So the Minster Ball was last night. And for your enjoyment, here are the highlights.

You walk into the Minster, and it looks rather like this:

Yes, I know the photo is blurry, but I was attempting to use the Night Scene setting on my digital camera. Which, it turns out, is really only useful if you have a tripod. But if you ever want to make ghosts on film, just keep that shutter open a little longer and get people to move in front of your camera. There were candles on the tables, everyone was dressed in their finest... The food was decent (not the best ever, but good...).

I must say, though, that as part of the deal (this thing was thrown by the University's Christian Union) there was an "after dinner message" about the joys of Jesus that I found rather objectionable, especially since the crowd was NOT entirely Christian in faith - a lot of polemic on how Jesus is the ONLY correct way to go. Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against Christians whose faith is strong. I do, however, have something against strong-faithed Christians who are extremely intolerant of the other religions around them. I'm sure the Muslim girl that was at the ball last night was THRILLED to hear the guy say that she's wrong and that Mohammed had nothing to do with God. Or that the many Asians, doubtless some of whom were NOT Christian, were thrilled to hear that Buddha had nothing to do with God either.

But then that was over and it was on to the dancing. The band was advertised as a funk band, which... I don't know what I was expecting... but it turned out to be more your 30s and 40s Big Band Swing sort of thing as revived by Brian Setzer and his orchestra not that long ago (with such hits as the Zoot Suit Riot - which was not played last night, thank god). But the music was good in spite of the fact that the Minster's acoustics are completely crap for anything louder than an organ and choir.

There was no alcohol involved (licensing something like this would have been a nightmare, not to mention that they're all good Christians and don't need alcohol to have fun). We left shortly after midnight, but didn't miss much as the thing ended at 12:30. Fine by me. I still managed to sleep for 12 hours straight. It was a good night out - lots of fun. And as we headed out the doors we got loot bags. With Christian literature in them. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the Christian literature. I'm not going to read it, but I feel a little bad about throwing it out. We'll see. But now I need to get groceries and such. Oh joy!