Arabian Nights (Where?) Party

Having worked hard all year, our little group of Stop Smoking Counsellors usually treat ourselves to a well-earned Christmas do. This year the organiser thought an Arabian Nights theme would make a change. Hmm interesting but worth a try. We ventured out on a wintry night excited at the prospect of an enchanting evening. We discovered we were one of 30 tables attending the event, our table being at the back of the dance hall. We had been ribbed for months we would need to be able to belly-dance amongst other things - the mind boggles - or should I say the tummy wobbles - and not necessarily in all the right places!! The tables were set up beautifully, the food was decidely English but good to eat. The bar was free drinks all night but as I don't drink, one can only take so much soft drink before the bloatedness starts to appear. My colleagues excitetedly tried the cocktails "Sex in the Sahara" or "Sex on the Magic Carpet". What did they consist of? Supposedly Vodka & Archers for the Sahara Version or Red wine and Cointreau for the magic Carpet. Surely they must be good? Well they would've been if they hadn't been two thirds fruit juice and lemonade my friends retort! The entertainment was NOT what we imagined nor was the decor of the dance hall. Expecting to be served by men and ladies in traditional costume, we were let down by the fact they wore the usual black and white serving uniforms; the belly dancers numbered 2, whom we never saw from our vantage point only their two heads and four hands, no bellies, nothing else. The decor consisted of 4 cardboard cut out palm trees, 1 very large stuffed woolly camel, 2 white cardboard cut out camels and one white cardboard camel driver!! As my colleague mentioned "not a lot of atmosphere here is there"? Well we had a good laugh about it, spent the evening letting it all hang out on the disco dance floor and were glad to see that some of us oldies could still out-dance and out-move the youngsters of the night and were still standing at the end of the evening enough to remember, what we ate, what we drank and who we went home with!