Saturday 20 November 2010

Sharp intake of tinctures...


This year's business network/company bash/generous hospitality season has started early.

So early, that Scrobs has been caught unawares, and has already attended two massive events which have resulted in an incredibly short memory for names, and a very long pain in the forehead, parts of the neck, most of the body and all of the psyche...

The previous week was bad enough, with Private Eye's favourite company providing the comestibles. The guys I work with there are all very professional, and have spent numerous hours working for nothing on our potential schemes, because someone has to these days. The banks and the politicians still get fees and expenses for getting out of bed, while working companies continually get the crap thrown at them from all angles, but hey, it's the best depression they've had to 'handle', so stop whinging...!

But last Thursday's evening was a real killer! It was fabulous!

We were kindly invited to a grand evening by a firm of Lawyers who always let me know when something's happening, and who always do it right. Their hospitality is second to none, and one of these days, when the depression created by the 'Three Bs' (Blair, Brown and Balls) is finally kicked into touch, and their legacy is buried in painful concrete far below the surface of the biggest dump in the world, I'll have the greatest pleasure in calling this firm's property partner and asking him 'How much to do this and when can you start...'!

But until then, we do the circuit seeking business leads, tweaking yields, machining Excel calcs, and this last event finished in an alcoholic haze sometime after 9.00pm, somewhere in Wardour Street.

By God, it was fantastic! Your correspondent, together with Business Partner and also accompanied by highly esteemed and serious property man from major co, arrived at 6.45 pm, slightly damp from a long hike across St. James' Park, and from there on in, the stunningly beautiful ladies who were proffering sustenance in the form of Frozen Margaritas were at every turn. The property dinosauriad were out in force, released temporarily from the depths of Jurassic Park, the hosts were as ever charming, friendly, and the stock of business cards which Scrobs hands out to interested parties was diminishing fast.

I've never spent such an evening in such salubrious company, and even now, 72 hours later, the scars on the headache are still lingering. I put it all down to drinking out of a wet glass, and having to negotiate those crackly white chips round the edge, near the salady bits!

There was an incredibly attractive dark eyed lady offering shots from a holster and cartridge case belt strung about three centimetres above stunning legs; the Margaritas were installed in an overhead liquid carriageway which tipped gallons of the stuff down a throat at the touch of a guest list, at last a proper Chardonnay was on offer, (sorry BP, had to say it...) I nearly lost my laptop case (and possibly my lap if I could have found it...) to a lady from Viet Nam, there were unassailable stairs nearly three miles long to encounter on the way out, I had to stand on a box to speak with two of the tallest people I've ever met, and one of them didn't mind (at all as it happens) my nose being within three inches of a fabulous cleavage, my liver's risk assessment now includes the terms 'Paaaah, disaster impending, consider not buying green bananas, and forget putting long playing records on the gramophone', and somehow I've got to mend a small tear in my trousers.

I stayed with my long suffering ED, who kindly guided me home via mobile phone and coaxing sat-nav from somewhere near Dulwich (I think), and she had the hot water bottle, cocoa and understanding nods ready when I eventually poured myself though their keyhole between - oooh, say 9.00pm and midnight!

And the next morning? Wow, toast, coffee, friendly banter, promises not to tell Mrs S, and a trip home in style!

Who could wish for such a grand time, and the collection of cards and notes from the evening (it was work after all), already seems to have started to create some real business prospects for next year, so it was all worthwhile!

Of course, I cannot mention the firm who provided such a grand evening for legal reasons, but they really do know how to get business marching on despite all the efforts of politicians, banks, quangos, civil servants etc., to stifle ways to make money.

I've got one more to do in three weeks, after which I'll revert to tea and comfort until we open our Christmas half-bottle of Wincarnis and really live it up...

16 comments:

rvi said...

Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die(t).

I hope your, er, networking turns out to be as successful as you would wish (if you can still remember who it was that promised you that super contract...).

In the days when I used to have to do that sort of thing I used to keep a very small notebook in my top pocket to make discreet notes as the evening wore on. The times they proved invaluable as a memory jogger the following morning run into 3 figures.

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Oh yes Reevers, the emails are whizzing around as we speak!

This time, it was the last discussion of the evening with an old chum from (then) KPMG, and he's been around the houses, so much so that the company he's with now is one of our favourites, and we have an awful lot to put on paper and hopefully, eventually, a site!

Agree about the notes, and I always laugh at the dreadful scrawl I produce when outside a couple of bottles of Tuscan Tony's Red...

lilith said...

Scrobs, that all sounds great, but what about your poor liver? ;-)

Old BE said...

Wow, your daughter is a stunner!

Before the bust, we used to get plied with invitations from a large firm of solicitors. Their Christmas champagne bash was second to none.

Wellington's Mum said...

I’m sure that the role-reversal tickled your daughter too, and that she wishes she could tell her 18 year-old self not to worry too much because in a ‘few’ years time the tables would be turned :-)

(And I bet she'd be chuffed to hear someone call her a stunner).

Thud said...

You need to watch those Vietnamese ladies, I know as I married one...whilst sober.

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

It's just begun to mend Lils...

The frayed bits are somehow joining at the edges, and a copious intake of a tanker full of spring water has stemmed the aridity.

Shoild be OK by Tuesday!

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

They don't grow on trees Blues!

ED knows every symptoms, and treats the damage accordingly; has done for years!

Of late, the reduction in tincturisation (due to impecuniary influences), has resulted in a lowering of the resistance barriers, such that fewer measures are required to reach obscurity, or a version of it which is socially acceptable of course!

ED understands that, because she's an ED; that's the reason!

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Blues is right of course Welly's Mum!

That sounds like a reference to 'Back to the future', which you possibly know is my favourite film of all time ;0)

Thanks for posting an' stuff...

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Thudders, you are a volume of interesting facts and figures, and this has added a new dimension!

How can such a lovely lady hand a drunken idiot a laptop case with such grace?

lilith said...

I am very pleased to hear it. Blue Eyes, Mrs S is a looker too. ED gets it from her handsome folks.

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Lils, you're very kind as usual, but I'm struggling to find when Blues saw ED at the moment...

If he worked with LG, then he still wouldn't...

Perhaps I made so much noise on the way home, like singing etc, I might have woken him up, but not at that time of night surely?

Electro-Kevin said...

At your age !

Tut !

Old BE said...

Lest you all think I am being shallow, the stunningness I referred to was a result of her actions. I have never - alas - set eyes on any of the Scroblene Clan.

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

I know, I know, Elecs, but it's all in a good cause...

At my age, I'll be thinking of retiring in exactly 39 years time!

Sen. C.R.O'Blene said...

Nothing to worry about Blues!

ED was delighted to know she's up here with the best of us!

Sorry if I woke you up though...