It’s no shame and I am not afraid to say that I absolutely love the team I am in at work. We have been through some tough times but through natural selection the best of us survived! Now it’s great and here is another reason why.
There was this small piece of work we took on recently as a team and for our efforts we were unleashed yet again into St Albans with a credit card carrying genius in hand. Following last weeks escapades of a little Birthday celebration we had, I wouldn’t have been surprised if the alarms went off, the barricades came down and we were escorted off site. Fortunately though for the most part we were fine.
It started at a restaurant where a few beers and a bit of champagne later we were presented with a rather marvellous cake which had one hell a journey to get to the restaurant by all accounts, especially considering who was in charge of it! However it made it there and was quickly and oddly only partially demolished, later to then be lost and found again. Long story but a typical one and it should make its merry way back to the office by a responsible ‘mum’ in the team to be completely finished off.
Following the cake glory a few of us re-entered the realms of the cocktail delights from the previous week. A moment of worry occurred when a colleague who had a close encounter with the concrete last week was recognised by one of the bouncers and interrogated for half an hour before she was let in. Successfully passing her interview and some pressure from us, she made a safe return to the team and the drinking began in earnest.
Now I am not a regular binger in the alcohol world, though when I am let out of my ball and chains I like to have a few. The night was good, though totally uneventful compared to last week. There was an odd attraction from one of my colleagues to get another one to hit the deck constantly which gave her hours of amusement – she is easily pleased! Belly dancing episodes, and this wasn’t just a wriggle but a full lift your top up wriggle and have the entire bar turn around and chant (being a football night the type of men in there would suggest what that was like). An imaginary telephone conversation with a straw which went on for a while?? A foot fetish turned freaky when a colleague felt the need to get rather close to me, and a marriage proposal between two colleagues – now this really was weird and I am not sure entirely legal, however it was a great Kodak moment and I have the special time recorded for the happy couple to remember forever!
The last part of the evening was me and a colleague, the hardcore 2 there ‘til the end - staggering back to our chauffeur. This involved a lot of raised voices, some heckling and a wanted punch up. However, that was all avoided by the distraction of the smell coming from Subway as there are no chippies can you believe open after 12 in St Albans – madness!! Anyway now happy with my purchase having given the guy the entire penny contents I could find in my bag which he struggled to count, he let us go. The embarrassment was too much for him to take, especially with a line of other drunks behind us, so we meandered our way through the endless line of police cars to our holding pen awaiting ‘Jeeves’.
Of course, time waits for no man, so as a result with both of us slightly hyperactive (I must have consumed thousands of e-numbers in cocktails alone), bored and fidgety, it was really not good for either of us. Any poor person walking past absolutely had to have a conversation with us or they were in for it and every vehicle going past got waved at, thumbed at or sworn at depending on who they were. It was all we could do to hide from the police really especially as I inadvertently raised the wrong fingers at the wrong time – I don’t think it was appreciated much so I had to be on guard from that point onwards!
After a drunk walked past us looking worst for wear and standing gormless in the middle of the road looking to the sky for answers, I was a little concerned for our safety I must admit. I was then told by my colleague however, that if someone was to come at me with a knife - slightly scared as to why he thought someone would - but he said I didn’t have to worry as he was martial arts trained and would take a knife for me anyway. Bless him, bet he wouldn’t have said that if he was sober, nor if he saw the knife actually, but it was a nice moment! Luckily for both of us Jeeves arrived in time to protect us from any harm, further embarrassment or a cautionary trip to the police station!
