On Friday 18th August I attended what was called a “mini-ball” at one of the colleges at Cambridge (Downing college) with my friend, her husband and some friends/work colleagues of his. I was interested in going not only to have a fun evening out but also to make a comparison with the Rhodes’ balls. Overall the two types of ball are pretty similar – the promise of good food, good wine and a lot of drunk people. A couple of differences included the presence of a bouncy castle (yip, for the adult-children!), a croquet lawn (although not many people were playing due to the rain) and a piñata (more on this later), none of which have featured at the Rhodes’ balls I have attended! Everyone looked lovely (thanks to my buddy for doing my make-up, I really am not a “make-up and nails” girl, and for lending me a dress too) and the grounds were amazing (to me at least). It was like entering an American styled place and forgetting that one was in Cambridge in a college surrounded by BUSY roads – the traffic sounds didn’t enter the grounds and one could pretend that beyond the areas where we were hanging around there were forests or rolling hills! Very relaxing.
Soon after arriving at the college, we were treated to pre-dinner drinks and snacks while listening to a string quartet and chatting to different people. We were then ushered into the dinning hall to have dinner. The food was pretty good (duck was the main course and dessert was some sort of mousse which I didn’t eat; none of the usual chicken kiev and peppermint surprise that we faced oh so many times at Rhodes!), however the wine was a bit dodgy, both white and red left a bit of a foul taste in one’s mouth. Towards the end of the meal the crowds were getting a bit bored and at our table there was a “contest” as to who
could come up with the best activity using the balloons present on our table (the decorations). To the right were the guys sucking what we are hoping was helium and try to speak with a squeaky voice. This didn’t quite work, hence the query as to whether the gas filling the balloons was indeed helium. What else it could be I am not too sure, but apparently helium isn’t necessarily the only gas one can use to fill balloons. To the left the experiment being conducted was to get the balloons to float at head-level across the room. This was a bit more successful once the box holding down the balloons was emptied of its gravel, had its sides and bottom ripped off, the little handles ripped off and then various sections of ribbon ripped off. The balloons were then sent on their way across the room much to the delight of the chap who did all the scheming and to the ball-attendants who were fascinated by the balloons being at head-level. Granted at this point there were a number of tipsy folk, so little things were clearly amusing them! (photo is of the dinning hall; you can see balloons in the background - there were some that had been set "free" and were making their way up and down the far wall!)
After dinner we headed to another venue where folks started jumping on the castle (we did take a photo but that doesn’t seem to have come out) and dancing to the live music, oh and grabbing more booze and generally enjoying the party. We sat outside for a while and watched the activity around the piñata – a fish filled with boiled sweets and some chocolates. All was going well and some people were doing well the whack the fish pretty hard with the stick and break open various parts of the piñata. The first sign of problems though was when one chap was brought forward, blindfolded and spun around. He then just stood there for a moment or two before falling over! A mate did catch him before he could hurt himself and he was led off presumable to recover for a while. The next guy was very enthusiastic and gave the fish a good couple of hits before building up for the final smack. The swing came, the fish was missed but the stick ‘broke’ into two (it was made of two parts which screwed into each other, clearly it wasn’t screwed together properly), with the top part flying forward into a window with a loud bang… amazingly the window didn’t break and on closer inspection there wasn’t even a scratch on the glass. Needless to say, the piñata was abandoned (just in case!), and folks moved inside to party!
At the end of our evening, we headed to the college entrance to meet with the ordered cab. The cab (a people carrier of sorts) arrived and we piled in (three of us). The cabbie then put the vehicle into gear and our final adventure started… the music was turned up (disco style), the lights were turned on (really disco style – red, yellow and I think green lights too) and we were left speechless. What was this? Were we on candid camera? Wide-eyed we were taken back towards my friends’ place but a street or two away we asked the cabby to pull over and let us out (we FELT like walking for a while). He did pull over but I don’t think he was impressed and soon was pulling along side us to try get more money off us, which he didn’t succeed in doing and drove off in a huff. We were glad to duck indoors and be out of sight of the cabby in case he decided to try find us again. I learnt a lesson from this experience – never give the cabby your home number, just give the street name and then tell the cabby when to stop. Also wait until the cabby is out of sight before entering your property! And the biggest lesson of the evening was – NEVER go in THAT cab again!!!
All in all a fun evening though and we didn’t even have sore heads the next morning, although I was pretty tired for the rest of the weekend which proved a little difficult for me and my concentration levels… more on that shortly.
