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Yay! We won a personalised letter from the CEO each. Oh and an all expenses night out on the town…

It started for me at 17.00hrs. The Service Delivery Manager, Steve, had agreed to an early night… So he got one.

Waiting outside for Louise seemed an eternity; it’s amazing what ten minutes can feel like when it’s cold and you’ve got a party to go to.

She finally turned up and we made haste to Claire’s house, glass of white wine while waiting for Adam to turn up. Adam arrives, glass of white wine for him too. We leave Claire’s at about 17.45, we’re going to be late but then it’s our party so we could if we wanted to…

En route to Cardiff I used the force to great effect and cleared the way for Louise to drive conservatively and well within the speed limit to our destination.

Our destination: “the Big Sleep” - or as we found out later “the Happy Shagger”. We checked in and to our delight Adam and I had a double bed for the evening… We shifted upstairs and met the girls before they got to their room. They took great pleasure in mocking our predicament; until, at least, they entered their room. Claire and Louise had not liked the sight of the bed which greeted them and we all adjourned to the reception.

We sorted the rooms out. Two twins as had been requested in the first instance. And then we decided to rejoin Haydn downstairs in eager anticipation of Steve’s imminent presence…

It didn’t quite work out like that though. To cut a long story short - but I’ll tell you if you’re interested - an hour and a lift engineer call out later we met Steve, who had been waiting outside the lift door for quite some time, and walked the rest of the way to reception. A taxi was there to take us to the Armless Dragon and it was not long before we arrived empty stomached and ready for some nosh.

On arrival, we were met by a waiter who named us “the lift party” and we ordered drinks without delay.

Champagne and this and that, and then the food and then… I can’t remember this bit… but we got to Edwards in town.

Much dubious shinanigans were developing therein and on opening the door I was rudely awaken from my lapse in memory by someone throwing their drink over an over-exubberant Andy. They got him, only just, and the remainder went over me… So I remember that bit… but then it goes vague again until I leave Zink…

I remember yawning and gesturing that I was bored. Shortly afterward I was escorted by Adam to the front door and told to go back to the hotel. It was 2am and I was bored so I went back.

On arriving at the hotel, my card didn’t work. I pressed the buzzer and was let in. On arriving at my room, my card didn’t work. I walked to reception and was given another card…

I finally got into my room and went to sleep.

In the morning, my mouth was rank but neither I nor Adam had brought toothbrushes… We were both somewhat worse for wear and, even after the efforts of a great shower, nothing could shake off the fact that I had started on white wine, moved on to champagne, followed by red wine, and then lager… Someone bought me a pint of bitter too, but I remember “clearly” that I deliberately left that for the table to enjoy.

Breakfast was ok… 2 glasses of apple juice, 2 of orange juice, a coffee, and some cereal… it stayed down so that was a start.

Louise drove back. I was in the back seat and was not in the mood to use the force. I got home and thanked them for a great night out… Almost akin to the nights out I used to have in Japan, but this one was free!!!

Later Adam, who has “never had a hang over”, asked Louise to stop the car to allow him to vacate the now curdled contents of his gut… I was informed that he did this with some gusto and should be applauded for his efforts…

The rest of the day was spent recovering/shopping with gorgeous Miho.