Magdalene in the City

This evening was a Magdalene in the City event, which are always among my favourite events of the year, every single one has been a good time, bar none. This one did not dissapoint, as it was an absolute blast, as usual, and as usual I needed a bit of water and paracetemol the next morning. No idea why those events are always so messy, but yet they are! Although I felt like such an idiot, as when dashing out of the house, I just grabbed my Balliol scarf instead of my Magdalene one (I wear both of them pretty evenly all winter), but talk about the wrong event to be wearing a Balliol scarf at!!

Got to see Tristan there (he's still alive!), Matt Bullivant, Grant Saggers, and quite a few other familiar faces. Also got to see two guys who I always see at Magdalene in the City events, and our whole friendship is pretty much based around those events. It's hilarious.

A few years ago at a Magdalene in the City event, the friend I was chatting to said, "There are two men standing behind you who have been hanging out there for quite a while in the hopes you will turn around, I think they desperately want to meet you." So I did turn around, said hello, and when I turned back for my friend, discovered he had dissappeared! But it all turned out well, as I had a crazy evening filled with lots of champagne, late night drinks, and a cab home at 3 AM.

Then, at every MiC event since, I've always ended up going to dinner with these two, going for extra drinks, or just somehow having some sort of madcap adventure. And the interesting thing is that they're both about 5 years older (went up to Magdalene in 1993) and married. I'm better friends with one (a banker at Goldman Sachs) than the other (works at Deloitte), but they always come as a pair so I hang out with them both.

On the whole, it's kind of strange, because they're both married (the GS guy with two kids now, the Deloitte guy has one on the way in April), and yet always seem to enjoy going drinking with a young single girl like me. Nothing majorly inappropriate has ever happened, but there's always an interesting vibe there. I sometimes really wonder what's going on in their heads, but I have to admit it's flattering that they will always stay late and go to such lengths to spend time in my company.

So as usual, we stayed until the event ended, then went to the pub downstairs for drinks with Tristan and a few others. I tried my best to chat with Tristan for a while, and a chap Marcus who I knew from Magdalene and had run into recently at a club event. Yet too quickly I was bored with him and so turned over to GS guy to discuss the sorry state of my dating life. I guess it's just that I know time with the GS guy is precious, as we only ever see each other at these events. Hence I'm not inclined to waste the chance to talk to him, it's always such a treat.

As it grew late, we were getting hungry, and went looking for somewhere to eat. However in the City nothing was open at 10:30, which made Tristan and a few others give up, but myself, my two married friends, and Matt Bullivant all hopped in a cab to Soho, and found a Bella Italia that was just about closing. Seeing that it was a guy staffing the tables, I went in first and gave him my best smile and batted my eyelashes, and got us all seated. The guys were then all laughing about how far a smile must get me in life!!

Seriously, back to the "as a pretty girl you never pay for anything" issue, I tried to pay for the cab but then GS guy contributed most of the money so I ended up paying about £2, and I think I came out ahead on my meal as well. And it didn't escape my notice that a married guy was staying out until the last train home to hang out with me. Jeez, have I always had this much power over men? Why didn't anyone ever tell me about it?

Finally I made it home at around 1 AM, making it one of our usual adventures! No idea why these guys like me so much, but yet they do...