EuroSmarting…

A decent PR company always has plenty of high-jinks, humour and drunken revelry. Hell, even the crap ones do. But, of course, the nature of PR and the pressure of keeping several clients happy simultaneously means that not every one can join in the fun all the time.

We hear that Tom Jennings, part of Edelman’s tech team, just found himself in the ‘unlucky ones’ camp, cruelly ostracised from the fun. Due to catch a 06:30 Eurostar train to Paris this morning, Jennings eschewed a night of drunken ‘Tomfoolery’ at Edelman’s Third Thursday bash (where the tech team apparently sticks a corporate credit card behind an upstairs bar of a smoky Soho pub and gets leathered with tech journos. Umm, excuse me, but why isn't TWL invited?)

Having just popped in for a couple of swift halves, Jennings went home early and got his head down.

His colleagues happily drank the night away, enjoying the Sangria and tapas (Third Thursday’s nod to the looming 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona). Ever thoughtful, and fuelled by alcohol logic, a select bunch of Edelman’s tech team decided to give Tom a midnight alarm call.

We understand that Tom immediately saw the funny side and laughed heartily.

When his real alarm call went off just a few hours later, despite his bleary eyes and lack of sleep, the boy Jennings raced to Waterloo to find that all the trains to Paris had been reserved to clear the backlog of passengers from last night (Waterloo this morning, apparently, was “reminiscent of black and white film footage from the blitz”).

Tired, emotional, a little peeved, Tom fired an email to the team:

From: Jennings, Tom
Sent: Friday, January 19, 2007 06:55 AM
To: @LON Tech
Subject: Yes, I really am in the office at this time...

“Ah, there's nothing quite like getting up at 04:30 to get to Waterloo, only to find there's no chance of getting on a Eurostar train before lunchtime...

FYI - I will be leaving the office at 14:00 today as a result.

Cheers, Tom

PS: And a particular thank-you to the truly hilarious Manners, Robertson and Sondhi for their midnight phone call. Very, very amusing. Believe me - much like last night's tapas, revenge is a dish best served cold.

You'll laugh about this one day Tom. Just not one day soon.