My Journey

I have always enjoyed the work Christmas party. Usually I don't remember much (any) of it but I always know that I had a good time. Yesterday I had a GREAT time.

We started off early with a morning tea at 10.00am to distribute and hand out our Kris Kringle. It was served with a chocolate mud log, and a Christmas sponge log. I had half a slice of each. It was fun watching everyone open their presents and try to work out how the present they received started with the same initial as their name. I received a beautiful Chrismas table runner in gold and creams and it actually took me a few seconds to work out that it was 'Manchester'. Very clever. I love it and it has already been put on my hall table.

Then at 11.45am I got a lift into the bowling alley with CJ and all the bags of prizes and set up. I had one alcoholic drink then stuck to water for the rest of the afternoon. The d.coke was post-mix and I don't like that at all. The food was brilliant and I did have some but was quite moderate. 1 party pie (curry), 1 cheese & spinach filo, 1 vege cold roll, 1 mini burger, 2 pieces whiting bites, 1 tempura prawn. Not too shabby. The bowling part was excellent. I did heaps of warm ups whilst we were waiting for the stragglers to arrive and threw down quite a few strikes. Then when it was on for real I absolutely choked in the first game scoring a paltry 71 which included 9 gutterballs and 2 strikes. Then after a quick break we were back into the second game. This was quite a bit better with all but one frame over 8, 2 strikes and 2 spares for a respectable total of 136. This then got me over the line as the highest scoring female and I won a basket of goodies and a bottle of Yellowglen Pink Champagne. Whooo Hooo. We handed out all the major prizes, then we all were put into a lucky dip to choose a little prize and I chose a pack that contained 1 bottle rich chocolate sauce, 1 bottle of strawberry chocolate sauce, and a whisk. I really wanted that whisk ;D

Our bar tab lasted right up to the presentations which was perfect and everyone was quite happy at that point. Some people then chose to go home and others cabbed it to the city to keep going at a pub. This is normally when I go home as I am usually not in a state to go out, and have very little recollections of actually getting home from most previous parties. But not this one.

I laughed so much that my cheeks hurt and I think at one stage I actually had to wipe away tears because I couldn't stop. I did start drinking (orange Bacardi Breezers) when we got to the pub and by the time we left the 2nd pub I probably had had about 8 or 9. I was so surprised that I was sober(ish), coherent, feeling great - but that was the point. I had continued drinking water between drinks so the spread was really good. We also stopped and got something to eat and I am sure that that helped. The small group of 5 that was left till the end was a good one and we mucked around and played pool and took heaps of incriminating photos. Most of which I have requested be deleted from the camera. We considered going into the Gaelic Club to see Matchbook Romance but the $35.00 charge put us off and we wondered away.

As I was on the 11.02pm train out of Central going home last night I was reflecting on how different this year was, and how much fun I had. I didn't overeat. I didn't overdrink. I didn't embarrass myself - well not in a bad way :D I think that learning this balancing trick has a lot of rewards.


** Note - especially for Jodie. Apparently I bowl like I am going to smash the pins. The analysts (all the drunk blokes) say that I bowled the hardest - and fastest of the whole group. Not sure that is a good thing but it might mean that my weights are working LOL **

Posted by Margaret on Friday, December 09, 2005 at 4:31:00 pm | Permalink