of the physical manifestation of apprehension

As we were sitting in the chosen venue's upstairs section for the office christmas meal (#1, formal) it was fitting that the loudest component of the overloud music was the treble, though inappropriate that heat did not rise, leaving the food somewhat tepid. Not a place I would rush back to, nor one I would lose sleep over in order to write it up more thoroughly. Expansion in the morning...

Even just leaving the office wearing trousers felt weird, possibly entirely projectively anticipatorily but certainly noticeably, though additional nervousness was possibly due to having to ring and moan at my mobile network service provider who forgot to action a change to stick Nicky onto a plan with free internet at the same time as sending out her new data-hungry handset. They were supposed to be ringing me back but turned out (when I rang them back) to have no record of my previous call and certainly no evidence of I'll-just-sort-that-out-now actions on the account. That eventually done, I didn't have much time to wander around until it became event-starting-time and not enough time to also find somewhere in which I could sit and have a coffee and put on my stupid shoes, which I eventually did in an office window-nook round the corner from the bouncer-guarded venue entrance. I'd fortunately arrived sufficiently non-early to have missed any milling-around-the-bar stuff, quite fortunate given the volume, shoutiness and shiny-clothing peacockery emanating from the bar area after I went in. It was initially reasonably quiet upstairs, almost quiet enough to not have to stick ears too close to mouths when people were talking and only requiring a slightly raised voice when replying. The various informations available had suggested that we would perhaps be subjected to light background jazz during the eating process but for the first couple of courses a mixture of vaguely winter festive period songs and random stuff was being played, with only the occasional thud of someone switching on an amp without turning the volume down first to indicate that there would be a band later. When they eventually turned up (after we were all prepared by the pre-recorded music's volume being increased above the damage threshold for a few songs) they turned out to be playing flavourless covers of tunes from the youths of other people. Loudly. I did wait until the coffee arrived at the end but might as well have not bothered, given its tepidity and wateriness. By this point it was difficult to hear even the shouting of someone two feet away over the music and other associated shouting from elsewhere and was getting to be slightly belligerently drunk when it was audible, so I didn't hesitate in sloping away (changing my shoes back on the way) for a pleasant skid home along the few remaining icy pavements.