December 14, 2004
Schitterend feestje
Almost a week ago now we had an uncommonly civilized evening for us. I'm a slack member of ABIE and the Australian Ambassador in the Netherlands, Mr. Stephen Brady is a great supporter of our group. And so it was that he and Mr. Peter Stevens offered to host the ABIE Christmas party at the ambassador's residence in Den Haag. Now I just know you'll find this hard to believe, but its not often that I get the chance to poke around an ambassador's residence, so we duly RSVP'd "YES". I did however make a couple of small, tiny, wee, faux pas. Shall I list them?
One:I misread the dress code 'Lounge Suit' for 'Lounge'. Hmm, funky for an Ambassador, I thought. Add to this the fact that it was the first sub-zero day this winter and my decision to wear a couple of blue-sheep and I guess my initial entrance must have been a bit startling to the other guests. They handled it very diplomatically.
Two:I had somehow not noticed that the chappie I had met previously had since been assigned to Argentina and there was a new incumbent. (It happenned in the post-new-baby-back-at-work-blur, or at least thats my excuse) Thus I resolutely ignored the Australian Ambassador all evening convinced he was a waiter.
Despite this I can report, the ambassador has some nice digs with some lovely reception rooms. He has a new cook who can, as they say in the CWA, "do a lovely spread", and was himself charming and very diplomatic under duress. (Well, it IS his job.) Everyone else was beautifully dressed and behaved and it was as they say on Sesamstraat, "een schitterend feestje, wat een geweldig soiree"*. Thanks to Jacob I couldn't get that song out of my head all night.
*Schitterend is currently one of my favourite Dutch words, its one of those words that sounds the way it means. It means, "brilliant or glittering".
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