I look forward to two more-or-less regularly scheduled social events each year in Abu Dhabi.

1. The staff party on the anniversary of the founding of The National newspaper.

2. The birthday party of a spouse of one of the newspaper staff.

The latter was held tonight, and as usual it brought together an agreeable selection of 40-plus people from throughout the newsroom, plus several people who have nothing to do with newspapers at all. All of them expats.

(And when you get a room of expats, from a dozen countries, things are highly unlikely to be dull. Expats may skew weird and/or quirky, but they are rarely boring.)

Another factor in the success of this birthday party is that it has an annual theme. Memorably, one year it was the Seven Deadly Sins. (Lust, gluttony, pride, sloth, etc.) Other themes were the Winter Olympics, game shows and, tonight, the Super Bowl.

And with themes, come games, competitions, suitable libations, and things move along happily.

The highlight of the competitions was, again, the donut-eating contest.

The donut-eating contest is always held in the ping-pong room, also known as the Abu Dhabi Museum of Bad Art. (The walls are covered by wretched art left behind by people moving out of the building, offered up to our colleague by the building supervisor, and then lovingly curated. Lots of camels in this museum.)

The donut contest this year had a twist. A “relay” race was added, with five men on one side and five women on the other, and each was tasked with eating one donut, and the next member in the relay could not begin until the person ahead of them had swallowed their Krispy Kreme.

The guys won. Fairly easily.

Then came the main event: The individual donut eating contest, in which five contestants race to see who will be the first to devour four Krispy Kremes.

The defending champion wore his (Burger King) crown to the ping-pong table, and did a woofing/trash-talking job nearly worthy of the WWE, and then crushed the competition by eating the four donuts in two minutes. Leaving the other 30-40 of us duly impressed.

A Super Bowl trivia contest was held, and my team won. Most of the questions were more cultural than sportif, with an emphasis on Super Bowl advertising (Mean Joe Greene, and the kid with the Coke). I was not much help on advertising; sometimes I spent Super Bowls in press boxes, not watching commercials. Each of us on the winning team got a bag of mixed mini candies.

Whenever party-goers were crowded into a single room, one woman was designated to hold aloft a sheet of paper on which was printed in very large type: John 3:16 — perhaps the best-known Bible verse. Which was a shout-out to religious zealots of all sorts and particularly Rock ‘n’ Rollen, a major cultural figure in the 1970s and 1980s.

The big-screen TV in the room ran an endless loop of four or five of the more famous Super Bowl halftime shows.

A chili-making contest was held (for tailgating, at a Super Bowl), and this may have nothing to do with football, but a “flippy cup” competition (drink the liquid in a cup, set it upside-down on the edge of a table, flip it so it lands right-side up) went on, too, and I had never before seen one, being too old and never a frat boy.

This party is usual a champagne party, but for the Super Bowl theme it was beer and more beer, for most of us, with a few shots of hard liquor mixed in there. A bottle of Patron, particularly rare and expensive here, was produced, late in the night, and quickly disappeared.

Of course, chips and dip were out all night, and cigars on the balcony and a 50/50 drawing that someone may or may not have spent 200 dirhams (about $54) in an unsuccessful attempt to win.

Lots of conversation, laughs, adults drinking responsibly … a good time had by all, as always.