Saturday, December 16, 2006

Party time

Over the last few weeks, I have received invitations to a number of Christmas parties.

There was the official black tie company party at a swish country manor. I decided to take Mark Horstman's advice and had just one drink (well, actually it was two glasses of red wine, but that's the same as one beer, right?). I went home at 11:10, thoroughly bored because all my colleagues were drinking, dancing and partying like crazy, while I sat and chatted with those who either couldn't dance or weren't being asked to. Oh, well. Next time, I'll book a hotel room, and leave the car at home like everyone else did.

Then there was the team Christmas lunch at a local pub. The team has a long-running tradition of awarding prizes for the silliest saying of the year. There were some great candidates :
"It's a secret; I could tell you but I would have to kiss you", "Don't drown, you'll never want to swim again" and the winner "If I get fired, it will be a good reason to leave the company."

Another team tradition is the good old 'secret santa'. My present was one of the most thoughtful, relevant and humorous presents I have ever received. I don't know who got it for me, but whoever it was put a lot of thought and effort into it, and I am truly touched by it.

Another lunch was arranged for all the IT PMs in the company (which I couldn't make because of a Condor workshop), and an after-hours do was arranged for the Condor project team (which I missed due to a clash with the team one). I was invited to one by one of the agencies we use to recruit our contract workforce (which was held on Thursday evening and I missed that due to working late on my presentation to a Condor workshop the next day).

It's good to spend some quality social time with people you work with, and I particularly enjoy that aspect of the festive season.

Happy Holidays, everyone.

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