retrospective six

We went to a masked ball, which Nicki Hunt was holding for her thirtieth, in conjunction with the charity connected with the illness she suffers from, Reynauds scleroderma. There was more than one kind of charity involved here: a free bar ensured that, along with our giving, we did a lot of receiving as well. A hell of a lot. In fact you might say we received and received and received until we fell over. Or Hannah did. There was a sweepstake on what time she was going to throw up, but she fell out of the minibus instead, which no-one had allowed for.

I won a prize in the raffle - a miniature rugby ball signed by Jason Leonard. Given my level of interest in rugby (it is low), people were expecting me to sell it on e-bay at the earliest opportunity, but, in the spirit of Hannah I decided to act against type and went round drunkenly boasting of how I’d always been a fan of ‘Leonard Jason’ and, when challenged, saying that he looks like Jason from Coronation Street, ‘only bigger’.

I even felt I knew this, though only from seeing him on the front of his memoirs. In any case, it transpired that I was thinking of Jason Robinson. Who doesn’t really look like Jason from Coronation Street either.

Only Chad and Jane went on afterwards, to make the best of their dress by pretending to have just got married, thus getting into Duke’s for free. Inside, everyone came up to congratulate them. On being asked why she had no ring, Jane muttered something about it having been ‘a spiritualist ceremony’. At that time of night in Duke’s, of course, anyone will believe anything. Useful to know, that.