ICAEW Annual Dinner

BELLO!!

It is almost the end of the year and it is now the time of annual dinner "wave". Our prestigious professional accounting body -  ICAEW, of course, will not miss this "wave". And so, I was invited to this annual dinner by my firm. Apparently, my friends from other big firms were not invited. I heard it is because they have a lot of workers studying ICAEW, so they could only invite important people. Another friend who is working in Mustapharaj, on the other hand, was invited and was told to help out at the registration desk as her boss is one of the organising committee. And, of course, my class ICAEW ambassador was invited too. Thankfully, I am not the only Batch 16 in there. 

Finished with introduction of my friends who were invited there and now let's continue with more stories of annual dinner. After I finished my work, I asked one of my colleagues, who was invited to this dinner, to fetch me to the destination as well. It was near my workplace, which was why we reached there in 30 minutes, despite the traffic congestion. Oh, did I not told you the venue? It's in J.W. Mariott!!! A grand hotel. 

After we found a parking, we went to find the entrance to the hotel. As we found the entrance, what shocked me were the grandness of the hotel, from the elevator to the hall. I was totally speechless. Well, I know that J.W. Mariott is a 5 stars hotel, but I never imagine it to be so...... That was when I realised that I came with a totally wrong dress code (though the invitation wrote "formal" as the dress code). Not that I could do anything after rushing from work, working attire was the only thing I could wear, and I never thought of bringing a dinner dress to change. So, I was like an alien there, especially when I brought my laptop along too. So, lesson learnt: formal dress code depends on occasions (better do a little research if you do not want to get embarrass, especially when you have never attend any formal dinner, like me...).

So, how grand was this dinner? From the parking elevator to the supposed venue, there were guides (such as posters), pasted on places visible to guests, so that we do not get lost. Also, guests could not enter the hall before the stated time, but we were gathered right outside the hall with free flow of wines, champagnes and beers served to the guests. That was where guests got around and socialised. Why do I say it was grand? From the normal dinner that I have attended, there were no posters stating the venue in everywhere, the posters were mostly found in lobby or we had to ask the receptionist. Also, we were gathered in the hall and not like what I experienced this time. It is definitely an eye-opening experience for me, glad that I went to this dinner.

As we arrived 30 minutes earlier than the supposed registration time, we had to wait for about an hour and a half before the dinner started. Luckily, we both had friends helping for this dinner, and thus had companies. As I got really bored waiting, I helped them out a little. It has always been my dream to work in all this kind of event, and providing great hospitality to the guests is always my cup of tea. So, why not use this event, where there were all the elements (venue and guests) needed, to test out and showcase my skills. Due to my "working attire", it made things more convenient for me as the guests would approach me first when they encountered any difficulties, compared to the helpers there who wore gowns. As I expected, serving guests is way better than being a guest as I have no reasons to interact with the guest than I was serving them. (Wearing a wrong attire was not a bad thing after all, except for the disrespect part.)

Around 8pm, the guests were allowed to enter the hall, followed by the VVIPs. We sat according to the table assigned and there were a booklet and a small gift on the chair. The gift is a car charger with an ICAEW logo on it.

On the table, bread and butter were placed on the table for those who were starving. Guests were allowed to order any wines or similar.

A few speeches were given and appetizers and soup were served. Grand hotel can't be without world class food. It was a 4 course dinner with a full table setting. The appetizer itself was amazing. It is topped with fried prawn and unlike other prawns that I have tried, it was so good. Inside the dragon fruit, there were pickled mangoes.

Later, mushroom soup was served. A original mushroom soup.

The 2 dishes had already filled most of my stomach and I had no idea how to stuff the main later. After these 2 dishes were out, there were a prize giving ceremony, which then followed by a main and a dessert. Our main and dessert were accompanied by a lively jazz performance. 2 of the performances were performed by a soon-to-be ACA student.

We had 2 mains to choose. No, actually we couldn't choose, but if you chose the correct sit, you would have the main you want. We had 2 mains, which were oven-baked chicken and fish, and the one I had was chicken. When I saw the chicken, I almost fainted. It was a half-chicken with smashed potato! As I dislike wasting any food, I requested to change to fish as the fish was so much smaller in size. However, they said only 4 dishes of fish and 6 dishes of chicken could be served and I could not change it. So, yup, I wasted half of the chicken as I could only took a few bites of it. So, before the dessert was served, I excused myself for a walk as I really could not stuff anything into my mouth anymore. After about 20 minutes walk, my stomach felt much better and I returned to the sit for desserts.

A 6 textured chocolate.  My favourite! If I was not wrong, the 6 textures should be chocolate whipped cream, chocolate ganache, chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, brownies and a jelly cube coated with cocoa powder. So chocolaty!! 

After the ceremony, I took a few pictures with my tablemates and with my friends as well. What I couldn't expect was that one of the tablemates was my sister primary school friend. No wonder I felt that he looked so familiar. Such a small small world!

Overall, the experience was great. Met a few people and able to meet my present and future lecturers, food were amazing and of course the "host" experience was fun too. If you ask me if I would attend this sort of annual dinner again, my answer will be "yes and no". I would be more happy if ICAEW would invite me to help out instead. Being a guest stressed me out.