![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Ascot, baby!
Nov. 19th, 2010 09:29 pmLast month, I went to Ascot on a trip I'd won from work! It was based on sales of Grolsch and then sales of Cider and Soft drinks. Apparently I came top with one of my account managers. Unfortunately he couldn't make it as he was busy in the Lake District, but even with only a week's notice I certainly could!
We had been informed that we were staying at a 4* Hotel, and the dress code at Ascot was no blue jeans and no sportswear, so my first reaction was "What the hell am I going to wear?!" quickly followed by "How on earth will I get there?"
We got allowed to borrow the BMW pool car, so we left on the Friday at 3.00 down the M1 to the Donnington Valley Hotel. It took us 5 hours due to rush hour traffic on a Friday, and due to some roadworks on the M9. In the car on the way down, D kept calling us up and berating us for being so slow, but they were only maybe 30 minutes in front of us. Once we got there, we sat in the bar and drank a bar bill of £300! It was between 10 of us, so it wasn't that much when you think about it and the prices the bar must've been, but still, I could never drink £30 back home!
The room itself was amazing. The bathroom was bigger than my lounge, and the bed was massive. I popped the TV on and went to bed around midnight, but apparently everyone else continued drinking right until the wee hours.
The next morning we had to be up and ready by 10am. I was up for breakfast by 7 and ready by 8! We ate at the massive continental breakfast to try and stave off the hangover. Three coffees each. Then the limousine bus turned up. Holy crap! It was gorgeous! There were 3 leather sofas, one opposite a large flat-screen television with a PlayStation and a DVD player, and then two in the back opposite each other over a large table. There were two fridges full of wine, beer and spirits and then a bathroom at the back, with a shower! Some of us had a water, the rest (me!) had a corona, as we traveled across to Ascot through Windsor.
Ascot is amazing, the scenery around showed you that there is a real, tangible difference between the North and the South of England. I always thought it was a bit of a lie, I've been to London and I've always thought it was a bit of a dump. The home counties are not. Once we got there we stepped off the bus and through the VIP entrance. Ascot looks a bit like a Lego building. It's a huge thing with large holes, a bit weird like a 5 year old made it.
We got in the lift to the 3rd floor and arrived at our box. We had a gorgeous box with two waiters, who served us with lunch before the races. We were all supposed to get £50 betting money, but due to a few people not being able to come, we all got £70! We'd decided the night before that we would take £10 each and put it into a large pot, only to be bet on horses that were outside 30/1 to win. We didn't win any money on any of those surprisingly enough!
I won though, I ended up with £120 in real money to take home, which was nice! I won £5, £28, £18 and £78! The eagle-eyed amongst you will realise that adds up to too much, but I did spend £10 of it on one of the bets as there were 7 races and I only had £60.
We then got back on the bus and played 'I have never' to go to Marco Pierre White's Yew Tree restaurant. The service was amazing, the food, impeccable. I had smoked salmon starter, blue steak main [which was 'cooked' perfectly] and cheese pudding. I was pretty drunk at this point and in my usual style, acted like a spoilt toddler when I was tired and drunk. I do get completely grumpy. We got on a little minibus to go back to the hotel and the driver looked like SANTA so we sang at him a bit while he played his Hammond Organ music at us.
I went to bed straight away as we got in, leaving everyone else to drink again until the wee small hours, and then we left at 8.30 am to come back to Leeds. It only took us 3 hours (!) on the way back, meaning I made it back home in time to go back out to Mr. Foleys to see Sunderland get hammered. Ahh well, you can't have it all weekend can you?
We had been informed that we were staying at a 4* Hotel, and the dress code at Ascot was no blue jeans and no sportswear, so my first reaction was "What the hell am I going to wear?!" quickly followed by "How on earth will I get there?"
We got allowed to borrow the BMW pool car, so we left on the Friday at 3.00 down the M1 to the Donnington Valley Hotel. It took us 5 hours due to rush hour traffic on a Friday, and due to some roadworks on the M9. In the car on the way down, D kept calling us up and berating us for being so slow, but they were only maybe 30 minutes in front of us. Once we got there, we sat in the bar and drank a bar bill of £300! It was between 10 of us, so it wasn't that much when you think about it and the prices the bar must've been, but still, I could never drink £30 back home!
The room itself was amazing. The bathroom was bigger than my lounge, and the bed was massive. I popped the TV on and went to bed around midnight, but apparently everyone else continued drinking right until the wee hours.
The next morning we had to be up and ready by 10am. I was up for breakfast by 7 and ready by 8! We ate at the massive continental breakfast to try and stave off the hangover. Three coffees each. Then the limousine bus turned up. Holy crap! It was gorgeous! There were 3 leather sofas, one opposite a large flat-screen television with a PlayStation and a DVD player, and then two in the back opposite each other over a large table. There were two fridges full of wine, beer and spirits and then a bathroom at the back, with a shower! Some of us had a water, the rest (me!) had a corona, as we traveled across to Ascot through Windsor.
Ascot is amazing, the scenery around showed you that there is a real, tangible difference between the North and the South of England. I always thought it was a bit of a lie, I've been to London and I've always thought it was a bit of a dump. The home counties are not. Once we got there we stepped off the bus and through the VIP entrance. Ascot looks a bit like a Lego building. It's a huge thing with large holes, a bit weird like a 5 year old made it.
We got in the lift to the 3rd floor and arrived at our box. We had a gorgeous box with two waiters, who served us with lunch before the races. We were all supposed to get £50 betting money, but due to a few people not being able to come, we all got £70! We'd decided the night before that we would take £10 each and put it into a large pot, only to be bet on horses that were outside 30/1 to win. We didn't win any money on any of those surprisingly enough!
I won though, I ended up with £120 in real money to take home, which was nice! I won £5, £28, £18 and £78! The eagle-eyed amongst you will realise that adds up to too much, but I did spend £10 of it on one of the bets as there were 7 races and I only had £60.
We then got back on the bus and played 'I have never' to go to Marco Pierre White's Yew Tree restaurant. The service was amazing, the food, impeccable. I had smoked salmon starter, blue steak main [which was 'cooked' perfectly] and cheese pudding. I was pretty drunk at this point and in my usual style, acted like a spoilt toddler when I was tired and drunk. I do get completely grumpy. We got on a little minibus to go back to the hotel and the driver looked like SANTA so we sang at him a bit while he played his Hammond Organ music at us.
I went to bed straight away as we got in, leaving everyone else to drink again until the wee small hours, and then we left at 8.30 am to come back to Leeds. It only took us 3 hours (!) on the way back, meaning I made it back home in time to go back out to Mr. Foleys to see Sunderland get hammered. Ahh well, you can't have it all weekend can you?
