EMAP Awards

Last Thursday was the usual annual work event - the EMAP Awards! This is a regular outing for employees of EMAP where we all bundle into a coach and get driven up to london to the Grosvenor House Hotel in Park Lane for free food and booze... oh yeah, and there's an awards ceremony to celebrate all the hard work people have done over the year. Each year we have a celebrity to present the awards. Hosts have included Phill Jupitus, Jonathan Ross and Claire Sweeney(!) This year we had Dr Neil Fox.

The coach journey is always a bore. Some people take alcohol with them to reduce boredom, some people take little travel games with them, other people try to sleep through it. The group of people I was with played a name game where one person has to think of a person (celeb, character, politician, whatever) and the others have to guess who they are by asking Yes/NO questions. ie. Are you Male? Are you in a band? etc. That killed time for most of the journey.

When we arrived we had a champagne reception. As it was free I kept going back for more until we were all ushered to our tables. I think I had 4 glasses of champagne! When we got to our tables there was a little shuffle around as to who was gonna sit where and it turns out that the MD and the Head of Research had a whole table to themselves so they came and joined out table. Bummer! I poured myself a white wine as the last glass of champagne was almost finished and then the food arrived. It was actually quite nice this year compared to last year.

Things tended to get REALLY hazy at this point cos I was starting to feel the effects of excessive drinking. Er.... I think I ended up going on stage with a colleague for an award that wasn't for us and got a free bottle of champane and shook Dr Fox's hand (very surreal moment). Hmmm but I do remember getting so drunk to the point where I thought I was gonna puke! I had to find a quiet corner somewhere and sit on the floor with my head between my knees for the last 30 mins!!

Anyway, on with the pics....

...incidently, that last pic was taken while I'd disappeared to try and sober myself up! You could probably tell because of the 'arty' angle!

At midnight, the coach arrived to take us all back to sunny Bournemouth. The weird thing was, as soon as I got on the coach and started chatting I sobered up! I think at one point we were all chanting 'England til I die' for no real reason. I can't remember much else!! Except when we got back I went back to Richard and Emma's house with a bunch of people to play Singstar til about 4:30 in the morning!! More pics..

...as per usual, there are more pics available to view on my Flickr account HERE!