Crimbo Paella Party

It was the BLC Christmas Party last night at the Champagneria Gala. It really isn't very Spanish to eat paella at night but we don't care about being 'guiris'. I had the seafood paella and had a whale of a time pulling the heads of prawns and cray fish and sucking out mussels from their shells. There was once a time when I wouldn't even eat salmon because it looked funny and now I can't get enough seafood. It's funny how our tastes can change so much.


The dinner was a cool mix of academy people past and present, new and old and everyone seemed to have a fab time. Enrique even managed to put in an appearance which I don't think has happened in almost a decade. Nedra had forgotten to bring her camera but that didn't stop her from using mine to take her usual spontaneous snap shots of unsuspecting people. Here is a pretty cool one of mine and Carmen's hands.

After the restaurant we went to a Jazz bar where the barmen tried to ignore us for 10 minutes but finally realised that we weren't going anywhere and so served us our Irish coffees. Little by little people started leaving and only the hardcore party animals were left. God knows how I managed to join them but I did. In the end it was just Alex, Kate and myself in some nightclub called Bogui (yes, really!) where you couldn't move or get to the bar or breathe. It was not my cup of tea and after waiting for the metro to open at 6 am I then decided that I would much rather take a cab and get home quicker. I finally climbed into bed at 6.30. God knows what happened to Kate, she really was the last woman standing when Alex and I left the club. For all I know she could still be strutting her stuff on the dancefloor as I type.