Having heard about this company’s parties being legendary, I was very much looking forward to Friday evening. The first thing I noticed was that the guys had all really seemed to enjoy dressing like gangster types in red, white and black, in keeping with the Sin City theme. They looked very smart indeed in their black suits and red or white ties, and the fedoras that had been handed out to them (feather boas for the ladies). A kickass DJ made it impossible to sit down. In fact, I didn’t sit down, but danced until the lights came on at the very end of the evening.

Conversely, I really didn’t know what to expect from last night, when I was partaking in a murder mystery evening, my first ever, taking place in the 1770s. Wearing a large, vaguely medieval-looking gown, I was self-conscious on the crowded metro about being thought of as one of those sword-bearing LARP geeks, and hoped an evening of improvisation in the company of relative strangers wouldn’t be too painful.

It was all the contrary. The company proved to be charming, with just the right mix of serious play and hilarious out-of-character repartee. By the end of the meal, numerous inside jokes and running gags had developed (ahh, fun with anachronisms); I got completely lost in it and enjoyed myself thoroughly.

But to top it all off, I discovered after dinner that I was in the company of serious salsa dancers, and we ended the night by cutting a rug. We even did a rueda, something which, when I learned it three years ago, I thought I’d never get to use again.

“How often am I actually going to be in a room with enough people who know the rueda and are inclined to do it? I’ll be lucky if it happens once in my life”, I’d written. Well, it was worth it just to be able to partake in the fun last night.