We were absolutely amazed and overjoyed to be shortlisted as a finalist in the “Retailer” category for this years Bristol Life Awards earlier this year! It was a long wait but the night of the awards finally rolled around last Thursday (16th Sept)
I was excited to attend such a prestigious event and started the evening by dressing in my finery and ordering an Uber into town.
I met a few friends from a networking crew for cocktails at Revolution de Cuba, a fantastic venue on Bristols waterfront area (link here). From there it was another Uber ride, which turned into a comedy of errors!
A friend ordered this Uber and chatted with the driver on the phone prior to arrival. When the car turned up he asked the driver if his name was XXX, as displayed in the app (I’m sure you all know how it works) and was met with a resounding “Yes”, so we jumped in. He could only accommodate three of us so a fourth friend went back to the bar to travel with others. Not two min utes into the journey our driver got a call from his scheduled customer and it transpired that he was not actually our Uber at all! Rather than got back to where we began we hopped out there and then and were lucky enough to spot a taxi parked at a taxi rank (yes, they still exist!) just along the road. A few moments later we were bound for Ashton Gate and the Awards!
Upon arrival we joined the queue, displayed our Covid-free c credentials, collected our wristbands and entered the venue, to be greeted by the fourth friend who couldn’t;’t fit in “our” Uber earlier, who had beaten us to the venue thanks to our comedy of errors! We all had a good laugh and supped on a free glass of fizz!
Then it was upstairs to be seated at one of 60+ tables for the meal, and then the actual awards. Each table had three bottles of red wine and two white, for eight people, which was more than enough. Two people had actually dropped out from my table, and it transpired that I was the only one drinking red wine. Thankfully the food was good and I was drinking slowly!
The awards were hosted by award-winning comedian, writer and actor Laura Lexx, and she really had her work cut out for her. Everybody was just so happy to be at a public event again that it was difficult for Laura to actually get everyone’s attention! She did a fantastic job under difficult conditions though and was both very funny and very eloquent!
Disappointingly we didn’t win, but as everyone else pointed out, there’s always next year!.The evening was rounded out with an after party in the bar downstairs but I didn’t stay for long as that bottle and a half of red wine I’d had to myself caught up with me. Another Uber ride (error-free this time!) and I was home by 1am(ish), and asleep shortly thereafter. It wasn’t;t until Friday morning I noticed that I’d lost my bow tie! in retrospect it probably came off when I took my seatbelt off getting out of my home Uber. Ah well, plenty of time before next years awards to buy a new one!
