Oh, Why, God?!?!?!?
So men have to wear a suit at least once a year.
I SWEAR that’s not me. It’s my evil twin. 
Come on now - you can share your holiday pics too.
I’m not wearing a suit for our one, no way.
Got ours next week. Should be interesting as I’ve recently started a new job so this’ll be my first chance to embarrass myself by mixing alcohol with work colleagues.
Do you put a little skewer through them and dunk them like an olive in a martini?
we don’t “do” holiday parties, but do have a pot luck.
However, this year, it turned in to a retirement party. It was yesterday - three people retiring that where here when I started. As one was talking, his first comment was “the first person that says “I wasn’t born yet” when I say a date gets whomped up side of the head”! Of course, he’s got 38 years in with the company.
One wrote a song with the chorus being something like “that’s really great but what have you done for me lately?”. Talking about all the “crisis” we had over the years - but no one remembers any of it anymore.
With just these three retiring, the company is loosing over 100 years of experience!
We had two this week! One was Tuesday right after work at our local Pyramid Brewery. Free pitchers of their seasonal Snow Cap Ale! Yes, I drank too much and paid later. Very nice.
Last night, wine, appetizers, then a Port tasting along with yours truly playing geetar for xmas caroling. At the boss’ house.
I am old enough to not say or do anything inappropriate, even at the far side of the inebriation scale. Thank God for small favors.
I got hired one November for a job that I couldn’t start until the following January, working for a publisher in Boston. The publisher and her husband lived in the very first This Old House house, in Arlington, and the company holiday party was held at their home in mid-December. I was asked to come along, and since I hadn’t started working there yet I thought it would be a good way to meet my new colleagues. When I arrived, the publisher invited me to use the hot tub out back, where most of the staff were hanging out…with no clothes on. So I met my coworkers naked (and they met me naked) before we ever saw each other in the workplace. A rather surreal way to start a new job, and definitely the most unusual office party I’ve ever been to.
Another office party moment that comes to mind: I used to work with a woman named Blue (before I met her she was married to a guy whose family name was Green, so her married name was actually Blue Green), and she was a very high society type, always dressed to the nines. There was another guy at work named John who was just the opposite, he had a management job but prided himself on his blue-collar roots and always wore shabby clothes to the office. At the office party one year, Blue made a dramatic entrance wearing a sapphire-sequined gown that shimmered and glittered when she walked. John was standing by the door in a t-shirt, drinking a beer, and he blurted out, “Blue! You look like a trout lure!” She was speechless and the rest of us had to run out of the room to keep from exploding in laughter.
We had ours today!
Just a little Political: our work has four main offices and us (we are the extra ones, smallest office). We had the option of joining one of the other Office dos in London, Birmingham or Leeds. We said no thank you. But they shelled out for us to have our own do, which we elected to have at Lunchtime. The only stipulation was: no partners.
We went to our local Chinese - this sounds really tacky, but our local Chinese is VERY VERY good. (Kong’s Peking in Bourne End, Buckinghamshire). We had enough for a banquet for eighteen, and enough left in the kitty for two bottles of wine each!
I was on a winner here, because not every Chinese Restaurant does vegetarian food, but Kong’s does, and nice stuff too.
And even the lady who had a bad experience at a Chinese Restaurant up North (and was nervous about Chinese) said that Kong’s was Really Good.
I don’t know why, but I have a scene from the movie [u]A Christmas Story[/u]
… Fa ra ra ra ra, Fa ra ra ra!
I think the main reason people have bad experiences with chinese (or indian) food is because they go to bad restaurants. If they avoid places with names like “Buffet King” then they’ll greatly reduce the chances of meeting their food again during the night.
In my last job we went to an excellent Indian for our 2nd christmas night out that year (we had budget left over from one of our contracts 
) and it was great. At the end of the night they started filling our glasses for free just to finish off the various bottles of vodka, drambuie and glava that we’d been storming through. A good night.
Played with three others for a couple of hours as ambient music for an on-site holiday office party yesterday. No booze, but almost nobody wore suits, and the food was great, so it wasn’t so bad. We were actually more dressed-up than the revelers. Garlicky cheese tortellini Alfredo and baby spinach-and-pecan salad, anyone? Caring little how greedy I might have looked, I stocked up big time.
Nobody really noticed that we didn’t play any Xmas chunes. 
Of course, if anyone would have asked, I would have assured them that we were playing Celtic Christmas music. 
Nano - you didn’t even play Christmas Eve for them? Shame on you…
Eric
I am old enough to not say or do anything inappropriate, even at the far side of the inebriation scale. Thank God for small favors.
So you didn’t play a tin whistle for them? Good man. 
I work in a medical clinic at a big institution. It’s a sub-department of a slightly larger clinic. All the people in the larger clinic attend the annual party at a doctor’s house. No one from our clinic ever shows up for a variety of reasons- like, our spouses aren’t interested, and a few more snobbish reasons on our part. As there is no pressure regarding career advancement whether you show or not, we lack motivation. We speculate that the parties are stuffy and/or artificial. Who knows?
Tony
Too true.
One thing that I’ve noticed is that the average standard for Chinese food anywhere in the UK is pretty low, even in the cities (about the same as for Chinese food in most of the small-town and rural US). There are a few exceptions (I know of an excellent Chinese place near Cambridge), but they tend to be expensive.
But in the parts of the US and Canada with large Chinese immigrant communities, good Chinese food is both easier to find and (generally) a lot cheaper.
I’m pretty picky about Chinese food (being married for 20+ years now to a foodie from Hong Kong will do that to you), but I can find lots of Chinese places with excellent food here in the SF Bay area - and even an “expensive” Chinese place is generally pretty moderately priced. I was shocked at how hard it was to find good Chinese food even in London - and shocked again at how much it cost.
On the other hand, folks in the UK have a lot better selection of Indian food than we have here in the US. And once you move above buffet and takeaway places, the quality-to-cost level seems to be in your favor.
The subject didn’t even come up.
I am such a grinch. 
well just duh Dana!
Got me! Heh.
I was comparing to the UK, Denny. I was flabbergasted to find out how much even bad Chinese food cost there.
Of course, prepared food in general seems expensive there. For a rough rule-of-thumb, I usually estimated meals cost the same number of pounds as I’d expect them to cost in dollars in the US. (ie, nearly twice as expensive).
But non-takeaway Chinese food in the UK didn’t seem cheap even by their standards - Indian food and fish-and-chip shops seemed to dominate the “decent cheap food” niche.
Oddly, I didn’t see that big a price differential in the markets. I got the impression that, on average, people in the US eat out more often - I’m not sure if the difference in restaurant costs is the cause or a consequence.
I think that the UK did better at colonizing India, eh?
Yep, the UK currently has better cheap Indian Food than Chinese food, in the main. But it varies very much by region. Because there are a lot of ex-pat Indian families living in the Midlands, the average Indian Restaurant in the Midlands is a lot worse than down south. (People who know the food, eat at home, and it’s the non-foodies who eat Indian.) Partly it reflects the different economic setup. As I understand it, the Chinese Restaurants had a mechant Naval connection - they used to be the Cooks on the Merchant Vessels. That’s why UK Chinese is different to U.S. Chinese - the merchant crews liked different grub. Actual Chinese food is something else again.
In Hackney, at the moment, there are more Vietnamese restaurants than you would expect to see in France. (Hm. That sounds more odd than I thought it would.) There are also a lot of Thai restaurants seeping in here and there. Baltis were popular a few years ago, although I think that trend may have died.
One oddity that I haven’t heard anyone mention is the pubs that die turn into Indian Restuarants. I though the market would be saturated around here, but what was once “The Heart in Hand Pub” is now Abdul’s Tandoori. And what used to be “The Plough” pub is yet another Tandoori. My friend Josie occasionally acts as waitress in “The Other Indian Restaurant”. The main Indian in Bourne End is “The Last Viceroy” (a chain, in fact) which serves good food, but the waiters are SURLY. “The Other Indian” has changed its name and decor three times. I think the food and the service is better than the Last Viceroy, but there’s something about surly waiters that makes people think the food is better than it is. The only reason we can support so many restaurants is that there are a lot of TV people in this area, with thick wallets. The owner of the Other Indian is always complaining he is on the edge of bankruptcy, but the restaurant somehow keeps going.
My office party was yesterday.
Let me just say that for whatever reason, NONE of these people would EVER be friends of mine, by any stretch of the imagination, outside the workplace environment. Of course, I maintain a cordial and friendly professional working relationship despite that fact.
Let me also say, that attendence is mandatory (implied, but not stated, if you know what I mean)
Every year, I have to sit through a meal and “Secret Santa” while everybody gets inebriated, pretends you are their buddy, and gets loud and obnoxious. Well, not everybody, but enough to make things generally uncomfortable. When the office manager gets up and makes speeches about Employee of the Year, of the Month… aaaahhhhh!!! When people give their stupid drunken toasts to each other… When people start chanting: “Ma-ry, Ma-ry, Ma-ry” etc, when it’s time to open my gift…
I guess I should just lighten up.
This year, a most uncomfortable situation is the boss’ affair with one of the personnel… It’s amazing how a little alcohol loosened those old inhibitions… So are you supposed to ignore it? (Up until now, it hadn’t actually been that discreet, but at least wasn’t blatant)
And for whatever reason, the meal this year made me sick! And I have a cast iron stomach! I have eaten hospital cafeteria food every day for years!!! 
Aaaauuuuuurrrrrrggggggghhhhhhh!!!
M