...has always been my motto. Not very original, I know, and maybe even a touch conceited, but I just never felt the need to regulate my social life in this way. Over the years, I've been introduced to numerous Rotary style clubs both here and abroad, and although I've spent many a pleasant afternoon or evening at these, I've never been tempted to join any of them. So far, I've been perfectly happy meeting my friends for lunch at the New York Stock Exchange Club, even if I have to subject myself to being frisked before I'm allowed up; or to stay as a paying guest for a couple of nights at the Royal Thames Yacht Club if my London chums couldn't put me up for one reason or another...but I've always declined whenever I was offered a full membership. Yesterday though, I was tempted.
It turned out that where we were going was the annual fireworks dinner at the venerable The Hague club 'De Witte' - founded as an ostensibly literary society in the time of Napoleon, it boasts an immense and extensive library as well as several interesting 'tables'...and I got invited to two of them, with people almost falling over themselves to sponsor me. A weird but at the same time, quite flattering experience.
Anyway, I made the acquaintance of some very nice people there last night: 2 architects, a project developer, and a stockbroker and his wife; and I have a feeling that I will be seeing these people again quite soon. I'm still a bit taken aback by the instant connection we shared, chatting away as if we were old friends about everything under the sun, from architecture to holiday plans to politics and traffic accidents...all in all, I'm glad I let myself be dragged along to this do. The food was absolutely fantastic (but then it always is at these sort of places), the ambiance was magnificent (an 18th-century pavillion on top of a dune and looking out over the North Sea from every window) and the company jovial and entertaining. When they asked me if they could put my name forward to the committee, I very nearly said yes.
Pee would stay with me that night; but unfortunately, she had acquired an unbelievably obnoxious admirer who just would not leave her alone -- and when I came to rescue her, attached himself to me as well. He jumped into our taxi at the last moment, and we had quite a hard time getting rid of him. In the end, we did manage it, but not without leaving him with the conviction that we were a nasty pair of frigid bitches. Well -- maybe, but I can't see that it's any of his concern. God, I hate gropers!
Meanwhile, in NYC, my Lushette friends witnessed the CoRo-gig at The Bitter End. Can't wait to hear how that went!
It turned out that where we were going was the annual fireworks dinner at the venerable The Hague club 'De Witte' - founded as an ostensibly literary society in the time of Napoleon, it boasts an immense and extensive library as well as several interesting 'tables'...and I got invited to two of them, with people almost falling over themselves to sponsor me. A weird but at the same time, quite flattering experience.
Anyway, I made the acquaintance of some very nice people there last night: 2 architects, a project developer, and a stockbroker and his wife; and I have a feeling that I will be seeing these people again quite soon. I'm still a bit taken aback by the instant connection we shared, chatting away as if we were old friends about everything under the sun, from architecture to holiday plans to politics and traffic accidents...all in all, I'm glad I let myself be dragged along to this do. The food was absolutely fantastic (but then it always is at these sort of places), the ambiance was magnificent (an 18th-century pavillion on top of a dune and looking out over the North Sea from every window) and the company jovial and entertaining. When they asked me if they could put my name forward to the committee, I very nearly said yes.
Pee would stay with me that night; but unfortunately, she had acquired an unbelievably obnoxious admirer who just would not leave her alone -- and when I came to rescue her, attached himself to me as well. He jumped into our taxi at the last moment, and we had quite a hard time getting rid of him. In the end, we did manage it, but not without leaving him with the conviction that we were a nasty pair of frigid bitches. Well -- maybe, but I can't see that it's any of his concern. God, I hate gropers!
Meanwhile, in NYC, my Lushette friends witnessed the CoRo-gig at The Bitter End. Can't wait to hear how that went!
- Current Mood:
okay - Current Music:'Dancer' - Common Rotation
Comments
Which is partly why I've always been a bit disdainful of it in the past. Social climbing, pah! - how frightfully bourgeois! But really, when you think about it, that's quite a snobistic attitude to maintain. Esp. if, like me, you are middleclass and bourgeois!
- probably why I'm stuck at the bottom!
...and me!
I don't know -- it was actually my friend Pee, who's been trying to get me to join for years, who said the exact wrong thing to me that night when I was debating whether to say yes or no; she said that it might not be a bad idea to join, now that I was looking for another job...That did it: I withheld my candidacy, and now I wonder whether I let my pride get in the way of my advancement again.
But if you were enjoying it, that should be a good reason in itself. You might find a rich husband (although someone else's rich husband is probably more likely).