Well last night was the works Xmas party for the masses at Haywood Developments Ltd. We left our base in Worcestershire at about 1130am to make the trip down various motorways and Welsh country lanes.

With the New Developments manager acting as chauffer and myself as co-driver / DJ, we set off. The Admin assistant, Matt played his face about how long the journey was - about 4 hours by car wasn't that bad, so long as you could keep yourself occupied.

Anyway, we arrived at our destination and had a couple of hours to kill - over drinks number 1-3 of the evening, while getting ready. Aside from the drinking, getting ready consisted of applying a little gel and after shave. Job's a good un!

A minibus trip later, we arrived at a place called 'Tafern Beca', which would be my base for the next few hours at the very least. Cue the introductions to bussiness associates, who I haven't met in over 2 years with the company. The plesant conversation is mainly an aside, as we slowly become drunk.

The meal itself was the traditional Xmas 3-course spectacular - soup, turkey dinner, then a choice of dessert - I had a Mint Cheesecake, since I'll be eating all too much Xmas pudding and Mince pies over the next week :P This was washed down with another 4 Southern Comfort & Coke combos. Very tasty.

With all of the meal finished, we were herded into the bar, where a few more drinks were poured and I was overjoyed to see a pool table. Feeling a little of the effects of the alcohol, knowing that I'd passed my normal limit of about 6 drinks, I tried to take my mind off things with a few games. I proceeded to beat Kevin, the Regional Manager, followed by myself and Matt beating Sarah from Sales and Dylan the site forman in a doubles match.

Desperate for revenge, Kevin placed a drink on the table and 50p in the table. He was paired with Alan the Architect. I didn't have a partner at that point, but didn't care, as I broke and potted a red... follwed by 6 more and then the black. There was an almighty cheer, as I'd truly found my place within the company, by achieving my first 7-ball victory ever.

A few decent battles followed on the pool table and I moved onto a respectable 12th drink. I was losing control of my legs and speech and was getting pissed off about it. The crowd appeared to have lost interest in the Pool table as well, which was depressing. One of the guys who I had managed to beat off the pool table earlier said to me that the best thing for me to do was to be sick and give me some control back. A poor choice of words, as it made me feel sick, so off I went to the Gents.

I'm not pissed off about being sick, more by the fact that I couldn't test if I would suffer a hangover in the morning from the drink which I purged from my system. Whatever was left didn't affect me and I'm now free for Xmas, which is an amazing feeling. The drive back was fun and I'm not feeling any effects of the drink either. Time to go down the Gym!

Happy Xmas everyone, I'll see you in 2008!