10 October - First mention of Xmas

A colleague sends me a menu to make some choices from a restaurant she’s booked for Christmas lunch. On 15 December. A little later I get another ping and confirmation that the date for the firm’s Xmas do is 8 December. The whole process started a couple or so weeks ago when we were told to hold various dates.
You know you work in an office in Europe when all this starts It’s all essentially stultifyingly boring but if you skip one or two of these events you get a reputation as a snob, so you make yourself go. I can't remembert how many lunches or work parties I've been too over the years and I have no memories of any and that's nothing to do with champagne consumption. I blame one of these events last year for turning me to a life of gambling. Well, sort of. After hating Las Vegas last Sept, which is now re-instated as a top few days out destination and hometown of the Killes, I spent over 2 hours gambling with paper money at a Xmas party's Blackjack table in order to drag it to midnight ie. a respectable time to leave. Which was about the time people were really beginning to dance like idiots but before you had to queue for cabs. I don't want to go, I don't want to go, I don't want to go.....