黑洞社区

This lot do not mess about when it comes to work/life balance. It may be a clich茅 but 鈥渨ork hard, play hard鈥� is a motto they take seriously, and have got the balance down to a fine art.

One minute we鈥檙e talking about the international growth of Cyril Sweett鈥檚 technical division, and the next it鈥檚 all false moustaches and tales of profiterole fights. It鈥檚 fair to say they have the two ends of the spectrum pretty much covered.

Krystle is wearing a fake moustache necklace. It鈥檚 a slightly odd choice of accessory, but in comedy terms, it鈥檚 pure genius. Christian is busily switching between divisional director and gaucho, or is that Poirot? It rather suits him.

Discussion turns from TV to cake with ease and it transpires that this lot are all keen bakers. Every Friday one member makes something for everyone else. It鈥檚 one of Chris鈥� favourite pastimes. He鈥檚 practised, having been a chalet boy in a past life: 鈥淭ell us again what happened with those profiteroles,鈥� says Sarah trying, and failing, not to laugh.

鈥淥h yes,鈥� says Chris, already riled up at the mention of the mysterious bun incident: 鈥淵ou had to provide tea and cake for your guests in the afternoon. I decided to be really impressive one day and so I made millions, or what seemed like millions, of profiteroles.

It took hours. I had to pipe each one full of cream, make the chocolate sauce. It鈥檚 a really difficult, technical dish. But then, the guests all got drunk and decided to use them to have a massive food fight instead. If I hadn鈥檛 made them it would have been funny. As it was it was quite heartbreaking.鈥�

Poor Chris. It turns out that he gets himself into unfortunate situations on a regular basis. There was that time he was thrown out of a club for smoking. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 even smoke,鈥� he
says casually. Hang on, so how did this happen?

鈥淲e were in a club together, weren鈥檛 we?鈥� The silence around the table suggests that no one is 100% sure exactly what happened, although the expressions on everyone鈥檚 faces indicate they are trying to dredge up memories of the night. But what everyone can remember is what happened to Chris.

鈥淚 decided to dance on the table,鈥� he says. 鈥淲hich in itself was frowned upon, I imagine. Then I took a cigarette from someone, lit it and started smoking it. This was inside, well after the ban had come in. To this day I don鈥檛 know why I did it. But it felt like a good idea at the time. I got thrown out. Really quickly.鈥�

Sarah heads to the bar to get in another round of drinks and Chris, for no obvious reason, starts to roll a fake cigarette out of a napkin. The false moustache necklace is doing the rounds and spirits are high.

One thing鈥檚 for sure, if these guys work as hard as they play, then Cyril Sweett鈥檚 technical division must be heading towards a record year 鈥�