Thu 23rd February 2012

It was my turn to host the book group tonight. I went to get a tenner out and it said I only have £1.38. My peculatory gains have been spent or sent to Italy for the holiday. Then the tardy postman arrived with a letter and a fiver from my Mum.

With things I already had in the house, the food was sorted. Delia Smith's "Moroccan" salad (couscous, hard boiled eggs, sundried tomatoes, olives, rocket, grilled yellow pepper, cherry tomatoes, garlicky dressing), baby potatoes in soured cream, Martha Rose Shulman's cheese pastries made from Bowland Organic Lancashire and Parmesan.

But no wine and no coal. Coal is expensive and takes several days to be delivered. I rang Niall, who's in the book group. "Hiya Niall. Feel a bit awkward about this but I'm a bit strapped for cash, very strapped actually. I was just wondering if you could buy a bottle of red and one of white and bring them round, and I can see you right on Monday." Niall apologised, "You know I would if I could."

I texted Kirsty. "I'm sorry to ask you this but I was just wondering if you might be able to led me £10 until tomorrow. It's just that I'm hosting the book group tonight and I haven't got anything to give them to eat." Lying a bit.

Kirsty shook her head gave me a tenner. I enjoyed making the food, talking to myself with the luxury of no-one else in the house. I laid out the table with cutlery and crockery. It looked attractive and colourful. Blue fairy lights over the fireplace, tea lights in frosted purple glasses. "This looks cosy," said Niall as he walked in, which made me have a little swell of pride as a host. They woofed the food, another compliment. Hardly anything left. The book was my choice, as host, so we discussed William H Gass's Omensetter's Luck which I first came across from its enthusiastic advocacy on An und für sich

Oooh, 2 comments!

2 comments

Comment from: nursemyra

In Australia if you invited a book club over to your house, you would supply the food and the guests would each bring a bottle of wine. hopefully they wouldn't drink all of it on the night and you'd have enough left over to get drunk on your own the following night. Or even two nights...

Fri 24th February 2012 @ 08:48

Comment from: looby

Oh no, you couldn't do that here. Standard etiquette is that you offer something from your own stock first. And yes, enough wine for tonight, at least.

Fri 24th February 2012 @ 08:58

Comment feed for this post

Certain posts are password-protected. If you'd like to read them, please

looby, n.; pl. loobies. A lout; an awkward, stupid, clownish person

M / 48 / Lancaster ("the Brighton of the North").

Drinker, father to triplet girls. Bits of editing, proofreading and generally picking fault with others.

WLTM literate woman, 30-63. Must have nice tits, a PhD, and an mdma factory in the shed, although the first on its own will do in the short term.

There are plenty of bastards who drink moderately. Of course, I don't consider them to be people. They are not our comrades.
Sergei Korovin, quoted in Pavel Krusanov, The Blue Book of the Alcoholic

I am here to change my life. I am here to force myself to change my life.
Chinese man I met during Freshers Week at Lancaster University, 2008

The more democratised art becomes, the more we recognise in it our own mediocrity.
James Meek

I hate the iPod; I hate the idea that music is such a personal thing that you can just stick some earplugs in your ears and have an experience with music. Music is a social phenomenon, and it’s about sharing with each other a certain oral tradition, ultimately.
Jeremy Wagner

La vie poetique has its pleasures, and readings--ideally a long way from home--are one of them. I can pretend to be George Szirtes.
George Szirtes

One good thing about being a Marxist is that you don't have to pretend to like work.
Terry Eagleton, What Is A Novel?, Lancaster University, 1 Feb 2010

The working man is a fucking loser.
Mick, The Golden Lion, Lancaster, 21 Mar 2011