Balliol Mini-Reunion

After last week's Balliol Ball, a small group of us from Balliol agreed to meet for drinks at the club one last time before people had to return to Australia or wherever they came from.  I do think we'd had so much fun seeing each other, that we wanted to recapture the fun of seeing each other again.

When I arrived, I was delighted to see someone I hadn't seen in ages, a guy I'd actually been lovers with while we were at Balliol, although that seems like a lifetime ago.  A few years ago he got married, and then very quickly settled into being middle-aged.  He'd always been balding, but it was strange how the hair suddenly disappeared in a rush, he gained a ton of weight, and just looks exactly like a middle-aged business executive, despite being only just over 30.  When I look at him now, I still feel the same fondness and affection that I always have for a dear friend that I'm sure I'll have for life, yet I can barely imagine that this is the same man I once had hot and passionate sex with.  Lucky me that he married someone else, I guess!

Indeed, as we talked, it also struck me how different our lives are now.  While I'm out nearly every night of the week and tend to regard my flat as more of a crash pad than anything else, he and his wife bought a house, spent ages remodelling it, and he said it's so lovely and comfortable now, that after work all he really wants to do is go home and relax at home in comfort.  He never travels, he never meets people for drinks after work, all he does is go home to sit at home.  And he seemed as happy as a pig in mud.  So I was truly thrilled for him, and glad to see my friend so happy, even as it reassured me, "It never would have worked anyway.  Could you imagine being married to a man who wanted to stay home all of the time?"

After we'd had a few drinks in the bar, we went out to Byron's for burgers, which made me very happy, as that had been where the Tall South African had promised we would go on Saturday after Wimbledon, but we never went, instead going to a TGIFridays with those silly American girls.  So finally at last, I got my burger and chocolate milkshake!

It was an interesting conversation too, where we talked about people we'd interviewed (as we are now all at the point in our careers where we interview other people, rather than going on lots of interviews ourselves), and it was interesting what people noted impressed them, and what had been embarrassingly bad in interviews they'd conducted.  Mostly we all agreed that people need to learn to use capitalization and proper grammar in business e-mails, as it drives us nuts dealing with people who don't!

Finally the evening wrapped up and we all went home, although with everybody agreeing that we need to do this more often.  It's funny, how the further we get from Oxford, we realise what a treasure we had in that place, and how much we enjoy the company of all the people we were there with!