Chartered Institute of Building Service Engineers dinner dance 1980

It was the annual dinner and dance for The Chartered Institute of Building Service Engineers held in the beautiful Art Deco Derry & Tom's building on Kensington High Street.

Remember wearing an Antony Price (the all important dress designer behind Roxy Music) silk jersey strapless dress, very cleverly ruched, in a gorgeous shade of grey with a hint of mauve, with very long matching gloves borrowed from Stella, my sister-in-law.  It was very Marilyn, 50's Hollywood Glamour. And memorably getting changed into it in the Portakabin on the new BT Headquarters at St Martin's le Grand in the City of London site he was project managing. The look on the faces of the men when I emerged was priceless: pun unintentional.



Entering the building we'd opened  the wrong door and found ourselves in a roomful of the head men of the Institute resplendent in their gold chains of office, puffing away on cigars.  We apologize for the faux pas but they insist they don't want us to go. It was very funny at the time. Bill jokes it was to do with him.


We were sat with the directors of Higgs and Hill and their wives, they. So there was an element of 'best behavior' going on. It was very formal, dj's etc. There was a Master of Ceremonies who gave a speech and ended it with 'and you may now smoke and for those of you smoking,' pausing and looking pointedly over in my direction, 'you may continue to do so.' Oops.



There were hundreds of people there and a big dance floor with a traditional dance band. The music struck up and to my horror, one of the directors pulled me up onto the dance floor. We were the only couple on the spotlit floor and aware of hundreds of eyes on us, momentarily cursing the dress I'd decided to wear and wishing I'd worn a bra in case the bloody thing slipped down. He put his arm around me and told me it was a quickstep. My eyes must have been like rabbits caught in the headlights as I told him I didn't have a clue how to.



But he laughed and said 'don't worry, I'm the West Midlands ballroom dancing champion, just relax your body into mine, I'll push my thigh between your legs and let me glide you round. It sounds very sexual but trust me, sex was the last thing on my mind. I had this image of going arse over tit in front of everyone, humiliating Bill, probably destroying any chances of promotion ha ha. Miraculously he was right, it worked. He made me look a natural such were his skills.




We resumed our seats to some applause and not a little relief, and a huge grin from Bill - who must have sensed my discomfort - but had managed to get away with it. Just. And another great evening. Bill still talks about the sensation I caused in it.