The Officers' Summer Ball @ Bassingbourn Barracks

Saturday was the 2006 Officers' Summer Ball at Bassingbourn Barracks -- and it was a blast.

Nick had invited Flick, Ros and me to the Summer Ball that week Flick was down to house- and cat-sit for her sister, Yseult, and that's how we found ourselves all dressed to the nines at a formal black tie affair at the barracks. With a whooooole bunch of men in uniform (or, rather, in formal regiment wear). Nice? Oh, yeah, baby. (Too bad Ros couldn't make it. It's amazing what a tuxedo can do for a man. Well, actually, Nick and his regiment weren't wearing tuxedo-tuxedos. They had white shirts, cummerbunds, dinner jackets and bow ties (Noel had a blue bow tie with white polka dots) but their trousers weren't black; they were blue and green tartan. God, I love tartan and although I prefer red and black, blue and green is my second favourite (I have scarves in both colour schemes).

This year's theme was Mississippi Riverboat so the marquee (aka giant tent) was all decked out in red, white and blue. There was even a 'bridge' leading into the marquee. Besides food and a bar, there was a live band, a DJ (although he played a bit too much cheese), a Casino Royale with Black Jack and Roulette (fake money but the male and female winners got a bottle of champagne each). I'm not a gambler - because the house always has the advantage and I don't like losing money - but I did give it a go. I won £4 (woohoo!) but then got distracted by dessert. Typical. The regiment photographer was also in resident. He took a picture of Flick, Nick and me and another of just me and Nick; I'm hoping to get a copy of those.

Flick and I were originally sat at Niko's table but one of Nick's guests couldn't make it so he was able to squeeze us onto his table in the end - too bad for her, yay for us! I don't think we would've had as much fun at Niko's table because Nick's guests were so awesome and we had so many hilarious moments. Working clockwise, it was Nick, me, Flick, Wil (friend of Noel's), Dee (Nick's sister) and her husband, Mick, Barbara (Nick's Godmother), Jan (Nick's mom), David and Simon (Nick's school chums) and Noel (the officer who took over Nick's men when he got promoted).

At one point Flick turned to me and said, "This is so random, us being here."
I replied. "Yeah, I know. Life with me is never dull. Haha!"

The funniest moments were inbetween the starters and the main course. We'd just finished our cajun shrimp salad and started chatting when we realised that there were long balloons flying all over the room and hitting people in the head. Jan noticed the balloons on the table - they were camouflaged by the confetti - and passed them around. They were surprisingly difficult to blow up and Jan started cracking double entendres jokes. I won't go into details but that really set things off. For the next half hour or so everything that was said were sexual innuendos, deliberate or otherwise, and resulted in much hilarity and tears of laughter. Jan is such an awesome mom!

After the food was consumed, the dancing started. Nick and I are, apparently, legends (his words, not mine) and we've been waiting a long time to strut our (Ceroc) stuff. The last four months totally paid off and we were pretty awesome. We even managed Double Trouble with Flick, which is when one guy dances with two girls. The Colonel was well impressed with that. Talk about pimpin' haha!

There were so many gorgeous outfits that night. Of course, Flick and I were among the best dressed, haha! Flick had on a slinky black one-shoulder number, asymmetrically cut with ruching in the front - very flattering. Jan had this beautiful long, black satin fishtail skirt that was très élégante. Dee wore a mint green satin top that really complemented her fair skin. This other girl had a gooooorgeous scarlett satin strapless gown; it's the colour of my hair in direct sunlight! I wore a black qipao/cheongsam, or traditional Chinese dress, myself. Luckily no one else decided to wear a qipao so I was feeling pretty fab about myself. :D

Hats off the Officers' Mess manageress and her entire staff. They worked their butts off that night making sure our food was out on time, clearing our tables, getting our drinks and having breakfast ready at 3am and at 9:30-1ish. By 1am, Flick had gone to bed already - poor girl can't stay up late these days now that she's got a proper job and all! Nick and I left around 3:30am; there were several people still left in the tent dancing and many more in the banquet hall eating bacon and croissants for breakfast. And yes, I had two breakfasts - a croissant at 3am and cereal and traditional English fry-up at about 10:45am. However, I don't think the party ended until well after 4 because I remember thinking, 'The music's still going...' right before falling asleep.

What a night!