couples and singles
Friday June 25, 2010
There are lots of things I want to talk about, so I’ll just go through them as they pop into my head. I can’t think of them all right now, and I’m hoping they’ll come back to me as I type…I apologise if this entry is long and boring.
Today I got home after being in Surrey for a few days, working on a party for Snow Business. It took place in a large marquee, set in the grounds of a polo club. The marquee was decorated inside in the style of a frozen woodland. Ironically, the event had been canceled before because of snow causing the usual kind of havoc it does with our country’s infrastructure.
Friday – the prep. We (Greg and I) arrived early and went about snowing the various fake trees and real foliage with our machine dressing rig, as on Saturday, the caterers would be in and the tables would be in place and set with silver service and all sorts of loveliness. It’s always a bit of a tricky job dressing events such as these, as the materials we use are often dusty, and so working after the tables are set would be a very difficult thing to do. Although the office is very good at explaining this point to the client, it has happened before and will no doubt happen again. We left on Saturday, with only the more finer hand dressing left to be done. We stayed in a Premier Inn in the town of Horsham.
Saturday – the big event. No big surprises, although the event crew had put a large amount of extra foliage around one of the water features, we explained that to dress it would be a big deal, and we agreed it looked nice as it was. Come Saturday night, we had dressed everything with a nice subtle covering of snow, which frosting over the top to give it some sparkle. I should explain here that the snow we use isn’t the fickle watery kind, but a mix of plastic, paper, and other chemical artificial snows. Outside the entrance were two large falling snow machines which looked really good with the lights and fire effects the organisers had in place. We left with the party in full swing at about 22:00.
Today – the big clear. It only took a few hours to empty the marquee of virtually everything that had taken a week to set up. We cleared away the bulk of the snow, and made our way home.
After work on Friday, we went into Horsham town centre, and had a wander about. We had a couple of pints of Tanglefoot, at a pub called The Stout House. It was a rarity amongst pubs these days….no loudspeakers blaring out inappropriate music; no TV sapping people’s attention; no food service (just lovely booze); people actually having fully-engaged conversation with one another; a calm, relaxing atmosphere. One really cool thing was a window which let you look into the small cellar where all the good stuff was kept. We sat at a table next to the window, though no barrels needed changing, so it was fairly uneventful in The Stout House cellar while we were there.
Then we ended up at an Indian restaurant. It was nice enough, and the food was really good. I don’t think they’d be trading for very long, as everything was very new and clean. They had something I’d never seen in an Indian restaurant before: salt and pepper shakers at the table!
They also had a customer care poster….in the customer toilets….
When we arrived at about 19:30, we were the only people there. After a while a couple in their 50s arrived and were seated at the other end of the restaurant. Later, another couple arrived, this time in their early 20s, they were to be the entertainment for the evening…
Edit: I just rediscovered this after perusing my new iPhone 4. Thought I’d post it even though it’s old and unfinished.
