Charity Ball

Although I had a ball to go out to in the evening, when Doro suggested that a group of us meet for lunch at the club, I figured, "Why not?" So did myself up to a reasonable degree, and then dashed over to the club, where I met Doro and her squash partner in the bar.

We were shortly joined by the Wild Welshman and G, and I had to give the guy credit for being brave enough to face down lunch with three girls. Yet we had a really nice lunch with a bottle of wine, and good conversation throughout the afternoon. I will say this about the Wild Welshman, is that I always enjoy talking to him. We always seem to make each other laugh.

Since the weather was nice, after lunch we all went up to the terrace, where we continued to just chat and enjoy the sunshine. Doro left somewhat early as she was feeling poorly, being that she's still recovering from a cold and had pulled her back whilst playing squash.

After she left, this guy I recognized showed up with a friend to sit out on the terrace. As he came out I gave him a smile and nod, because I totally recognized him, but just absolutely BLANKED on his name. And it was one of those situations where I was saying to myself, "C'mon brain, you KNOW this! It's not Gobby, it's not Southworth, it's.....jeezus brain, what is wrong with you?" I mean, I had all of the correct details (why I knew him, who I knew him with), but just not the actual name.

When I needed to leave myself to go get ready for the ball in the evening, and the Wild Welshman had enough of telling G he was going to the gym, and not to the park to feed squirrels with her (?), we all got up and of course I had to go over and say hello, still desperately hoping that somewhere along the way, my brain would kick in and come up with the correct name. Alas, it didn't, so I looked like a total dork as he greeted me with an enthusiastic, "Hi {my name}!" and I had to reply with the overly enthusiastic, "Hey....YOU!" And then of course was unable to introduce either G or the Wild Welshman, so had to leave them to do it themselves. I am such a dork.

I do like this chap, I really do though, so when he suggested we get drinks sometime I agreed and have actually followed up. And hopefully his name will stick in my brain this time!

After the lunch, I made my way home, and upon passing a flowering bush with some really beautiful flowers that smelled amazing, I grabbed a few and put them into my hairstyle for the evening. I thought they looked quite nice and relieved me of the need for perfume (the flowers did it for me), I was kind of surprised when not a single person commented on them all evening. How weird. Anyway, I was late getting going to meet everyone at this hotel bar, so I grabbed a taxi there, another £17 that I've got to realise it was a bit of a stupid expense.

Joined the others, which included the Head of Inter-Club (who I think has a slight crush on me), Piers (who also probably has a mild crush on me), a guy whose birthday it was, a few girls I'm friends with, and the American Guy I Once Hooked-Up With. After we'd all gathered at the hotel, we walked over to the ball, which was held in the Westminster Cathedral Hall. During the champagne reception at the start of the evening, the fire alarm went off, and so we all had to go out to the parking lot to continue the reception, but they brought out the champagne to the parking lot as we watched the firemen go in, and just had a great time taking photos of ourselves having a champagne reception in the street.

The event itself was truthfully a bit on the boring side, with one of the key entertainments being playing a game called "Heads or Tails" where you had to either put your hands on your head or your "tail" while they flipped a coin, and you just had to guess right through successive rounds until only two people were left and there was one winner.

Things did liven up a bit when The American Guy I Once Hooked-Up With mis-took a hot pepper for a green bean, chewed down on it whole, and then drank a whole pitcher of water before the Head of Inter-Club had the presence of mind to get one of the waiters to fetch a glass of milk. Absolutely created quite a bit of hilarity for our group!

At the end of the evening there was dancing, and when the Head of Inter-Club invited me out onto the dance floor, I discovered something about him: He is a HORRIBLE dancer. No really, I've danced with some guys who weren't that great before (have been to quite a few "beginners ballroom" classes and got paired with guys who constantly have to count their steps), but the Head of Inter-Club made them look like fleet-footed cha-cha superstars. Seriously, seriously bad.

First of all, he kept insisting on holding me in the wrong dance hold, so I was continually in the "man's" position (right hand on the other person's back, left-hand clasped with theirs, instead of the way girls are supposed to stand, with your left hand on the guy's back, and right-hand clasped with theirs). So that was totally throwing me off, along with his complete lack of rhythm, where he wasn't just off the beat, but there was absolutely no beat or consistency to anything he did, except to try to throw me out for spins at totally unexpected moments.

And I know that you shouldn't judge a guy too much based on the fact that he's a bad dancer, but seriously? How on earth do you progress so far in life without learning a few dance steps? I thought everyone had at least one dance class or some musical training somewhere in their lives... I know he's brilliant at a lot of things, but I would seriously recommend that he should take some dance classes at some point!

I have never been so glad for a dance to be over. And it's so sad, because any slight attraction I might have had for this guy has definitely gone. If he's lacking rhythm in one area, you start to wonder if he might be lacking rhythm in others... ;-)

Also, I was surprised to have the Birthday Boy asking me the EXACT SAME question that Piers had been asking me last week, namely, "How do you ask out a girl you are friends with and make it clear that this is a date, not just two friends getting together?" What is up with these guys who are trying to ask their friends out? The worst part is, I sort of suspect that he was asking me as a way of gauging how to ask ME out. And he's a really nice guy, relatively successful, 33-years old, and there's nothing really wrong with him, but I can't imagine carrying on a conversation with him that lasted more than 20 minutes...we'd totally just run out of things to talk about. Alas, I've got no advice anyway for these guys as to how to ask out their female friends. All I can really say is, "Be a man, and if you're attracted to them just ask them out at the start, and don't let the whole thing morph into this nebulous 'friends' territory..."

Finally, at around 11:30, I'd just had enough of doing this merry dance avoiding the boys who had crushes on me that I didn't reciprocate, and the one guy I would have been interested in, the American Guy I Once Hooked-Up With was obviously out to have a bad night. In addition to downing a hot pepper, he'd also just broken up with his long-term girlfriend, and was too openly keen for just a fling to console himself with. Not me, thanks. So I gave him a kiss and said good-bye to everyone, and then took myself home to bed.