London Trip

I headed off to London a weekend or two ago with NUIGalway's BizSoc for the most well presented and justifiable piss-up I've ever attended. The main event was the London Irish Business Society Gala Ball on the Saturday night in The Hilton on Park Lane. We weren't really sure what to expect from the night, but it certainly exceeded our expectations.

From the moment we left the hotel we turned heads with our dashing Harvey Spector-like tuxs, and also with the 3 Irish escorts the gents in the society had hired for the trip. From a late night inner-city London enquiry I made, I found that hiring indigenous escorts from the college was indeed a resourceful, cost-minimizing move by savy society treasurer Andrew.

The hotel was a spectacle both inside and out and the Champagne was flowing like the Thames. We made our way into the dinner area and my narrow palate was too much for the food put in front of me, as I had expected. While appreciating the aesthetic side of the dishes, I made sure to take advantage of the wine on offer. The guest speaker Caroline Casey, who managed to complete Accenture's graduate program despite being completely blind (and not telling them), was inspirational. I was hoping she'd bump into me later in the night but I wasn't afforded this opportunity unfortunately.

Smash Hits! followed and they had the whole room rocking to 90s gems such as "Freed From Desire" and "I'm Horny", a marked contrast to the formalities in the reception room two hours earlier. Even the two lighting directors at the side of the room seemed rather boisterous, although that may have been down to all the red wine I was feeding them. I managed to get talking to a lot of business professionals throughout the night, and they were all keen to reach out to us students and help us in whatever way they could- a real testament to what the event was all about.


At around 2.45am (very open to correction on this!) we left the ball and headed into the night.

We inevitably made our way to a casino in Piccadilly Circus, which was more of a nightclub really. After initially losing a few bob at the start I managed to claw my way back into a handsome profit at the roulette table (at least I think I did, still haven't mustered up the courage to check my bank statement).

Another early start was needed Sunday as we headed of to the lifetime experience that is "The Church". Anyone reading this who has been will know that it's hard to do this place justice in words! Its basically a daytime party (12-4) every Sunday, set up by an Aussie 33 years ago. It's been banned by the council at 8 different venues so far and it's easy to see why! Options at the bar may be somewhat limited for the more adventurous drinkers, but for me 3 cans of Fosters for £10 did the trick.

After a few of the group took a nap in the ever hospitable "Chicken&Ribs" we made our way back to the hotel (to put back on the tuxs!), then continued to The Walkabout, another down-under watering hole. This more established looking venue brought on me a distaste for Australian males and a fondness for New Zealand "cuzzys".

All things considered it was a fantastic, well organised (/subsidized) trip!

A blog, eh?

I was about to start off by documenting my inexperience of the world of blogging, and how I'm no expert on neither their function nor scope. Then, however, I realised I'd sound like one of those gobshites that set up a twitter account and tweet "Don't even know what I'm doing here #lol #fuckmalife". I'm sure after a post or two it'll be like riding a bike, without the tax benefits.

Anyway, I decided to begin this after a friend by the name of cynicalundergrad linked me his blog. Another influence was the constraint of the 140 character maximum on twitter, (I've already tweeted about this, but you already know that because like all my other followers, you sit in bed at night, in the dark, constantly refreshing my page). People that I would not cite as influences for this blog include, but are not limited to, Newt Gingrich, Seve Ballesteros and Gnarls Barkley.

I'm not quite sure what direction this blog will take, if any. I'm quite similar to J.K Rowling in a sense because we've both spent the last few years pissing about doing nothing (in my case college, hers rolling around in Harry Potter's comestains). Now, we've both risen from the dead seeking to change the planet; J.K with her new book about class struggle and social tensions, and me with this blog about first world problems.

As the views on this blog inevitably grow exponentially over the next few days, and I decide to monetize it as the sponsors line up, I promise to remember you original groupies who read this shit before it went mainstream.