SPEAKING PART 2

Today I’m going to tell you about a particular party I went to earlier in the year, I’ll tell
you where it was, and who went and what I got up to while I was there!

In honesty, I can be a bit grumpy about going to parties! I never know what to wear as I
don’t really like dressing up. I feel self-conscious in dresses and too much of a scruff if I
don’t make an effort. I worry about whether I’ll know anyone, and I dread sit-down
meals because I’m a vegetarian and I always seem to be a problem. This being so when a
close friend of mine announced she would have a big celebration for her fiftieth birthday,
my heart sank a bit. Of course, I put on a smile, and said ‘that’s great!’ but I wasn’t
really looking forward to it. I knew that it was important to her, though, so I was
determined to make a real effort, and of course, I agreed I would go.

Well, I should have had more faith. The party was great. It was held in a beautifully
converted barn in a rural location on the edges of Sheffield in England. The venue had a
wooden polished floor and was very simply decorated with some tastefully positioned
fairy lights and candles. The candles were, in fact, artificial for safety reasons, but they
looked very realistic. There was low-level music playing and lots of places to sit and
chat or mingle with other guests. If I remember correctly, there were white tablecloths
over the tables and some simple but lovely floral decorations. The food was provided by
a friend of the Birthday Girl, who specialises in fast street food. You could queue up for
a delicious meal presented in a wrap from a very jolly woman serving from an open-
sided vehicle parked in the cobbled courtyard outside. In a separate annexed room inside
was a table almost collapsing under the weight of delicious home-made cakes and
puddings on one side, and glorious British cheeses on the other. There was also a small
bar serving drinks, for which my host picked up the bill at the end, it was really
beautifully done – very tasteful, calm and joyful too.

My friend, whose birthday it was, has a really wide network of friends. She decided to
invite anyone and everyone from her social circle. So there were old school friends;
people she knew from her voluntary activities with scouts; fellow runners – she is very
active in a number of running clubs. Former work colleagues; people she’d come to
know just from waiting with other parents at the school gates when her children were
little; fellow entrepreneurs (she runs her own small business) as well as neighbours and
acquaintances from every area of her life.

Before I went I was worried about whether I’d know anyone else there. I hadn’t been
living in the area for all that long before being invited, and so I was a bit hesitant about
what to expect. I should have remembered what a good judge of character my
fantastically friendly friend is! What did I do at the party? Apart from eating my body
weight in delicious food… I met and talked to many interesting people that I might
otherwise never have come across! This included the self-employed interior designer;
marathon runners; a former Bluebell girl (that’s a famous Parisian dance troupe); artists;
writers; an organ transplant coordinator; medical doctors; IT workers; academics and
students. It was a remarkable cross-section of fascinating folk. I had a really wonderful
time.

What’s more, I discovered that actually, I did know quite a few people there after all. It
was great fun trying to discover how we all came to be there and what connected each of
us to the –‘hostess with the mostest’ to coin the old phrase! I am almost won over. Next
time she offers to host a party, I might even find myself looking forward to it, you never
know.