Not home again, but around Santa Monica Bay as part of the British Weekly staff Christmas party.
Lucky us! Last Saturday the Brits in LA Staff and astrologer Anne Shaw were treated to a day’s sailing around the gorgeous Santa Monica Bay as our publisher finally abandoned his penny-pinching ways to treat his staff to a Christmas jolly.
And what a jolly it was…we were taking quite a Liberty – to be precise a swanky 43’ Beneteau yacht named Liberty. Temperatures were a gentle 78 degrees and we enjoyed some spectacular views of the coast. I even got to steer the gorgeous beast a few times. (I think my great grandfather Captain Smith of the Titanic would be proud).
A day’s sail on the Bay is a great way to unwind, and there are several reputable charter companies out there, but we recommend Blue Pacific Boating – www.bluepacificboating.com located on Bali Way in the Marina.
Champagne and beer were flowing and Pringles and Doritos were consumed joyfully. Eileen and Anne kept us entertained by singing some good ol’ fashioned Christmas songs on the way back.
Once on dry land we decamped to Hostaria in Venice Beach for a superb Italian meal, where Neil also played Santa, the girls got gifts to the Rivera Hotel (www.psriviera.com) in Palm Springs while the lads are getting pampered at Raven Spa. (www.theravenspa.com). Bliss!
Later in the week Eileen visited the British Consulate Christmas luncheon and hobnobbed with our new General Consulate, Chris O’Connor. We also had a very quiet but profitable pub quiz on Tuesday where the secret Jesus came and spread some joy at THE PIKEY, tipping one of the servers $1750!!! Now that’s a nice treat…makes me want to go back to waiting tables when random acts of kindness happen like that.
What a Year…
It’s been an amazing year for us at Brits in LA – Starting with our Toscars competition, our biggest to date – 600 people gathered to watch Miserable Lesbians take top honors. We celebrated the birth of Prince George with a great get-together at The Palihouse. In the Summer we had some epic pub crawls including the pub bus tour to the Valley sponsored by the movie “The World’s End”. We also launched our key members discount and elite program offering free screenings and discounts to our events and great restaurants around town.
We relaunched our Pub Quiz at the Pikey where we have quite a few celebs join us – notably Ron Jeremy, who’s become somewhat of a regular. He won the raffle last week, a huge Cadbury’s finger – which he kindly shared with everyone. 😉 And team By-Eck! were the big winners sharing the kitty.
Our ‘Dead British’ halloween bash at Bar Lubitsch was a huge success and we ended the year with a sophisticated holiday celebration at Pearl’s on Sunset, where our member and volunteer Len took the role of Santa.
And last but not least we joined the British Weekly as contributors.
Thanks for staying with us and being a part of this great community and we look forward to many more years to come.
I’ll be spending Christmas close-by this year in sunny Palm Springs. I hope whatever you are planning that you have the most joyous time.
Cheers!
Craig
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