Well, it just cost me 180 sheets to buy the current Mrs Flo a new ballgown (not too sure why since she's only had her previous other one for about 4 years and my mess kit is in alot worse condition and is nearly15 years old, but I digress) Every year the Ball committee set a dress standard and put it down on the ball invitation, adding the little rider that guests inappropriately dressed will be asked to leave (Yeah Right...never #kin happens) Now I am getting fed up of passing on the dress code (debrettes and the BRNC Guide to Young Officers have a decode of them all-pretty much) to Mrs Flo and any civvy guests we have invited only to have it rammed down our throats when we arrive, at said event, to see mess members and many of thier guest blatantly ignoring the dress code. Ballerina, Black Tie, Ballgown, Formal etc etc. My guests (and Mrs Flo) ask why I came out with a dress code to which they have conformed, usually at some expense, when they need not have bothered as others obviously haven't...just drag out a cocktail dress or something it makes no #kin difference anyway and frees up £180 for decent wine and champagne.
"An anuvver fing" .... didn't champagne breakfast used to be a perk for the real survivors of a ball. I seem to remember (could be a mind fuddled by age and senility though) it started at around 5ish and not the current 2-3, there were never loads of us there but hey that's natural selection. By simply dumbing down the standards of these things it just seems to cheapen the whole thing. And those kind of events/parties are available down town anywhere each and every weekend.
Be there and cope, if you can't cope dont be there...!
