Today was the day of the dinner that the Young Dutchman had been planning on Monday for Kellogg Boy's birthday. I wondered if he'd carried through on his threat to make me have another girl at the dinner to make boring conversation with, but I guess I would have to go see to find out.
First however, I had to survive the General Committee meeting at the club. Given that I was battling Joel's cold (now with cough too!), I probably shouldn't have gone out at all, but I'd promised...
The Committee meeting was actually rather interesting, with there being some drama at the Election Committee bit about whether a potential member should be admitted, a debate about revising the subscription plan, and a formal complaint about a member. We got a two-page long, single-spaced e-mail, detailing how this individual had behaved atrociously and pretty much ruined a weekend at the club for this member, and then quite a few more people chimed in with their experiences with this member, none of them good. According to Rule 7, we can expel a member for "inappropriate behaviour", so we've given this chap 14 days notice, and we're having to have a special meeting where he can come and defend himself (he's an overseas member from Israel, but some of the committee think he might actually show up in person), and it was all quite the drama. I have to admit, being on the General Committee has turned out to be much more interesting than I had originally anticipated.
Admittedly, all of this took longer than I anticipated, and given that I was supposed to meet the boys at the Carlton for dinner at 7:30, I found myself anxiously checking my watch repeatedly, but finally at 7:40PM the meeting was adjourned, and I was able to dash out of there and meet the boys in the bar.
As it turned out, the Young Dutchman had invited a couple that I'd recommended as being good friends of Kellogg Boy (if I had to actually have another girl there), but in the end, only the boyfriend half could make it anyway. So it was me and five boys. None that I would date, admittedly, but still, a fun challenge to keep up.
As the conversation progressed, I realised why the Young Dutchman had been worried about the lack of female company, as the jokes were definitely quite blue. (I won't repeat any here, but let me say that one involved a "ball washer" not being used for cleaning golf balls). Still, upon realising that's how the conversation was going, I figured I could either be offended, or do my best to give as good as I got. Kellogg Boy made many insinuations about why he was so tired today, due to his nocturnal activities the night before, and the Young Dutchman declared that next week he was going to get himself a girlfriend. Given that Kellogg Boy and I have heard such pronouncements before, we were understandably suspicious, and so of course decided to tease him endlessly about such declarations. I of course don't imagine that it will come to pass, but it's still amusing to see the earnestness with which he pursues these declarations of romantic intent. To be honest though, we were all unconvinced as to whether he had even settled on the girl in question.
Kellogg Boy and I also got a good laugh out of the Young Dutchman's changing accent, which is definitely one of his more bizarre quirks. You see, whenever the Young Dutchman is around people who are more "posh" than he is (as there was a nice young politician with us this evening), his accent suddenly changes, to become equally more plummy and posh. He claims to not be aware of it, but all of his closest friends always notice it happening and think it is most bizarre. Oh well, it's not going to change, but it sure does make us laugh!
They brought the menus out, and we selected our choices, and were then led into dinner. I wonder what all of the men in the dining room thought of me, this one girl with five men at dinner, but hopefully the laughter around the table convinced everyone that I was keeping up with the jokes.
At one point the Young Dutchman tried to take a picture, which surprised me, as my club doesn't allow cameras, so I wondered why on earth he thought it would be okay at the Carlton. So I wasn't surprised when a member of staff came over and told him off, hence why there are no pictures from the evening!
We decided to skip dessert in favour of a bottle of port, and retired to the drawing room to drink it and tell more stories. I was interested to learn that on Saturday Kellogg Boy has actually been asked to audition to be a presenter on a children's television show. How random (and cool) is that?
Upon finishing the port, the Young Dutchman had apparently arranged for us to go to a nightclub nearby, and although I personally abhor nightclubs, I figured we might as well go along. So we walked along, where Kellogg Boy, one other boy and I started debating the critical question of "pirate or ninja?" I found this so amusing that I texted it to the Tall South African as well, who immediately fired back with "ninja". Gosh, why do girls never have these sorts of conversations?
When we got to the nightclub, we discovered that we'd lost one of our number, but upon describing him to the woman with the clipboard at the front, we found ourselves in hysterics when she responded, "Why yes, I DO know the chap you're talking about!" Ah well, after failing to figure out where the club promoter was who was supposed to get us in, we decided to go instead to the Lansdowne.
I was eager for the opportunity to collect my membership card, after accidentally leaving it there on Friday, but alas at the concierge desk, they couldn't find it. Annoying, and then meant I was without a drink for the evening! (All things considered perhaps not a bad thing).
We were enjoying our conversation so much that I stayed past midnight, and eventually stayed past the time of the last Tube going home. Yet, it turned out to all be worth it when people started talking about Kellogg Boy's dinner on Friday, and I said, "You mean Saturday, right?" Turned out I'd gotten it wrong and cancelled out because I had a conflict, but on the wrong day! So now I could go!
The Young Dutchman then walked me part of the way home, as I was going in the direction of his house. Too brief a time to spend really catching up with him, but it was nice to get that little bit of time, nonetheless. He's really been MIA these days, which I understand, but doesn't change the fact that I'm used to seeing more of him.
Finally he gave me a hug on the street corner, and I went up to catch a bus home. Where, upon boarding I was surprised to be given a survey form by a chap on the bus! Turned out to be a simple transport survey, asking where I'd been, and where I was going. Filled it out, even loaned my pen to the guy sitting next to me, and handed it off to another guy waiting to take it from me when I got off the bus. Who knew that drunk people taking public transport late at night were such a valuable audience to survey? Randomness for the night!
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