Last night I went to my first Christmas Dinner of the year. All the new Foundation doctors were invited with their consultants too. We had it at the Beachy Head Hotel - very nice but a bit spooky on a dark and foggy night! There were about 30 of us and we had already chosen our meal. That in itself was a nightmare as none of us could remember what we'd chosen!! Luckily my Foundation Administrator, Anita, had the foresight to make a list and also gave one to the waitress. Good thinking.
So we all turned up (well most of them anyway!) and our first course arrived - I had pate, which was OK but someone didn't turn up and they'd ordered Prawn Cocktail, so I had that instead!! (perogative of being the Manager!). Then the fun started - Graham had brought along two face masks - one of Maggie Thatcher and one of Tony Blair. He divided the doctors into two teams - A - M and N - Z. They each chose someone who had to wear a mask and say why they should go to Heaven and not Hell. the idea was to have a debate and the best one chosen would win the point for their team. Well it wasn't very intellectual and Tony Blair won because it was a female doctor wearing the mask and she looked better than Maggie Thatcher!!
The next challenge came whilst we were waiting for the main course - I had venison pie - very nice I must say. This time two members from each team had to wrap up a parcel, each one using one hand only and then tie a bow! You can imagine the cheating that went on and I had to choose the winner! Well the N - Z team who had our Clinical Tutor, Salim, in it made a terrible effort so I had to award it to the A - M team, but I believe there was some skull duggery involved, but I didn't actually see anything! Unfortunately I only took a picture of the losing one, but you can see how terrible it was!!
So after main course (you can imagine the poor waiters, but they were very good) Graham bought out some bananas. Anita and I knew what was coming next ! - Four members of each team were given a knife and banana and told they were to perform a circumcision on the banana! Our Director of Medical Education, Scarlett had to have a go! Her excuse was it was a vey long time since she'd had to do this! Believe you me, you could tell! Well I'm glad I'm not a man! Our trainees definitely need more training which I shall have to organise!! Some of the bananas lost the whole tip, others broke, others were too drastic - the pictures are very dark I'm afraid, but if you look carefully you can see the winning banana.
They then had to put a condom on the bananas. That was the last straw as they nearly all broke!! I didn't get any pictures of that. Then after desert (I had cheese and biscuits) two more doctors were chosen from each team. One of them was blind-folded and the other had to sit on a chair with a pint glass between their legs. The blind-folded one had a bottle of beer with 1/4 of water in it between their legs. The idea was for the seated person to talk the blind-folded one to come towards them, keeping the bottle between their legs, no hands, and pour all the water into the glass. It was a very clever and entertaining party trick.
Finally at Graham's request we had downloaded the Poges Christmas song onto a memory stick. He had printed out the words. He was the man and one of the other doctors was the female and we were all the chorus. B that time there were not many people left in the Hotel, which was probably a very good thing.
It was a very good meal and I think everyone enjoyed themselves. I would certainly recommend the Beachy Head Hotel - not just for Christmas meals but all year round. I believe the food is very good and reasonable.
