![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Dec. 14th, 2006 04:25 pmLast night we were guests at the local jazz club. A good friend of my mother was stepping down as organiser after 26 years so she'd agreed to present him with his retirement gift in her Mayoral capacity. On the drive there, John asked my mother and I if we were jazz fans and we confessed we weren't (nor was he); I agree with Jimmy Rabbitte that "jazz is musical masturbation". Still, we sat with my mother's pal, his wife and another old family friend, the people we met were friendly, and we were bought free drinks, and the performance we sat through from 10 till 11 - which was interrupted by the presentation and speeches anyway - wasn't too bad. An OK duty, all round.
Today was my work Christmas lunch. Because all the talk about it in the past weeks referred to "Christmas lunch hour", I assumed we'd be knocking off one hour early, at 1.30. Just before 1 pm I was nearing the end of an interview when all the other people who were going to the lunch put their coats on and collected their stuff ready to go! Tania, who wasn't going to lunch, came up beside me and offered to take over for the rest of my interview. I handed over to her, hurriedly grabbed my things and joined the waiting Sarah #1 who was giving Amanda and me a lift, and followed her and the other stragglers down to the car park...
As we walked down the stairs I told Sarah and Amanda I'd been focusing on 1.30. Sarah explained that our 30 minute coffee break is subsumed in Christmas lunch, so we don't take a coffee break, and we actually leave at 1 pm while claiming pay to 1.30. Whoops - I'd totally forgotten that from previous years, and taken a coffee break earlier. So I'll have to claim half an hour's pay less. Walking across the car park I switched my phone on to find a text from Jade, asking if I wanted to join her at the Queen's Head on Saturday night to see a punk covers band we've seen before. She added "I'll pay for u if ur skint" and that she'd tape The X Factor final. To be honest I'm not bothered about X Factor anyway - it's been pretty forgettable this year - so I agreed, as long as it was indeed her treat.
This year we were at Titchfield Mill, a pleasant, compact pub just off the main road that served Forty-Niner :) We had a long wait for the food, causing Sarah #4 to lament that she was starving hungry and exclaim "I need food!" Seconded. When my Chicken Caesar finally arrived, though, it was first-class. Meanwhile we all mostly just discussed our plans for Christmas and New Year. When New Year was mentioned, Heather #1, next to me, said "It's going to be a great year." "Hope so," I replied, and Heather said "It is. We're going to win everything."
Was she referring to some award the office, or the telephone unit, was eligible for? "Sorry?" I queried.
"England are going to win everything," she said. "The Rugby World Cup?" I asked. "Everything," she reiterated. "Rugby, cricket..."
That prompted Val and me into a diversion, on the fortunes of the England test team, then I asked Heather if we were also going to win the Eurovision Song Contest.
"Of course," she replied, adding with a poker face "Because everybody in Europe loves us."
There was no Christmas pudding on offer :( so I didn't bother with dessert, mostly to save the few quid it would have cost - and anyway me ma and I are at the HMS Sultan Pensioners' Christmas dinner tonight.
Today was my work Christmas lunch. Because all the talk about it in the past weeks referred to "Christmas lunch hour", I assumed we'd be knocking off one hour early, at 1.30. Just before 1 pm I was nearing the end of an interview when all the other people who were going to the lunch put their coats on and collected their stuff ready to go! Tania, who wasn't going to lunch, came up beside me and offered to take over for the rest of my interview. I handed over to her, hurriedly grabbed my things and joined the waiting Sarah #1 who was giving Amanda and me a lift, and followed her and the other stragglers down to the car park...
As we walked down the stairs I told Sarah and Amanda I'd been focusing on 1.30. Sarah explained that our 30 minute coffee break is subsumed in Christmas lunch, so we don't take a coffee break, and we actually leave at 1 pm while claiming pay to 1.30. Whoops - I'd totally forgotten that from previous years, and taken a coffee break earlier. So I'll have to claim half an hour's pay less. Walking across the car park I switched my phone on to find a text from Jade, asking if I wanted to join her at the Queen's Head on Saturday night to see a punk covers band we've seen before. She added "I'll pay for u if ur skint" and that she'd tape The X Factor final. To be honest I'm not bothered about X Factor anyway - it's been pretty forgettable this year - so I agreed, as long as it was indeed her treat.
This year we were at Titchfield Mill, a pleasant, compact pub just off the main road that served Forty-Niner :) We had a long wait for the food, causing Sarah #4 to lament that she was starving hungry and exclaim "I need food!" Seconded. When my Chicken Caesar finally arrived, though, it was first-class. Meanwhile we all mostly just discussed our plans for Christmas and New Year. When New Year was mentioned, Heather #1, next to me, said "It's going to be a great year." "Hope so," I replied, and Heather said "It is. We're going to win everything."
Was she referring to some award the office, or the telephone unit, was eligible for? "Sorry?" I queried.
"England are going to win everything," she said. "The Rugby World Cup?" I asked. "Everything," she reiterated. "Rugby, cricket..."
That prompted Val and me into a diversion, on the fortunes of the England test team, then I asked Heather if we were also going to win the Eurovision Song Contest.
"Of course," she replied, adding with a poker face "Because everybody in Europe loves us."
There was no Christmas pudding on offer :( so I didn't bother with dessert, mostly to save the few quid it would have cost - and anyway me ma and I are at the HMS Sultan Pensioners' Christmas dinner tonight.
