Thursday night I attended a business night for people in the sex industry hosted by Babelounge and lured by the promise of free drinks and nibbles and Lamborghinis – how could I resist.

My little polo must have thought I was going to replace it, as it got me to the venue in record time, so instead of arriving half an hour late I was one of the first through the door. – damn, lol.

The venue was beautifully set out and I received a friendly welcome by host Matt and his assistants and was directed to the show room and the bar, which was stylish and luckily quite cosy as only a few of the confirmed guests turned up.

I had some interesting and lively conversations and it was great to be able to chat about work uninhibited and knowing they understood what I was on about.

I first spoke to two friendly ladies, one setting up an adult online directory and a ‘retired’ escort, then a tall, elegant blonde entered and I hated her upon sight, lol. How dare she be sooo willowy and tall?! Actually she was a lovely person, running an escort agency in the mid east and we had exactly the same views on the business, just the kind of person I was hoping to meet.

I had a right laugh with the two bubbly, down to earth escorts from Birmingham; thank god I have not been the only person to think tea bagging had something to do with PGtips or Tetleys when I first heard of it.

The tone of the event was lowered considerably by the behaviour of the ‘lap dancer ladies’ err… females. They were loud and common and made a spectacle of themselves, but thought themselves sexy and alluring. It was like a cliché, a scene from a low budget American movie: the cheap hookers complete with their black gangsta-style ‘manager’.

Tragic and funny at the same time, call me a snob, but they are epitome of what gives the sex industry a bad name and going by the wide berth most people gave them I am not alone in my opinion.

One very useful contact I made was with a photographer, who was a charming, genuine gent and had a nice portfolio. I think he might be seeing more of me that he would really want to, but that is a professional hazard for him – then again there are not many men I pay to see me naked!

The conversation got onto shoes (great subject!) and he told us about this stripper platform shoe with an artificial goldfish in the heel. I immediately said I had to have a pair, but wouldn’t it be even better if there were real goldfish inside! Which conjured up images of the poor fish sloshing around and getting seasick – which in turn posed the question: Do fish get seasick?

I guess you had to be there, anyway, I gave the after party a miss, as did many of the folks I talked to and my inner geek had me tucked up in bed with my laptop googling facts about goldfish. And guess what, goldfish DO get seasick! To quote a number of sites: “Scientists were able to make goldfish seasick by creating artificial waves in a glass bowl.” Though I have yet to find out if they actually vomit when they are sick.

I never knew there were so many fascinating facts about goldfish such as the oldest goldfish was 43 and called Tish… or the collective noun for goldfish is a troubling …or – ok,ok, I know enough of that!

But should you want to know more, come see me I can easily give an hour long lecture on goldfish… unless you can think of something better we could do! ;oP

Love Cassie X