How Not to Entertain

I love to entertain and I love to cook for others, but one dinner party went horribly wrong.

It happened years ago, but I still remember it as if it were yesterday.

Every thing had to be perfect and I put a lot of time and effort into planning the perfect dinner party.

The guests were carefully selected from a list of influential people that I knew would sing my praises far and wide after such an event and I felt excited about the feed back I would receive.

Invitations were written and posted and to my surprise all who were invited accepted. I took great care with the seating arrangements making sure all the guests would be happy.

The best china and cutlery were used and the table looked beautiful with flowers and candles arranged delicately along its center.

Attention was given to the finest detail even to the dress I wore and I was excited, knowing that this was going to be the finest dinner party EVER!

Finally, the big day arrived and I remember getting up very early that morning as there was a lot to attend to.

The day simply flew, and I remember feeling quite anxious about running out of time.

It was late afternoon when I realised that I had forgotten to choose the back ground music and felt sick in the stomach. How could I do such a stupid thing.

Fumbling through countless CDs searching for the right ones,I decide to have a small glass of wine to settle my nerves and it did wonders.

I showered and slipped into my new gown and with my make up and hair done I ventured back to the kitchen to check on the cooking. All seemed to be going nicely so I sat down with another couple of glasses of wine and appreciated the music I had chosen.

Suddenly I became aware that I was the only one having a party and none of the guests had arrived yet.

Unfortunately,the rest of the evening swirled around in a blur of steaming pots, laughing faces and that terrible smell of somethings burning.

I had lost control of myself and my dinner party and in spite of all my attempts to make it better it all went pair shaped.

Thank goodness for my husband who some how managed to get the evening back on track and save the meal, despite my absence.

I wanted to have a great night, enjoying fine food, conversation and great people, instead I ended up in bed early and totally out of it.

I think a lot of you will relate to this story and will have memories of similar disasters.

My dinner party was simply too much for me. I tried to create something I was not used to doing and in my attempt to be perfect, I found out that I was not.

The shame was unbearable, but I did learn by this experience and since then I have had many successful dinner parties with family and friends.

On reflection, I believe it was my anxiety that made me have too many drinks that afternoon and if I had remained focused on the task at hand, I would never have placed myself into such a predicament.

The moral to this story is never loose control of "your party." If you are the person in charge, no matter what the situation, be it pleasure or business people are relying on you to come through.



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