The annual event that literally maps who's who in the finance sector which I involve, was held last night at the Old Billingsgate Market near the river. This year's theme is of oriental and martial arts, following the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" concept. Little did they realise is that the movie is two years old and this whole oriental craze is no longer uber-cool.
In fact, I had a little episode of trying to find a tuxedo for this ball. I had completely forgotten that I signed up for this, and was reminded only at the beginning of the week. There simply wasn't enough time to rent one at a shop near work, so I went where a techno-geek would go - the internet. Everybody at work was shocked that I rented a tux from the internet, and not to mention that it fitted perfectly and it was a rather good-looking tux!
The ball itself was very extravagant. We were welcomed with lots of girls wearing traditional Chinese dress, serving us bubbly or juice. There were very gorgeous girls selling raffle tickets (and quite flirty too), and a few martial arts guys showing off their sword flinging skills.
You could definitely see the bling in the room, as there was a silent auction and a live auction going on and the bids went in in multiples of £100... I stood in awe watching those numbers go up. It got especially interesting at the live auction where a three-night vacation in the English countryside went as much as £6000. I kept telling myself, "It's good for the charity.. it's good for the charity.." The final lot was a package to watch the finals for World Cup 2006 - which went for.. something around £9000..
The rest of the evening consisted of more drinking, networking, talking to people from other banks and broker firms, and more drinking. Did I mention drinking?
We ended up leaving around 1am and I was exhausted so headed straight home, when some of my colleagues ventured to an afterhours club for a bit more partying.
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