This Friday, the London Ambulance service (LAS) is setting up a "drunk tent" behind Liverpool Street station to treat office party over-indulgers in an effort to keep them out of hospital.
"The reality is that someone who is drunk doesn't need a hospital bed. Not when there are true sick people out there waiting for an ambulance," says Mr Lesslar, duty station officer for City and Hackney.
The tent is actually a field hospital - the kind they use in war zones or in areas of natural disaster.
Which is fair enough - office parties can qualify as both.
A friend who works in publishing found herself at one such party, drunkenly rambling on about something or other to her CEO at 4am, only to receive an email the next day saying, "I was very interested to hear your thoughts... could you put together a presentation about them for the Executive Board?"
The worst office Christmas party I ever attended was when I was temping at a sales office out in the 'burbs. All the staff were packed into a coach and ferried to "a top London night spot in the West End", and I spent the entire night sober as a judge (our vouchers only allowed us two free drinks, and beer was something like £20 a bottle), being pawed by sweaty, red-faced salesmen who thought that any woman present was a lap-dancer.
Although I did make some money that night.
I enjoyed my best office Christmas parties when I worked at a theatre. After the first night of the Christmas show, and still on a high from no one dying, nothing being set on fire, and actually having a paying audience, we'd pile out of the theatre and into a local Indian restaurant at around 3am, where we'd enjoy a lock-in with much booze and many quality poppadoms. It was magic! Although it wasn't technically an office.
This year I'm skipping it. Not because it would be horrific - my colleagues are all decent, fun-loving types - but mostly because Christmas crept up on me this year. I'm a bit bewildered by all this cold weather and would rather spend my evenings snuggled up on my sofa.
So what about you?
Image courtesy of ryarwood's Flickr stream.
