The haggis and the tux

I don't know what it is, but each time Skip and I attempt to go out in Dubai nothing quite goes to plan.

On Monday evening, Skip called from work and asked if I'd be keen to go to a Burns Supper on Wednesday night - haggis, whiskey and bagpipes. Why not? Part of my get out and meet people plan.

Wednesday rolled around, I asked Skip if we'd be fed at the supper and he assured me we would. The afternoon arrived, organising the kids after school and preparing to go out when I receive an email from Skip. The formal invite for the evening, which stated it was a black tie event. Crap.

So, due to leave the house in three hours we some how had to procure some evening ware. Skip said that a colleague had mentioned a store that had tuxedos on sale, I called to checked and had this conversation:

Me: hello, do you sell tuxedos?
Shop assistant: sorry? I don't understand.
Me: do you have tuxedos?
Him: yes, you can get a taxi here.
Me: no! A tuxedo. Black suit, bow tie.
Him: we have a couple of ties.
Me: what about suits?
Him: no, no suits.

Precious time ticking away, I hung up and told Skip he'd have to work something out. So in between a meeting and a very big presentation he went to the mall and bought a tux, 75% off. They were even going to tailor it for him, it would be ready at 7pm, when we were due to arrive at the event.

In the meantime, I'd read a further email confirming the supper details and it said women could wear cocktail dresses. Phew, I had no full length evening gown but I could pull out a cocktail dress, no problem.

Skip arrive at 650 to pick me up, we dashed to the mall to get his tux and then we fanged it to Sheik Zayed rd, which was a car park. We crawled to the hotel and pulled up at 750pm. Skip throwing his new tux on in the carpark. We ran in huffing and puffing expecting to make an embarrassing entrance to find they were running late and only just seating people for dinner.

We soaked in the food, the wine and the conversation. We listened to bagpipes and poetry. We celebrated the haggis. Our first black tie event was a success, eventually.

It was worth the last minute dash. Men look 10 times more attractive when wearing a tux. Many men scoff at this but it's true. Don't believe me? It's film award season, check out the lads at the Oscars...