Savile Inter-Club Christmas Ball

At dinner with Kellogg Boy

Today was the night of the Inter-Club Christmas Ball being held at the Savile Club, which I had spent far too much time away from work in the past few days organising.  Knowing that I would be out late this evening, I slept in, and then made a point of starting to get ready early, as I didn't want to be in a rush later.

Much of this effort was for naught however, when the Young Dutchman called me as I was getting ready to have a long, drawn-out, serious conversation about me potentially coming to work for his company.  It was a conversation I really wanted to have with him, and I appreciate that we haven't had the chance to have a long, catch-up conversation in quite a while, but why now?  His timing really was the worst!

At pre-dinner drinks

Still, after about an hour, I got him off the phone and went back to getting ready.  Although there seemed to be something about today, as after months with no contact, DM popped up, wanting to have a long, drawn-out conversation about how life was going recently.  And I'm always keen to talk to DM, but why today?  Why now?

Finally I managed to finish getting ready and ran to the club, running 30 minutes late.  Once there, I went looking for the chap from the club who I had been helping to organise this with, but got dragged into having a drink with the outgoing Inter-Club chairman instead.  Which turned out to be a poor move when the guy who was organising finally found me, as apparently none of the placecards for the table had been written.

So for the first half-hour of the champagne reception, I found myself trapped in a back office with him and his girlfriend, speaking German to his girlfriend (she was impressed), frantically scribbling out names.

With Kellogg Boy and another girl at our table

Finally, we finished with all of the placecards, and I finally thought I was free to go back out and make the rounds saying hello to people.  I managed to get out for a little bit, greeting the Young Dutchman and Kellogg Boy, and learning that the Young Dutchman's co-worker who had been due to join us was going to be a no-show. Irritating, given how many last-minute cancellations I had been dealing with, but I suppose there was nothing to be done about it, other than pop upstairs to flip around the seating plan to make sure that I wasn't stuck with a blank space next to me, but was seated next to the Young Dutchman instead.

Just when I thought all seating issues were resolved, the guy helping to organise grabbed me again, and dragged me down to where a girl was complaining on the seating chart that her friends didn't appear.  I realised with horror that I'd screwed up when printing out the seating chart lists, my last activity at work on a Friday night, and had accidentally listed Table 13 and Table 18 as the same table.

With an American friend and Hong Kong Boy

A quick dash upstairs to the staff (who had the correct seating plan), solved the problem, we scribbled out some new placecards for the missing table, and ran back downstairs to scratch out the names on the seating chart.

At this point, I was desperate for some champagne, and wanted to get a chance to talk to people, an opportunity I had been denied up to this point!  At last I did make my way downstairs, talked to a few people from my club, and was there just in time to see the welcoming speeches, and then join everyone on our way up to dinner.

Speeches and checking the seating plan for dinner

We went in to dinner, and I took my time making my way in to talk to people.  I stopped to say hello to JG and a co-worker of his, as I'd managed to arrange for JG to get tickets at the last minute, a favour which he was very grateful to me for.  Took me ages to finally get to my seat, as people kept wanting to stop and say hello to me, but eventually I managed it.


At dinner, I was seated inbetween Kellogg Boy and the Young Dutchman, and Kellogg Boy kept teasing me for appearing like a sentinel guard dog, constantly popping my head up to keep an eye on people worried whether everyone had a place to sit and was okay with where they were seated.  I have to admit, I was probably doing a pretty decent impression of a meerkat all evening.

With a friend going in to dinner

As we made our way through the first course, I started to relax, only to freak out when they were clearing the plates, to realise that a girl who had just that afternoon said she was cancelling, walk into the ballroom!  At least since the Young Dutchman's co-worker had failed to join us, I knew there was extra food, which was a huge relief.  The staff thankfully were incredibly smooth about the whole thing, finding her a place on the one table that I knew had spare space, and the problem seemed to go away relatively quickly.

With Hong Kong Boy at dinner

At this point however, I needed a drink more than ever.  Luckily, on our table was a chap from the Savile who seemed to continuously be able to acquire more wine.  I had a nice evening chatting with him and Kellogg Boy, as we rotated around the table throughout the evening to make sure everybody got a chance to talk with everyone.  Although I never did get a chance to talk to the fashion model seated directly across from me on our table, who mostly seemed to pick at her food and look miserable. I guess one more reason I could never be as skinny as a fashion model!

After dinner in the ballroom

The dinner was lovely, and afterwards I did get held up a bit by people coming by and wanting to talk to me, but eventually I made it downstairs to where the band was playing, and managed to say hello to a few more people.  I danced with one guy I knew for a bit, and then the Young Dutchman pulled me into his arms for a bit of a dance-off with Kellogg Boy.  Of course the two of them were going at it as usual, which was hilarious fun.  And the Young Dutchman is a good dancer and always makes for an excellent dance partner.

Everyone on the dance floor

I then found myself chatting with the Geneva Broker, this guy I had met at a polo match back in September.  And okay, perhaps I'd been a bit flirty with him at the time, and had caught him on Facebook chat a few times to continue our banter.  So perhaps unsurprising that he expected to continue the flirtation that we'd had going, although really, I was just in so many directions this evening, there was no chance for it.  Tonight was just not a night for hook-ups, there were too many people I knew there, too much stress, and too many eyes on me.  Still, he kept making me laugh by describing how much he liked my figure, and saying how it made him go, "Woof!"  Shouldn't have made me laugh as much as it did, but I still found it to be funny.

The gorgeous Savile ballroom

I spotted The Chap, who had somehow snuck in after dinner, and got to hear a bit about how he had fractured his wrist, the second person with a cast on that I'd seen that evening.  I introduced him to the chap at the Savile who was running things for Inter-Club, and hopefully they got on well to help organise events next year.

Then one guy, who we shall refer to as "The Ladies Man" because he had requested to sit on a table with as many women as possible, came up to me and kept kissing me repeatedly.  Apparently because he was quite drunk, but also because my seating plan had worked out extraordinarily well and he'd found himself with some quite pleasant feminine company for the evening.  Given that I'd purposefully put him on a table with some girls of "fast" reputations, I could guess how things had worked out for him.  Still, I was surprised at how many kisses on each cheek I got, and how thankful he was for my good work!

With the crowds after dinner

I then found myself, for at least the fourth or fifth time that evening, with my arms wrapped around a chap from my club, who I shall refer to as the Young Lawyer.  When I'd first met him, I thought he was rather cute, but he didn't quite seem to return the sentiment, and anyway I'd discovered that he was barely older than the Young Dutchman, so I figured we were just doomed to be friends.  He'd joined my committee, had always been cheerful and friendly, and so I'd counted him as a good friend.  Yet now with a bit of wine in him, he constantly seemed to have his arms around me.  And so at some point, as we were talking about the seating plan once again, I apologised that I hadn't realised that his guest was going to be a guy, and promised that I was quite dedicated to the goal of getting him laid.  Which caused him to raise his eyebrows and whisper in my ear, "How dedicated exactly?"  My goodness, I had never realised we were like that...  And so he insisted on getting my number, and when I got split up from him later, we were exchanging texts at 4 AM, with him insisting that I send him photos.  And all the while I was left wondering, "Where on earth did that one come from?"

Christmas tree at the Savile

I then found myself pulled into one last dance with Hong Kong Boy, another friend of the Young Dutchman's, who I have been out with many times before.  We slow danced while he drank whiskey, and it was a good last dance of the night.  But then it was 2 AM (already?) and everyone was wondering what we were going to do next.

In the bar with a Playboy Bunny

Kellogg Boy apparently needed a cab at this point, and since he couldn't get one quickly, I called my cab company for him.  But then I was dragged along with a crowd of other people, all insisting that we were going to the Playboy Club.  Having never been, I was quite curious to go, but I was still waiting for Kellogg Boy's cab to arrive.  Somehow, in a frantic last-minute rush, I got dragged away from the Geneva Broker (who wondered where I was going), pulled out the door by Hong Kong Boy, gave a quick kiss to the Young Dutchman (who insisted he was tired and heading home), and gave the number of the cab to Kellogg Boy.  It was all quite a bit of madness, and I hope it all worked out!

The Playboy Club

We arrived at the Playboy Club, and then headed in to the bar where we found quite a few of the others who had been out with us this evening.  I also couldn't help but notice that Hong Kong Boy had his hands all over the girl he had been seated next to at dinner, a girl on our table.  Who is lovely, to be fair, but perhaps didn't know that Hong Kong Boy lives with his girlfriend, who is currently in Australia?  I don't know, given that I've seen nearly all of my male friends cheat, even those who I believe truly love their girlfriends, perhaps I shouldn't have been surprised.  But when he offered to buy drinks for the both of us, I held him to it, figuring that at least if he was going to cheat, he was going to pay for it somehow...

In the bar at the Playboy Club

Even the carpet had the Playboy logo on it!

We then decided to go exploring through the club, going upstairs to where they had gambling tables and a roof terrace.  The place was amazing in that it was obviously set up to be sort of every male's fantasy, with giant big screen televisions showing sporting games everywhere, big leather sofas to sit on and sink back into, and scantily-clad girls everywhere to bring you drinks.

The big leather sofas and the giant TV screens showing sports games

We went out to the roof terrace, which was cold, but Hong Kong Boy gave the other girl his jacket (oh boy were they flirting!) and another guy gave me his.  We sat out there for a while, enjoyed the air, and a few people had cigarettes.  Eventually it got quite chilly however, despite the heater, so we headed back inside, where a few of the boys decided to take a spin at the gambling tables.  After my experience with Fan #1 and Fan #2, I had no interest in it, but I was impressed when one of the guys doubled his money and then had the good sense to walk away from the tables.  Something you see so rarely, but quite impressive when somebody manages it!

On the roof terrace at the Playboy Club

Somewhat blurry shot of the gambling tables, given that I wasn't supposed to take it!

I also was quite fascinated by the girls outfits, and the patterns I was seeing.  Myself and the other girl were the only two girls in the entire club who were not bunnies (no surprise there), although the place didn't feel threatening or intimidating at all.  I was fascinated to see which gambling tables the men gathered around, as one girl who I thought was quite attractive had a nearly empty table (but an admittedly somewhat flat chest).  A girl whose table was constantly full, on the other hand, didn't have much of a face to recommend her, in my opinion, but I also doubt her chest could have been real, they were so large.  It really was one of those rare opportunities to see, "So this is what men REALLY want, I guess!"

Photo with a Playboy Bunny

Now at this point, I was enjoying being here, but the real point of being at the Playboy Club is proving that you were there.  And given that the Young Lawyer was now sending me texts asking where I was, and then asking for photographic proof, I had to provide some, now didn't I?

Luckily, the bunnies seemed to be very indulgent of this request, as I'm sure they get it a lot.  And I got the feeling that the girl I asked was much happier to be taking a photo with a girl who wouldn't glad-handle her, rather than some random creepy old guy.  Although as soon as I had my photo taken with a bunny, all of the guys wanted in on it too!

With the boys and the bunny

I also rather wondered if the girls really were that attractive, or if it was an effect of the outfit.  I wondered if I could get my hands on an outfit like that, would I look like that?  Definitely something interesting to ponder the next time I have a fancy dress party to go to!

I sent the photo on to the Young Lawyer, and then to the Tall South African as well for good measure. After all, I was sure he would get a kick out of the fact that I'd ended up at the Playboy Club at 3 AM.  Indeed, the next morning he was quite amused by it all.

With the Playboy Bunny

At this point though, it was nearing 4 AM, and I was exhausted.  Hong Kong Boy was still off in a corner with the girl from dinner, so I let them be, and let the other boys put me in a cab at 4 AM.  Such an excellent night, although over far too quickly!