Count Barry Goes To A Halloween Banquet< Breaking The Serpents Spell | Blog | Guy Fawkes Night In Stoke Park > I was recently invited to a Halloween Banquet by a nice person called Jenny, who is an event organiser from a company called SophistOccasion. You can view their website by clicking here.
The event sounded great, with a three-course meal, photographer, pictures of everybody uploaded to their website, competitions, DJ, and a goody bag. It was to be held inside the posh Country Club in Guildford, which I never knew was there, until I was told about the place. The Country Club looked very sophisticated from their website, which you can view by clicking here. It appears to be quite an exclusive place. Membership of the Club involves being proposed and seconded by two other members. I might look into becoming a member of the County Club, as it looks like the best place to go out in Guildford.
I tried to get some friends to come along to the party with me, but they were either broke, or they wanted to stay indoors, or were busy with their partners, or were doing something else, which was a shame. I always seem to miss out on lots of fun events due to this. As I really wanted to go to the party, I decided to go on my own. I have never been to a party on my own before, without knowing the venue, or anyone there, so it was a new experience for me. The next day I called Jenny the organiser about arranging a vegetarian meal cooked for me at the event. She told me about a discount I could have, and then I bought a ticket online for myself. I received my ticket through the post very quickly along with some discount vouchers for a few local party shops to purchase an outfit. The Halloween Banquet was a fancy dress party.
For my Halloween outfit I decided to go for Count Dracula, or even better a Count Barry look. I used my vouchers after work one day, which was in a party shop in the Guildford town centre. I bought a black cape, vampire teeth, and face paint there. The teeth did not sadly fit, so I had to dump the teeth, but the rest of it was fine. As both my parents are retired, they kindly picked up some extra accessories for me from some other local shops around the area, as I didn’t have time to look round everywhere, due to me working fulltime. They found me some better teeth, which fitted, some more face paint, plus a medallion on a red ribbon. At home, I have a black suit from working in offices and going to job interviews. I also had black leather gloves, to wear with my dark overcoat during wintertime. In addition, I have a white thrilly shirt, which was for wearing along with a black bow tie to old Christmas parties and events at my last firm. Therefore, they were all ideal to use for my Count Barry look. I did a dress rehearsal as Count Barry at home the night before, and I had some photos taken by my parents dressed like that, which you can see below.
The next day was Friday 31st October, Halloween, and the party was due that night. I asked my boss if I could leave work early, and he kindly agreed. When I got home, I changed into my Count Barry outfit again. I did my make up, and put my teeth in. As I was dressed as Count Barry, I could not drive like that, so I got a lift into Guildford town centre from my Dad. Dad parked us along the High Street in Guildford, opposite the Country Club. We had arrived early, as it was not yet open, so I had to sit patiently in the car to watch for the first people to arrive and enter the building, as I didn’t want to stand outside the entrance, or to be the first one in their on my own. I saw a lady in a long red dress with red shoes enter the building on her own. She was dressed as a rather fetching She-Devil. So, I left my Dad in the car, and I followed her into the Country Club. As I entered the Country Club, Jenny from SophistOccasion dressed as Poison Ivy from Batman greeted me pleasantly. I walked up the stairs and a guy dressed as Beetlejuice took my coat and hanged it up for me. This was looking to be a great party already.
At the bar, I got chatting to the She-Devil lady, and then to a French girl called Annette. Catwoman then arrived, who was She-Devil’s friend. I chatted to both of them for a while, and I took a photo of them standing together by the bar on Catwoman’s digital camera. There was a photographer in one of the rooms close to the bar, who looked a bit like Uncle Fester in his costume. His name was Harri, and he had a bit of accent, which sounded like it may have been Russian.
Harri took a photo of me standing alongside a skeleton, who was my date for the night. He then took a photo of Annette with the skeleton, then of She-Devil and Catwoman together with it.
More people arrived at the bar. They came to the event in big groups along with their work colleagues. Their costumes were very good; I saw allsorts of different outfits. There were vampires, witches, devils, ghosts, a terminator, Teen Wolf, Phantom of the Opera, a Knight of Templar, a surgeon, and even an Amy Winehouse lookalike. I guess the real Amy Winehouse can be classed as a horror, but the lookalike looked far better than the real singer.
Another Count came up to the bar with his girlfriend. He was dressed exactly the same as me, so I thought to point this out to him. He works in IT, so he was not very chatty, but I enjoyed speaking to his girlfriend. I thought I was a far better Count than he was though.
They were mostly business people, but they were friendly. Harri took some more photos.
I then got speaking to a nice friendly chap wearing a green top hat, black suit, with white make up on. He looked similar to the Joker from the latest Batman film. He told me he had come to the event with his sister, and his sister put on his make up in a Voodoo style. I then met his sister called Helene, a very attractive, kind and caring lady, who was dressed as witch. I then met her friend and work colleague, another nice lady from New Zealand, who was also dressed as a witch. She had also arrived with a guy, who was wearing a black suit and had blonde beached hair. The two women were from a local charity. I enjoyed chatting to them, they were all very friendly. I was glad to make some friends at the event for me to speak to, as I had come on my own.
Helene very kindly invited me to sit at her table for the meal, along with her group. We sat in another room called the Doric Room for our meal. There were groups of numbered tables for everyone to sit at. Our table was decorated very well, with a lit up pumpkin.
A waiter brought us all some pumpkin soup, with bread rolls and butter, which was amazingly tasty and nice. We then shared some jugs of water with ice and lemon in. Then our main meals came out. My meal was glazed vegetables with minted potatoes, along with a pie that had goats cheese and tomatoes inside. For pudding, I had chocolate mousse.
After we had finished our meal, Jenny the organiser told us that there were hidden envelopes under each table for every guest. I felt around under the table and found an orange envelope, which I opened to find a scratch card within. We used coins, and our keys to scratch off the panels on our cards. I had won nothing, but Helene had won the lit up pumpkin on our table.
Some guests on the other tables had won vouchers, but the main prizes were two huge luxury filled hampers, one for a male, and the other for a female. We didn't sadly win anything like that on our table.
Jenny and Beetlejuice then gave out prizes to the best-dressed male, then female, the best couple, and then the best group. The winning male was a werewolf called Teen Wolf, who was based on Michael J. Fox.
When the competitions had ended, we left the Doric Room, whilst they prepared it for the DJ and dance floor. I returned to the bar. I then met the guy dressed as Phantom of the Opera, he was called Hugh and was accompanied by an attractive South African lady, who was dressed as the main character from the Scream movies. Hugh recognised me from a website which we are both on, so we got chatting to each other, and he bought me a drink. They were a great friendly couple. Hugh was originally from Scotland, but had lived all over the world, and had recently come back to the area after living in Brussels. I enjoyed talking to them.
When I returned to my table, the DJ had started playing and some people were dancing around together on the dance floor. Helene went up to dance, and then I got chatting to her brother and the New Zealand lady, who were still sitting at the table. I had a dance with Hugh and his partner, and then on my own, and then with some civil servant company workers. I was having fun.
I returned to the bar and had some more beer. The beer had started to go to my head a little by then.
When the slow songs came on, and I saw a few people snogging each other, I started to feel a bit on my own by then, as I had not brought along a female companion with me. The DJ then finished his set and the event ended soon after at 12pm. I said my goodbyes to people, and Helene gave me her charity details. I might go to her Christmas event, in aid of charity, and for something to do. As I walked dowstairs to collect my coat, Jenny gave me some goodies, which included some leaflets, and a big bottle of ale from the local brewery.
I left the Country Club and my Dad gave me a lift back home. I did feel very unusual going to an event all on my own like that, as I normally have a friend to accompany me. Nevertheless, it was a good experience for me, and I proved to myself that I could go to further fun events like that, without anybody with me, and still find people to chat to, who are able to be friendly with me.
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