We Be Ballin'

One of the very good things about working for a corporation, is that they throw Really.  Good. Parties.   Recently, Shawn and I had the opportunity to head to the Annual Mid-Year Ball.  And honestly any excuse to go to a ball for pretty much next to nothing is a good thing.

Since right now we live so far away from the city, and the ball was on a Friday, I had to bring all my stuff to work.  Because I am high class, I shoved folded neatly my “I-wear-this-to-everything” purple Anthropologie dress into a plastic shopping bag with some touch-up makeup and a hairbrush.  (High class ladies brush their hair more than once per day, I’m told.)  I was pretty nervous about how I was dressed though, because the invitation said “Black Tie.”  Clearly, I didn’t bring any gowns with me to Australia, and Shawn doesn’t own a tux.  My co-workers repeatedly tried to calm me down, but you know how I get when 1) I think I’m breaking an etiquette rule and 2) I get myself into a frenzy about something. 

Thankfully, some other ladies were getting ready at work, and were wearing similar cocktail style dresses so after an entire day in an utter panic, I relaxed a little bit.  Plus these things are always dark.  I did last minute try and find some fancier shoes (I only brought a scant few of my shoe collection to AUS, it’s been horrible), and while at Myer (it’s like a Neiman Marcus) I picked out an awesome pair of shoes, for the very reasonable price of $800.  Needless to say, my black target heels it was!  (who is buying $800 shoes?  Also, if you are, you can afford to buy me some too.  I have them all picked out)

Shawn showed up looking all dapper and very hipster in his new suit.  Off to the ball we went!

It was held in the Docklands in what I’m assuming was a converted ship building warehouse.  So it was pretty epic.  We found out table, and realized that we were right in the center of the room, in front of the dance floor.  I was completely baffled how we scored such a good table, until Shawn pointed out to me that I do work with the event manager.  Dur.

Fancy centerpiece

 The food was amazing and we were pretty depressed that since we liked it so much, and we weren’t at a restaurant, we couldn’t ever have it again.  I literally wanted to lick the bowl after my entrée (that’s an appetizer here).  I easily would have stuck my face in the bowl, if not for meeting people for the first time.  Though honestly, that gives a pretty good picture of who I am as a person, so I probably should have. 

Since this event was pretty epic, there were fire dancers.  This made me slightly nervous because they were very close to our table.  Thankfully, no need to remember my training from elementary school and I did not have to stop, drop and roll. (Fire prevention, everyone, everyday….ugh, how badly did I want them to pick MY drawing for the calendar.)

 Then band then came on.  They did a version of Funky Town.

It went a little something like this:
 

Dear Australian Band,

It is not “A funky town”.  There is just one town, called Funky Town.  Proper Noun Style.  Get it right.

The band did also help me realize my new ambition was to be a backup dancer in a band that plays corporate events.  These girls had some sick costume changes, like fur vests, shiny leggings and tear stained faces because they are backup dancers in a band that plays corporate events.

There were three very important things that made this evening epic for me and for Shawn: 

1) It was our anniversary weekend.

2) They had two photo booths and wacky props.     

3) They had a candy bar.  With pennants. 

Wedding reenactment what, what?

Clearly since there was candy, and it was free, we were going to shove as much of it as we could into the little bags.  Except several times we were tricked with weird Australian candies.  Like MUSK sticks which look like sticks of bubble gum. 

Let’s take a moment to address how I feel about the humble musk stick.

1. Musk is for perfume.
2. Musk is for animals signalling that they are going to mate.
3. Musk is not a flavour for candy (obligatory "u" added)
4. Musk candy is super gross (aka not made for the American palate)
5. Seriously, they have other ingredients here, how did you even think to make musk a candy?

Of course, you can’t be too surprised, because they also use ingredients like rose water in candy here.  Who wants candy tasting like flowers? 

How i love thee candy apple and popcorn

Churros, Shawn-styles.

 











There were candy apples and popcorn bags, and sour worms.  We thought there were gobstoppers, but it turned out to be gum that tasted like the Gatorade gum they used to sell.  (do they still sell that?)  There is nothing so disappointing as thinking you are getting a gobstopper and you get a gumball.  Well, nothing so disappointing except for tricksy musk sticks.  

We ended the night by taking the train home in our finery.  And it was a wonderful start to our anniversary weekend