Burns Night Drinks

Tonight was the last Wednesday of the month once again, and time for the monthly Younger Members drinks at the club. I was a bit concerned, because it was also Burns Night tonight, and a big dinner was going to be happening at the club. How would all of these people fit in? But I don't like to mess with tradition, so the event was going ahead.

When I arrived, the bar was crowded with people in black-tie having a pre-dinner drink, but the only younger member I recognised was Callum. Still, it was good to see a familiar face, he got me a drink, and we stood around chatting while a few more people arrived. Folks were starting to head into dinner, so the bar cleared out a bit, and a few more familiar faces arrived (although I did not always remember the names that went with them!) Oxford Boy arrived with his girlfriend, and I bought drinks for them, as well as another round for Callum. I had been curious to meet Oxford Boy's girlfriend, and I have to conclude that she seems very nice, if VERY soft-spoken. I had to ask at least three times for her to repeat her name, and strain diligently to listen, as she spoke in a tone barely above a whisper. I can imagine that she was very nervous about coming out and meeting this group, so it stands to reason that she was somewhat shy. I just hope that I can do my part to get her to relax and open up, because otherwise she seemed very sweet and lovely.

They stayed for about an hour, and even took themselves on a tour around the club, before Oxford Boy came up behind me, wrapped his arms around me in a hug, and whispered in my ear that they were leaving. Strange, flirtatious behaviour with his girlfriend right there, but I guess we've always just been like that, and she seemed to understand that she was meeting one of the "close female friends", and so also gave me her warm parting greetings, saying how lovely it had been to meet me.

Kerty and Southworth, two guys I know through Doro, appeared, although there was no sign of The German herself. We had a good time making cracks about her lack of appearance, and then those guys headed off for dinner in short order, with Kerty holding my hand a bit too long as he parted. Nice guy though, and I don't mind the little bit of flirtation, even though I disapprove of his smoking.

I then returned my attention to the crowds of randoms, talking up the upcoming Rotational Dinner and the trip to Cambridge at the end of February. I got talking to a really nice guy, Tom, who is law school, and who seemed a nice addition to the club, having joined just a month previously. He had brought a female guest with him, but weirdly she was off talking to some other folks, and didn't join in our conversation at all.

By 9:30, there were still quite a few people there and things were going strong, but I was becoming a bit panicked about getting to the Caledonian Club, where they were also having drinks this evening. So I made my apologies to the crowds, left them to continue chatting, and went to grab my coat and head to the next stop of the evening. While I was grabbing my coat, I checked my phone, where it turns out that the Tall South African had texted me at 7:30 just to ask, "How are u?" After a week with no contact. Weird.

Given how late I already was, I spent £7 on a cab to get over to the Cally, where luckily I found that things had really only kicked off about an hour before. I found myself talking quite a bit with the Head of Inter-Club, Piers, and two other girls who are good friends, including the sister of a guy whose birthday it was today. I raised eyebrows when it turned out that the young man had brought Tish, Lotte's flatmate, to the Burns Night dinner that evening. The sister didn't know if there was anything to it, but she said she wouldn't even bother to get curious until they'd gone out on at least a few more dates.

Me, Tish, and the Birthday Boy
I then got chatting to the Young Scotsman, who I had been waiting all evening for him to come up and say hello to me. Despite his protestations at the time that he wouldn't be awkward around me or avoid me, nonetheless I sometimes feel like he does. Which is a shame, because once we did get chatting, we had quite an interesting discussion about the upcoming proposed referendum on Scottish independence, and who can vote in it.

As well, we got to talking about a guy from the club whose name I recognised, and then remembered that he was a guy who had been pursuing me over a year ago. It was interesting, because I was VERY turned off by the guy's behaviour at the time, thinking him totally lecherous and inappropriate, and had really wanted nothing to do with him in very short order. And yet, every guy I know at this club continually talks about what a nice guy he is, which the Young Scotsman was now repeating, along with the claim that he was rather shy. I rather almost choked on my drink at this point, to think that the boy who had been inappropriately feeling me up was "shy". But it wasn't the last surprise, because according to the Young Scotsman, even in the world of money that we inhabit, this guy apparently has more money than most (but like a typical Scotsman, refuses to spend it). And then he apparently had gotten married (!) at the club this past year. So there you go, turns out I turned down an incredibly wealthy guy who was desperate to get married. I suppose some girls might suppose they had made some tragic error, but all I felt was badly for his wife, and feeling like I'd had a narrow escape!

Yet, the two of us didn't get to chat on our own for too long before he seemed to feel obliged to do the "Younger Member's Committee Chair" thing, and knowing that I'm in that role as well, roped me into it. So I got dragged across the club and introduced to some random Cally Club members, guys probably in their 30's with receding hairlines who were nice enough, if a bit dull. Still, as I'm a good friend, I did the polite social chat thing for quite a while, even after the Young Scotsman left me with them. I at least can be quite a gracious hostess when I need to be. I talked with them for ages, before finally noting that the rest of the crowd had disappeared, so we went off in search of them. We found them out in the hallway, all preparing to go home as it was around 11 PM. So I walked home with David and his girlfriend, and then once we parted ways with them, Mr Douglas walked me to my bus stop to go home.

It had just started to rain, and so as Mr Douglas and I got out our umbrellas, we started chatting about them, which led to the quote of the night: "Only in London can you talk about your favourite brand of umbrella." Ah, the joys of living in London!