Christmas lunch

Ah, the company Christmas lunch. What a varied experience that can be. During my freelancing days, it was far more of a lottery; sometimes I'd only been with a company for a short period of time before being thrust into this social situation. Suddenly I'd find myself short of things to say to people with whom I got along effortlessly in the office. Happily, for me at least, these days the Christmas lunch is with people I've known and worked with for years, so it's a far more relaxed and enjoyable affair.

After trying various venues over the years, we appear to have settled on Romney's, just outside of Kendal, as our favoured spot for this seasonal outing. It's a bit modern, as pubs go, but the food's good, the beer seems to be well looked after, plus it's the closest thing the office has to a local.

After we'd eaten, we stayed at the table and carried on drinking and chatting, which was lovely, and I was surprised when my lift home arrived to find that it was already past five o'clock. It was probably good timing, actually; I'd had enough to drink and I'm not sure how I'd have fared if I'd gone into Kendal with those members of the team who'd decided to carry on into the evening.