We’ve just arrived back from my team Christmas party, which was held at the Indian Palace in Portsmouth. I went straight from work, and Beth took the train down from Wokingham and met me there.
We had a good mix of people from the various sub-teams, aside from the support team, who all went out for a meal at the same restaurant on a different night!
As with our previous visit to the restaurant, the beers were flowing freely in some quarters, with Andy having started at a pub before coming along to the restaurant. (It should be noted at this point that Simon and Andy did attempt to get a Christmas present for Simon’s wife – the reason for heading down early, however since the information booth told them that the candle shop had closed 18 months ago, they went to the pub instead… You may think that sounds like a lame excuse, but I couldn’t possibly comment!)
As per usual, even those of us who weren’t drinking had trouble remembering what we’d ordered only a few minutes after we had put the orders in! One person knew that they had ordered something with lamb and a salad, which by a process of elimination they eventually got. However Andy couldn’t remember what he had ordered at all – but could remember where it was located on the menu. The waiter brought him over a copy of the menu to point it out! Having said that, listening to what was going on with another big party close by – it seems the waiters eventually start calling out rubbish when they don’t get a response. After walking the length of the table to no response, one waiter started calling out “Tandori Squirrel” – which rather worryingly actually produced a “thats me” from someone on the table… Back on our table, everybody got what they had ordered, and based on what myself and Beth had, the food was excellent.
We were sat about halfway down the table, alongside the other expats on the team and their spouses (one couple from Australia, the other from Canada), so Beth had plenty to talk about, swapping moving to England stories. On the other side we had the somewhat more noisy end of the table centred on Rob, Simon and Andy. Simon being designated driver, and Rob and Andy not driving… They provided most of the laughs for the evening, with Darren and his wife expertly ensuring that they kept the entertainment going. Chris, who has only been with the company for a matter of weeks, spent much of the evening looking pretty shell shocked on the end of the table as Andy got into full flight!
Anyway, it was a great evening, and the obligitary selection of pictures of the table are in our photo gallery.