Team Total Christmas Party 2016

Christmas is our busiest time at Total. With so many fantastic local events and offers going on in December, we’ve got so much to keep you informed on! But Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a proper work do! Read on to see what we got up to on ours.

As we look after multiple sites (Swindon, Bath, Bristol, Reading, Manchester) we take it in turns to decide which city will host our Christmas party, this year it was the turn of Bath; the simply gorgeous, ancient town that we love so much. Thankfully we all work so hard bringing you the best that the city has to offer, we could arrange an action-packed evening full of festivities. We were so happy that we could be together for the first time as a whole team, with our lovely Account Manager, Laura, flying in from Scotland to join us. It was a very special evening!

We started our day off at Total Towers – our beloved HQ – and set off, prosecco in hand, to Bath. The accommodation that had been laid on was incredible, thanks to Marcus and the team at Bath Boutique Stays. The grand terraced town house known as ‘Gravitas House’ was located a short walk from the heart of Bath city centre and was just a few minutes from the hustle and bustle of the rich nightlife. We unloaded our bags and bagsied the bedrooms before getting ready for an evening out on the town.

First stop was a relatively new Thai restaurant in SouthGate, Thaikhun. We loved the place so much when we reviewed it (read the full review here) that we just had to come back as a team. The restaurant itself was buzzing with activity and there was definitely a little bit of Christmas cheer in the air as we ordered our three-course meal. All the food came out fresh from the open kitchen and everyone enjoyed a proper, authentic taste of Thailand, one member of the team confessing that it took them back to their time in Bangkok – high praise indeed.

Now we’d all been properly fed and finished the delicious Thai beers (that went down far too easily) we moved on to a great venue that, much like Santa Claus, only makes an appearance once a year; The Après-Ski Bar. This snow-capped alpine lodge wouldn’t look out of place on the pistes of St Mortiz but can be found right outside Abbey Hotel. This was incredible fun, offering a cosy slice of winter with its festive music, selfie booth, faux-fur seating and mulled wine and mulled cider. I’d never tried mulled cider before, but after tasting the stuff they were serving at Après-Ski Bar, it left me wondering why we don’t mull cider all year round, it was so tasty!

After a little while and few drinking games, we made our move to our evening’s appointment. We took a quick walk up to Revolution and enjoyed a masterclass in cocktail making. This was one of the highlights of the evening for me, we were stripped of our names and given novelty Christmas name to go by during our time there. If, for whatever reason someone called someone else by their ‘normal’ name, then they had a date with a chilli shot as a forfeit! There were a lot of losers of that game!

We took it in turns to learn how to make some really fun cocktails, from icing the glasses, adding the spirits, pouring over the mixers and doing the iconic ‘over-the-shoulder-rattle’ that made us totally feel like we knew what we were doing! It was a really pleasant surprise that our efforts actually tasted really good! A testament to our teacher, more than anything else.

After a few (well, a lot) more cocktails, shots and games, we could relax at our private booth with a huge selection of delicious, freshly prepared finger food including fried chicken, calamari, mini burgers, and sweet potato fries. It turns out, becoming an expert at making cocktails is hungry work!

Once we made our way through the rest of the cocktail list, we wound our way back to Gravitas House for a nightcap. There was loads of room to spread out in the comfortable living rooms and the basement vault and we truly made ourselves at home. We checked out, with our heads feeling a lot better than they could have done, left the town house and said goodbye.

All in all, it was a brilliant evening, full of fun, good times with friends and some seriously great venues along the way! We’d just like to say a massive thank you to Bath Boutique Stays, Thaikhun, Abbey Hotel and Revolution for having us.