This was Mum and I at the Annual Appreciation Party of Swissotel The Stamford and Raffles The Plaza. The theme of the night was Pirates of the Caribbean and I managed to take a photo with a very bored-looking Captain Jack Sparrow and a seriously jaundiced Davy Jones.

And then I realised that maybe we shouldn't even have taken a photo with them at all.

Because all the other staff members of the hotels were dressed in such elaborate threads! I was truly impressed. There were lotsa Captain Hooks, even female versions of Hook, hot gypsy ladies and a whole menagerie of Pirate-ish characters. I later got to learn that every single costume worn by the staff were tailor made for them, and each and every piece was unique on its own!

The cocktail party before the dinner was so detailed. There were rusty oil lamps perched on dusty wooden crates which served drinks, and there were pirate games in the corners for you to pass time before dinner started.

The scale of the dinner was astonishing too. The ballroom was decked out in the theme, and dueling swords, (chocolate) gold coins, red strings of pearls, clip-on pirate ear-rings and even the infamous black eye-patch worn by pirates were laid out on the dinner tables. The tables were also arranged in the Western way (longish, as in Harry Potter) and not in the conventional round table that we usually see in these huge dinners. The food was also Pirate-themed, in a way. There were lots of seafood, and the mains were chicken breast meat stuffed with lobster, along with a dollop of mashed sweet potato paste. It was heavenly.

The white wine served was great too. I knocked back about 4 full glasses of white wine because it was too good. My Mum wasn't stopping me and by the end of the night I was all red-faced and happy.

The door gift the hotels gave out to the dinner guests were treasure chests (the same one you see in Pirates of the Caribbean- the one which stores the heart of Davy Jones) and there was a scroll inside which proudly announced that the Curse of the Black Pearl was now on you!

All in all, it was a really elaborately planned event which I truly enjoyed. Not to mention the free food and wine!