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Mary Flavelle
TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More
Call me on 07778 970668 |
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Get Cinderella to the Red Laces Ball
The great bonus of not being in the corporate world when you are a ‘small business person’ is special opportunities. They get so used to their perks; they don’t really take the time to appreciate them. It is so easy to take things for granted especially when someone else is paying the bill. This cannot be said for our intrepid party of 8, who last Saturday had a most fantastic night out with all the trappings, style and glamour afforded to a top business night out and of course all in the name of charity.
The Royal Garden Hotel in Knightsbridge – next door to Kensington Palace –don’t you know! The Red Laces Ball in aid of Heart UK, a great excuse to get dressed up in your finery – with top style being awarded to Mrs Ali Davey who wore a most beautiful dress and sparkled all around the room. Just ask me if Jon Davey knows how to do it in style – let us start the journey and how else should Cinderella get to the ball these days but in a stretch limo – with not one but 2 magnum’s of Champagne on board. I love Champagne but it doesn’t like me usually 2 glasses welcomes a headache next day – Mr Davey has introduced me to the cure – ORGANIC Champagne – all the bubbles with none of the pain. There was not much left of the 2 magnums by the time we arrived at our Castle.
We dutifully lined up and posed for photographs – always a good idea to do this at the start of the night as it was likely we might not look so good in the next couple of hours. There was a dozen ways for us to part with our money, buy our photographs for a start but at only £10 not a bad deal. There was an auction with a number of items with reserved prices on – I found 2 at £10 so doubled the money and crossed my fingers, most other items were reserved in hundreds of pounds, obviously no one else wanted the autographed Cook Book from Ainsley Harriot in a Ready Steady Cook bag with another dozen autographs from this country’s top chefs, Jamie Oliver and Paul Rankin were just 2 of them. The other was a Liverpool shirt with Simana on the back – who you ask? Good question!
3 very charming ladies mingled through the crowd selling envelopes for £10 with raffle prizes inside – or a tear drop on the page if you were not a winner. Naturally quite a few of us got tearful envelopes with the exception of one of our guys who is known for being lucky – well he certainly lived up to his reputation and went home arms full after winning about 6 prizes.
The Toastmaster called us to our tables and of course posh nosh to follow, served with lovely wines- what did we eat? – Can’t remember but it was nice. Our near neighbours, a group of young attractive people turned out to be the cast of THE BILL, after a couple of hours they weren’t very important really – we were having such a good time.
After Dinner there was an auction of a number of items and Jon – genius to the end- decided to auction our limo for up to 6 people who fancied a one hour drive around the sights of London provided they were ready to leave in the next 10 minutes. Great idea and what an opportunity – it was snatched up straight away for just £200 what a fantastic evening for someone. You know what people mean when they say – it was a good idea at the time – well 2 young ladies had a fab night out round London and were taken home as part of their tour. Trouble was our intrepid team also wanted to go home, and now very tired after all the excitement found us hanging around in the hotel foyer. By the way, if it is after closing time we can tell you that hotels cannot serve tea or coffee – what else could we do but hit the pub just across the road so that, at least we could have another drink – we were all on soft drinks by then, although 2 of the party were still in dancing mood. Eventually our carriage arrived after having a struggle getting back through the busy streets of London. We eventually got home at nearly 3 o’clock in the morning.
Did we have a great time? Of course we did.- Can we function properly yet ?– Of course we can’t, but what a memory- at least the photographs say we really had a ball.
Mary
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