The Collection

So... Thursday was my office's Christmas party. We begun at 5pm with a few drinks (mainly champagne) in the kitchen, followed by a presentation about the company over the last year, this years superheros were unveiled and then we all swapped Secret Santa gifts. My Homer Sapien is currently engaged in getting to know the other toys on my desk at work (group picture on Monday!).

After this we grabbed a taxi and headed to Kensington. Sadly the taxi driver was a numpty so I made an executive decision and had him drop us off at South Kensington station and we had Paul use his mobiles map function to find out destination... The Collection.

I'd not really been looking forward to it. Everything I read about it made it sound very poncey. I was to be even more bitterly disappointed... it wasn't just poncey, it was obviously well past it's prime.

Upon entering I discovered the staff to be very unfriendly, obviously trained in the attitude their clientele expect from staff at a venue such as this, and then saw across the overly large bar that it was filled with the Nouveax Riche and the Wannabe Rich.

Now I mention the Nouveax Riche from time to time, but don't really explain what I mean... these are the people who have the money, but none of the manners or class one would hope of someone who should be "refined". They tend to work in the city wearing suits, buy things less out of desire or need but out of an attempt to impress others, and act like they are in some way superior to others when in fact they are quite evidently only in a position to make the kind of money they do because they have the right "attitude" (and ability to politic in the office) rather than any actual skill. No I'm not jealous, I just know some very rich people (members of my extended family included) who wouldn't be seen dead in the company of these kind of people, and would rather go down the local pub or to their favourite "best kept secret" restaurant.

Anyway... my company had several tables up in the restaurant and we sat down for food. I was lucky and found myself on the most fun table and much fun was had. The food was good but not amazing... again it seemed designed for looks and style rather than culinary excellence. And it wasn't very Christmassy, quite unlike the TVW do in Folkestone.