white t-shirt, and white cardigan, it was a perfect home-made costume. When I arrived and saw all of the folks who had just bought a children's "doctor" play kit, everyone was really impressed with my costume, saying I'd made quite the effort (even though the only effort was really the nurse's cap!)

When I arrived at the pub at around 8 PM, I instantly realised I'd mis-judged the situation, as with it being a Friday after work, obviously relatively few people were in costume. Even worse, rather than picking a pub where we could take over a large area and really bring the party, in this case it was a loud, crowded, central-London place that was really more of a nightclub, and we had a tiny booth right next to the DJ booth, which was playing far too loudly. Classic case of "must shout directly into the ear of the person next to you in order to be heard." I hate those kinds of places.

As soon as I arrived, Blunder bought me a drink, and when I realised some of the others were keen to participate in drinking contests, I manoeuvred around and tried to talk to others. However, the friends-of-friends really didn't have much interesting to talk about, and it was hard to really strike up a conversation with the noise in the place being so loud. Many folks were talking about this football drinking game they were all getting together to play tomorrow, and everyone was asking me why I wasn't coming. Getting together in the middle of the afternoon to watch football and play drinking games? Not for me, thanks...

I saw Roofie a bit later, and he had the funniest reaction when he saw me, it was like he'd never seen me before, he was so impressed by the outfit. Or just seeing what I looked like with make-up on and not all hot and sweaty from running. Or he might have just had quite a few shots already. It's hard to know, but it amused me.

Lex bought me a second drink that really tasted "off", although I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it. Needless to say however, I drank it very slowly, as I wasn't liking it much, and I was also just struggling to figure out what to do with myself as I stood around with my ears hurting from the DJ bombarding everyone's ears. I took a break to head to the bathroom, where a girl there asked if I were part of a hen party. Which I suppose makes sense, as why else would a normal person be dressed in a ridiculous costume in the midst of a crowded bar?

Yet even when I came back out, I couldn't deny how bored I was. There was nobody there interesting to talk to, the music was too loud, and my beer tasted off. It was basically everything that is not my scene, as I imagined how much nicer it would have been to have spent the evening drinking champagne at the Lansdowne. I'd kind of thought that I might see the Giant Australian, but I'd reached the point where I just couldn't be bothered waiting around anymore to find out.

So in the end, I couldn't even be bothered to say good-bye to anyone. I fetched my coat, slipped past anyone who might recognize me, and just made my way to the exit and went home. The place was packed and there were people paying money to get in, but this was not the place for me. Maybe a bit lame to go home so early on a Friday night, but I was so much happier once I did!