Thursday 3 March 2011

Fantasy Dinner Party...

Every time I see, hear or read about someone interesting I think, 'Ooh they'd be at my fantasy dinner party'.  By now I've got so many guests that I'd have to hire the Albert Hall to seat them all and the Army Catering Corps would have to provide the food.  I've also forgotten the names of the guests I initially thought of so have decided to start again from scratch.

First of all I told the cats and David they could each bring one guest.  Posky said Mario Testino as he was a proper photographer (and if he could make Kate Mosse look good just think what he could do for him).  Pepper asked for the Buddha (although she quite fancied having her photo taken by Mario too), and Charlie wanted the crime writer Jo Nesbo so they could discuss violence.  Mrs Pod said she didn't mind who came as long as she could sit on my knee (she might have an ulterior motive for this as I'm meant to be taking her in to the vets tomorrow and she's trying to persuade me not to).  David opted for Nigella Lawson - he also volunteered to help her out in the kitchen.  I'm a bit worried about her vegan-food credentials (I don't think that's the first thing David considered in his choice...).

Now for my guests, I'd invite Cath of course, and she asked if we could have Sting providing the music, and could he be playing his lute naked in the corner of the room please?  I was actually going to suggest Yo-Yo Ma... and anyway, Cath would be far too occupied with Sir Patrick Stewart (for it is he who is first on my list) to bother about anyone else.  Then I'd have to have Stephen Fry (I love Stephen Fry), so funny and clever.  Also Professor Brian Cox who is my favourite scientist of the moment and for a bit of balance Carol Anne Duffy (if you're going to have a poet, have the Poet Laureate is what I say.  Someone like Byron might be fun but then things could get out of hand with him being drunk and disorderly all over the place).  Shakespeare is a given of course.  I'd ask Sir Norman Foster too as he designs amazing buildings and I'd want to see his snapshots of the Grand Viaduc du Millau in France.  I was going to say Thomas Hardy but he might not enjoy social gatherings, and anyway, if he gave me his honest opinion of my dissertation on him the evening could be ruined.  We seem to be having a gender bias in favour of males here so I'll ask Lindsay Davis, and also Hypatia of Alexandria (fascinating woman who headed the school at Alexandria in Roman Egypt).

And if David gets to choose Nigella then I definitely get to have George Clooney sitting next to me.

Let me know if I've made any glaring omissions or anyone who you'd like to bring!

7 comments:

Marg said...

Wow, that sounds like quite the fantasy dinner party. What a great group of people and other guests. We want to be a flower on the wall. I love parties like that. When our Mom was younger, she used to love to put together parties just like that. Take care and have a good day. Thanks so much for visiting our blog.

Lisa Gordon said...

I so enjoyed reading this Barbara!
Wonderfully written, and I'm with Posky for my guest choice!! :-)

Anonymous said...

YES! Don't I get to come??? (But John would want to come, too, if Nigella was there...) But I wouldn't want to steal your thunder with Sir Patrick and George... OK, I won't gatecrash! :)

Penny

Laloofah said...

Oh dear, I don't know who half the people on your guest list are!

BW and I haven't played this game in a long time, but we used to have an imaginary "who we'd invite to a party" list too! I'd invite Johnny Depp (for the scenery), Meryl Streep, Emma Thompson and Susan Sarandon (my three favorite actresses), Patty Griffin and Leonard Cohen (for music, and I second the nomination for Sting but would prefer he keep his britches on, lol), Rowan Atkinson (for comedic effect), and Leonardo D'Vinci, Galileo and Einstein for gravitas. And I'd hire some really awesome vegan chefs to do the catering!

And if things got dull (yarite), I'd invite Charlie Sheen to liven things up. LOL!

Barbara said...

Penny - of course you are invited, as are your family and pets! Laloofah - you are invited too of course, but one whiff of marmalade and you're out! I did wonder about Leonard Cohen (love that man) but thought it might drive David to violence. Charlie Sheen? Dear god, and I was worried about asking Byron!!
Am off to pick up Pod from the vets in an hour - she will be annoyed with me of course. And I do not like to think of the size of the bill... ho hum!

Laloofah said...

Well that's okay, you can come to MY party, where Leonard Cohen can serenade you personally with "I'm Your Man" and David would be none the wiser. (Just kidding if David's reading this over your shoulder! LOL)

Truly? You'd boot me from your party if I showed up with marmalade? Who's your bouncer, George Clooney? ;-)

Okay, if you were forced to have one of these two things show up at your party, which would you choose?

1) Marmalade
2) Charlie Sheen

Give Mrs. Pod a snuggle from me, if she'll let you! (I hope she's much better and the bill isn't too staggering!)

Barbara said...

Thanks for the invite - David thinks Leonard is depressing, I say Leonard is a poet. And considering he likes Blues music ('Woke up this morning... my house had burned down.... My woman done left me....my dog it had drowned...' etc) I think David's critique has a serious flaw! All bouncing is to be provided by Charlie at the party - it's a hobby of his. And obviously I would eat a jar of fennel flavoured marmalade with marmite on the side before Charlie Sheen got anywhere near my party! Mrs P has been duly snuggled, see above post for update.

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