Party Recipe

In an attempt to throw myself back into the social whirl last week, I ended up overdoing it a bit, and am typing this with a stinking cold, complete with blocked nose. The pictures on the left are from my friend (and boss!) Flo's birthday/relocation bash on Saturday night. Now, Flo has been a pretty regular party-thrower over the eight years I've known her and has come up with a tried and tested formula for success. First of all, (1) there's always a tagine. Always. And (2) a great chocolate cake. Made by Caroline. Although I'm still not quite sure who Caroline is. This is a shame because, frankly, I'd like to befriend her just to be sure of getting a regular supply of that cake when Flo moves to the *showbiz* mother-ship. In terms of the social mix (3) there's usually one gay man for every woman - always a good ratio. And (4) enough charming straight men for everyone. Plus, and this one is very important (5) there are always interesting people you've never seen before. The only thing that I miss from the old days is a (6) rather wonderful champagne cocktail which used to kick off the proceedings. I'm told the recipe disappeared with the former barman :-). Glorious anyway. And all that after a delicious dinner cooked by M. de la Cruz on Friday evening. You know it's a classy do when the only wine bottles in sight are magnums. Completely fantastic food, great company but a very late night. Is it any wonder that the only thing I had the energy for this evening was setting the recorder for "Donnie Brasco" at rhino75 Towers and settling in for my own patented British detox: cheese on toast, tea, yoghurt and Radio 4? Never fails. P.S. Don't mention the rugby. Please.