Widdle while you work

Just got back from the Random House Children's Books Christmas party in London: an annual event to commemorate the birth of Christ by packing 200 people with glasses of wine into a couple of rooms and having them conduct conversations by shouting very loudly. Still, it's a pleasant time.

When I went to let some of the wine out before starting home, there were a couple of authors ahead of me who had just got to the washing hands stage, talking to each other about the genres they wrote in, publishing deals, etc. etc. From questions like "so why did you start writing" they obviously hadn't known each other long. Probably not from before entering the washroom. It was also obviously an advanced stage of the conversation -- so advanced that either they had been washing their hands for a very long time, or else had been conducting the conversation and possibly the initial introductions during the earlier stage of the process that gave them something to wash.

Now, I'm all for networking, but there's a time and there's a place ...