Call me crazy, but I actually like office Christmas parties. (How can anyone not like free booze?)
My first office Christmas party was in December 1999. I had just started working for the Perm and my law school buddy BY (then a third year Associate) invited me for pre-dinner drinks at the hotel bar before the party.
I met Chum that night, so maybe that's why I think of office holiday parties fondly. (Nah, it's the free booze.)
Last night was The Firm's Christmas party. Remember that until September I had worked only for the Perm. That my only concept of Xmas parties was that of the Perm's annual loriat dinners at the Shang Makati.
Dig this: The Firm's Christmas party is not much different. There's not as much food (limited amounts of Thai/Vietnamese cuisine), you're not at a hotel (you're at a rinky dink restaurant at Lan Kwai Fong), and the staff actually mingle, sit and eat with the lawyers (instead of those two groups sitting on opposite sides of a huge hall). Ok so far I am not making the case for the identical Chirstmas party theory.
There was a lot of booze. A lot of people got hammered. And I stood there watching the whole thing like it was a science project. "How do Chinese people get drunk? A comprehensive examination of Asian drinking patterns and behavior." (Trivia: They play this game similar to rock paper scissors. But with head movements. Loser takes a shot. How novel.)
You wouldn't have guessed, but I don't like drinking parties (particularly those with lots of people I hardly know). These parties are loud, people don't make sense, everyone is making passes at everyone else. I like intimate gatherings where the 5 of you drink 9 bottles of wine (I actually did this with friends in law school). I also enjoy a drink with a total stranger where you can just bullshit each other to kingdom come, but please, only one total stranger at a time. Not 24 rip roaring drunk Chinese people.
At the stroke of midnight my colleagues decided to go someplace else. I did too. They went to Wan Chai for karaoke and I went home.
In the 2.5 minute cab ride back to my flat I thought, "That wasn't too bad. Libre toma."
1 comment:
Yup, the Jap Christmas parties are pretty much the same too. Hotel, youngest batch is saddled with the task of organizing the damn thing and making fools of themselves in front of everyone, free food and alcohol. Except that the food is actually good, and it was a bit surreal seeing Jap lawyers dressed as Astro Boy and Superman engage each other in an arm wrestling contest.
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