Party with the Goldman’s lads
Saturday, 21st January 2006 by JulieThursday evening was Tom’s “VP drinks” party at a local bar-restaurant called the City Golf. (For reference, the pub has seemingly nothing to do with golf, and for the South African readers, it has nothing to do with VW cars either!)
Hosting big drinking functions is a bit of a tradition at GS. Especially for once-off promotions like being made a VP. To keep costs down, Tom clubbed in with the 5 other guys on his floor who had also scored their VP promotions (actually in the London office, they are now “Executive directors”, but they appear to prefer to be Vice Presidents, like their NY colleagues.) The clubbing together idea saves money on friends they have in common, but it does make for a very large gathering to bankroll.
After deciding on the venue, Tom had left the rest of the organising to two of the other guys. Of these two, Kieron – a man who is the life and soul of every party – is particularly fond of kareoke, so that was decided on as the main form of entertainment for the evening.
As parties go, it was pretty good. The venue was spacious, the snacks were plentiful, and the drinks were free. (Ok Tom, the drinks were on the VP’s.) The kareoke singers did their bit to keep us entertained, even if some of this left us wishing we could hold a glass and cover our ears!
The singing was kicked off by a lusty rendition of “We are the Champions” from Tom and his fellow VPs, and after that the guys from Tom’s team couldn’t seem to stay away from it.
