Ellen's Blog: Going out

I must share with you my interesting experience with a mid-week night out

Does this sound familiar? I left the office at 6pm, intending to stay until about 9pm (3 hours is more than enough, surely)? After only a small number of glasses of wine / prosecco I checked my watch….10:30pm. Time to go home. But I am a busy working mum I deserve to let my hair down don’t I? Hang on, there is the suggestion of going clubbing, and I am being asked if I can handle this or am I old and boring? So on go my flat shoes (Clarkes) to walk to the club.

After much fussing about we get into the club and someone suggests a round of cocktails (I think that’s what he said but it’s so noisy I can’t hear a thing) so I pop off to the bar for 10 mojitos. This cost approximately £1 million, but it’s the least I can do, I mean I don’t spend anywhere near the amount I used to (before children) on going-out.

After about 3 sips through the straw of the mojito (glass full of ice to cool down the warm-straight-from-the-dishwasher glass, plus enough mint to fill a garden centre and a small quantity of rum) it is finished and someone else goes off to the bar for some bottles of champagne (oh great – he’s buying champagne so now I look like a cheapskate).

I am tired, boiling hot and have an aching shoulder (because I’m not putting my handbag down in here – no way). I realise I am no longer in my 20s and I don’t want to join in the adult twerking on the dance floor. Check watch – 1am. No trains running, and only 4 possible hours of sleep in prospect….and I feel a bit sick. Someone puts a glass of champagne in my hand and I want to pour it over his head, but instead I force myself to finish it before leaving.

My bank records show I was withdrawing cash at a petrol station on the A217 (to pay the cab home) at 2:30am.

Suffice to say, the next day was a very long one, when the only distraction from the constant nausea was the banging headache. Lesson learned.

Ellen works for a well-known investment bank in the City. She began her career at KPMG, before moving on to Barclays, HSBC and Aviva before joining her current employer almost three years ago.  She has two children aged three and one, who divide their working week between nursery and grandma's house.