Throwing a party, listening to advice to not make everything from scratch and for once order everything. Make it easy on yourself, just do it. Well after looking at different catering businesses and their lists of food/prices I threw caution to the wind and decided to do it myself anyway. But... I did order dinner!
I ordered Thai food (pat on the shoulder to not make dinner for 10 myself). Yes tiny town has a Thai lady married to a local boy. Placed the order a week ago, set the time for yesterday night at 6. Went to get it.
Thai lady who cooks from her house opens the door at a crack and looks at me inquiringly. I beam back a smile, faint alarmbells ringing in the back of my head, Conversation as follows:
lady asks: yes, you just phoned? Is dinner at 8? Not ready yet.
-I say, no. I ordered a week ago, dinner for 10 at 6
Thai lady says: nooooo
-(Alarmbells get louder) and I say: Yeeeeessss!
Thai lady: no, you rang. 8 o'clock
- smile wavers a bit and I insist, shaking my head: I'm sorry but I ordered last week, here at your house and your mother in law took the order, I saw her write it down.
Door opens a bit wider and the lady disappears in the house, I follow her into the kitchen. Over the noise of the alarmbells now ringing at full force I can see it coming. Her eyes widen, hand up to her mouth: Nooo, not possible! Haven't seen the ordersheet. How? I'm so sorry...
There's 10 hungry people in my house, waiting for dinner and I know that there are 20 more coming in like 2 hours to surprise my husband and celebrate his 50th birthday.... All pre-party stress floats away in that same instant. Pfff, never mind, I'll think of something else. Shit happens.
Then she asks while firing up the enormous stove, and clanks pots and pans on the counter: can you wait? Just 1 hour? I'll bring the food to you, promise. 1 hour? Yes?
I grin back and nod: Sure, we'll wait, have another drink. Sounds great. Sure you don't want me to get it? No? Ok, see you then! Turn around and drive back home, radio on 10.
You can plan everything to the nine but something, somewhere always goes a little different than you think. Not necessarily wrong or bad. Just different. Never mind.
Exactly one hour later we were having a wonderful Thai dinner, super fresh, loads of lovely food, a great mix of flavours, spicy and mellow, fish, various kinds of meat dishes, vegetables and lovely thai rice. Everyone enjoyed it thoroughly.
No time for leasurely after dinner talk/dessert, dove straight into pulling out all stops to get everything ready for the guests, in the meantime weather turned, wind was down, temperature just right and we poured out into the garden for coffee and cake and the guests arriving.
I think/know Hubby had a great evening, we sat outside until late with candles and drinks and little bites. Maybe we should turn this into an annual thing. Celebrate life with friends and family!
Thai lady who cooks from her house opens the door at a crack and looks at me inquiringly. I beam back a smile, faint alarmbells ringing in the back of my head, Conversation as follows:
lady asks: yes, you just phoned? Is dinner at 8? Not ready yet.
-I say, no. I ordered a week ago, dinner for 10 at 6
Thai lady says: nooooo
-(Alarmbells get louder) and I say: Yeeeeessss!
Thai lady: no, you rang. 8 o'clock
- smile wavers a bit and I insist, shaking my head: I'm sorry but I ordered last week, here at your house and your mother in law took the order, I saw her write it down.
Door opens a bit wider and the lady disappears in the house, I follow her into the kitchen. Over the noise of the alarmbells now ringing at full force I can see it coming. Her eyes widen, hand up to her mouth: Nooo, not possible! Haven't seen the ordersheet. How? I'm so sorry...
There's 10 hungry people in my house, waiting for dinner and I know that there are 20 more coming in like 2 hours to surprise my husband and celebrate his 50th birthday.... All pre-party stress floats away in that same instant. Pfff, never mind, I'll think of something else. Shit happens.
Then she asks while firing up the enormous stove, and clanks pots and pans on the counter: can you wait? Just 1 hour? I'll bring the food to you, promise. 1 hour? Yes?
I grin back and nod: Sure, we'll wait, have another drink. Sounds great. Sure you don't want me to get it? No? Ok, see you then! Turn around and drive back home, radio on 10.
You can plan everything to the nine but something, somewhere always goes a little different than you think. Not necessarily wrong or bad. Just different. Never mind.
Exactly one hour later we were having a wonderful Thai dinner, super fresh, loads of lovely food, a great mix of flavours, spicy and mellow, fish, various kinds of meat dishes, vegetables and lovely thai rice. Everyone enjoyed it thoroughly.
No time for leasurely after dinner talk/dessert, dove straight into pulling out all stops to get everything ready for the guests, in the meantime weather turned, wind was down, temperature just right and we poured out into the garden for coffee and cake and the guests arriving.
I think/know Hubby had a great evening, we sat outside until late with candles and drinks and little bites. Maybe we should turn this into an annual thing. Celebrate life with friends and family!
Grin .... you could grin .... this one really goes in a movie.
ReplyDeleteLate into the evening, that sounds like the best!
Hahahaha all well which ends well...
ReplyDeletethat was quite dramatic :)
At your place, i would have panicked * chewing nails **blowing head* and some more panick hehehe
stressful! although i would wait many hours for thai food. my favorite!
ReplyDeleteOh my! I would have been on the edge of my seat. Good thing it all turned out in the end!
ReplyDeleteHappy birthday to Hubby & well done! to you...with a little luck. Times with friends, sharing food and drink, are some of the best in life. Glad yours worked out so well :)
ReplyDeleteI've had lifetimes like that...
ReplyDeleteAt least it sounds like it all worked out in the end.
:)
j
It sounds perfect! I love it when something goes wrong and it feels like it might just spoil the whole thing but then it turns out to be great.
ReplyDeleteHappy Birthday to your husband. xx
Oh, wow, stress level through the roof! It sounds like you handled it with grace and aplomb. And liquor. That always helps. :-)
ReplyDeleteHa ha. I'm sure it wasn't funny at the time but I'm glad everything worked out in the end and that your hubby had a great "Abraham" b-day :o)
ReplyDeleteI guess that's what I like most about planning...stuff hitting the fan! I get eerily calm and giggly.
ReplyDeleteThks for the comments, we all loved the evening and really "plan" to have more, we had so much fun!
I once read: Murphy must be a mother. How true, only mothers know about every bit of household disaster that can happen, so only a mother Murphy would know how best to pester another woman. In my house there lives, besides Murphy, who only visits frequently, an yet unseen entity, it is called Somebody. Somebody mislays things, Somebody left a cabinetdoor open, result one bump on my head, Somebody.. anyone having a spare room to rent out to Somebody?
ReplyDelete