80's Disco and Mad Saturday
In the heady days of Summer some of our team opted for an 80?s disco as part of our of our Christmas celebrations. It happened to be on Mad Saturday (the last one before Christmas Day), one of the busiest nights of the year.
All well and good, except around the end of October I transitioned at work. That has been going great but as this night out I grew somewhat apprehensive, conscious of the consistent warnings regarding being around people who have drunk a lot. I didn?t feel I could go back. I considered pretending to be ill, but that wasn?t very fair on my Wonderful SO who was looking forward to it, plus I had to do this at some point.
We got ready and hopped on the bus. Then a short walk to the pub nearest the venue. I took a deep breath and pushed through the double doors to be greeted by a small pub packed to the gills, I queued at the bar whilst M managed to find two seats. People are so close. I am acutely aware but not nearly as nervous as expected. All I can do is stand calmly, waiting my turn, smiling, and hold onto the belief that I have as much right to be there, like Dumbo grasping his magic feather tightly in his trunk.
It takes ages to get served and as I finally sit down the rest of the crew arrive from another pub. My boss and his wife, another colleague and her husband, who although he hasn?t seen Helena before greets me warmly, V our admin and her friend from next door office, and we chat away.
Eventually I need to visit the Ladies. I squeeze through the throng into a very small space containing a sink and doors to two little toilet rooms. There are two women waiting, another follows me in. One cubicle opens and the first two go in together and the lady who is now washing her hands, conspiratorially whispers that there is a couple in the other cubicle. The lock clicks, and they walk out and I take their place, bit stunned how they managed as the space is so minute I have to shuffle to get the door closed.
We moved across the road to the venue and we spend several hours happily dancing away to the tunes of our late teenage. Occasionally nipping out to the smokers? balcony, though we don?t smoke it was the only way to get a little fresh cool air. Thankfully I nip to the ladies, again another micro space, when there are only a few waiting as later the queue grows so large that it spills over into the Gents. The only problem we have is one creepy woman starts dancing closer and closer to M but just at the point where we were going to have to say something, her friends arrived and whisked her away.
Gradually the group drifted off to other venues. We danced for longer then went to see if we could find them. We found the two couples in a micro brew shop, only really long enough to say goodbye with quite emotional hugs all round, even one from my Boss. We wandered off to find a curry, me feeling ?cared for?, stupidly letting our pre booked taxi go.
After the curry we walked round corner to minicab office. It is incredibly busy and looks like we have a couple of hours wait ahead, so we flag down and a black & white cab and head home.
All in all an amazing experience, which I never thought I would have, especially not on one of the busiest nights in Chesterfield. I was worried something would kick off but perhaps because it was so busy it helped as despite the close proximity people were mainly just concerned with getting served and finding a space for their own groups to gather. It helped so much that I was part of a group who weren?t going to let anything happen to me, and I owe them so much especially M, my supportive SO.
