As I type this, it’s just coming up to 6:38AM in the morning I am up so early due to the fact that the second time in a few weeks, the neighbour to my right has had some type of party going on until at least 5 AM in the morning.

I woke up on the couch at about 4AM, with the sound of Madonna blasting out through my laptop speakers. Of course, I can’t blame my neighbour for that. It was at that point I decided to go to bed, as it was freezing cold. Off I crawled, up the dancers, and into my nice, warm bed. Aaaaaaaand then listened to the sodding noise coming from next door. Gah. I hoped it would quieten down, but in my own mind, knew it wouldn’t. And it didn’t. I laid there listening to someone cackling, and the voices of many people scattered around the house.

Sadly, of course, by the time I’d made my decision to return to the couch cluching my duvet and pillow, my mind was already swirling, too full of sadistic and violent thoughts to even contemplate getting to sleep. I currently have the fire on full blast in the vain hope that the intense heat and/or fumes will allow me to have at least another couple of hours. What this means is that I’ve got to do ALL of my Christmas shopping on three hours’ sleep. Oh, the thrill of it all.

On the subject of Christmas, I attended the lodge Christmas dinner last night. The first one I’ve been to for a couple of years, mainly due to the way my shift patterns worked out. This year, however, I managed to at least get to one. Needless to say, I took my camera.

It was located at the Hardwicke Hall, on the Blackhall to Heselden road. A place I’d seen, but never actually visited. It had received high recommendations from Chris’s dad, who used to receive bacon sandwiches from the owner.

We got picked up at around 6:30 PM on the coast road. Chris was going to meet us there, as his dad was giving him a lift up.

We entered a very cosy and welcoming reception area, complete with huge Christmas tree and roaring fire…

You’ll have to believe me when I say there was a roaring fire, as it was behind me when I took that photo. We were shown to the carvery, and our tables. Chris wasn’t “here” at this point, so we all chose seats, and there were a lot to choose from Provisionally, the lodge had booked 35 seats, but this number came down as the weeks passed by, and people dropped out for whatever reason, so the final total was probably closer to 15. However, it was still set out for 35 of us. Oh dear.

We sat, and examined the stuff on the tables. Of course, there was the obligatory Xmas cracker, bread roll, etc. along with “Rocket Balloons”. Bit of a strange thing to give, considering that the average age of the group was probably 50. The idea of them is that you inflate them (easier said than done), stick a plastic tube in the end and then let them go. Hilarity ensues, allegedly. Of course, it was much more fun to tie the ends up, and use them as weapons and/or phallic references.

Daddykins rang Chris to see if he was on his way. It turned out he was actually sat in the other room, and didn’t know we had turned up.

It was then to the bar, which served a fine selection of lagers, though at an expensive £2.80.

Clearly, I’m not waiting at the bar. In fact, I’m sat down taking what would be the first of many photographs of the evening.

Onto the meal, which started off with the starter, oddly enough. You could have a choice of what you wanted. I chose what was supposed to be vegetable soup, but instead was “Cream Of” something. I’m assuming this was mushroom, but I can’t be too sure, as I’d never had it before. It was piping hot, however, and enjoyable. The bread roll topped it off, however.

Up next was the main meal, which for me was the absolute highlight of the night. You could go and serve yourself, so I piled my plate, and dolloped on enough gravy to submerge a small town. Everything was cooked to perfection, even down to the roast beef, which was the best I’d had in years. Decades, maybe.

I skipped the sweet, as I was too full from the main meal. Now, it’s not very often I’ll type that in my life, I can tell you. The rest of the night was then handed over to the disco DJ for a few hours of christmas songs and more Tina Turner than it is safe to listen to in such a small space of time. Well, OK, he only played one Tina Turner song, which got one of the other parties into a frenzy of Tina Turner impressions, using salt pots as microphones. Why didn’t they just use one of the microphones hanging from the ceiling? Take a look at that picture above, with everyone waiting at the bar. Notice the microphone? There were two of them, the other one isn’t pictured.

I simply can’t think of any logical reason why they would be there, it’s still puzzling me now.

Unfortunately, the end of the night came all to soon, and we all headed home after what was a great night.

Technorati Tags: blackhall, christmas, Food, hardwicke hall, neighbours, night out, noise, roast beef, sleep (lack of), Socialising, xmas party