Staff at King Sturge have raised their voices in unison to say “Pants to Poverty”, with agents across the country doing daft things for Comic Relief.
The festivities started last night with a ‘breakout’, where teams competed to see which could get the furthest away and back before work the next day.
One group, Tom Gormley and Noel Lauder, made it as far as Calais. Gormley detailed their journey from London: “We got given free tickets by Connex to Gatwick, but no one was willing to give us a flight. So Connex let us go to Dover free, and then Sea France gave us return tickets to Calais. We got back at about 4.15am, but we had to pay for the coach. Not bad though – the whole trip cost £9.90.”
One of the other groups bent the rules slightly. Realising that Embassies are classed as foreign soil they spent the evening trawling around Belgravia, visiting the diplomatic residences of as many countries as possible. Theoretically they are the winners, having travelled around the world – twice.
Another of last night’s events was the blind date organised by King Sturge, which was deemed to be a great success, but failed to fan the flames of passion.
Richard Ward and Emma Gallivan (pictured), one of the couples, had never spoken before. “I was delighted to be paired off with Emma,” said Ward. “Everyone got on very well. When I first saw Emma I was thrilled – she clearly wanted to have a bit of a laugh.”
Emma Gallivan said: “It was a good night. A good laugh. I’m quite new here, so it was a really good way to get to know people.”
The pair had dinner at Café Uno on Binney Street with another couple, Tamsin Christie (of King Sturge) and Gary Thompson of CB Hillier Parker. As it was Emma’s 21st birthday the boys bought her a bottle of champagne, but there the romance ended. Richard admitted he had a girlfriend and then started to eat Emma’s icecream. “I wouldn’t have minded but he dribbled in it,” she said.
Although Emma and Richard didn’t find romance, organiser Rory Mepham did get lucky on The Loop bar’s dancefloor. “I pulled the boss’ German au pair,” he said smugly. “I’m just glad he’s at MIPIM, so he won’t find out.”
Senior partner Phil Marsden will no doubt be having words on his return from Cannes.
EGi News 17/03/01
