Dinner Party - What Class Am I?

So we go in. No mucking about. The jackets are left with the female at the door who greats everyone and wishes them all a very good night. There are 4 people serving champagne and there is complimentary food provided by the hosts.

The atmosphere gets interesting as more and more people start piling in to the venue. Its comfortable, there is enough people to fill up the venue without it being cramped.

As more people come in, groups start to seperate off. There is a few minutes while everyone works each other out and some try to mingle, others just chat with their partners or friends they know from work or other activity.

All this interests me. I am in the corner with a champagne flute in one hand dressed in a tux, with parnsip crisps in the other. I watch as people start chatting about their, jobs, their social lives and James bond stuff.

I can tell you the woman in the opposite corner with her dark purple dress, aged between 40 - 45 has probably two kids. Both have been to University and she either works as a PA or head of a respectable organisation. Her Husband is also fairly well off working as either the owner or Director of a Insurance Broker. The young male walking with black trouers and purple striped shirt is probably at Uni. His girlfriend (no rings on) is probably doing an art degree or studying English/History. I made that decisiong based on the black dress she is wearing which is comfortable with a suitable brown/red scarf that hides her insecurity in what she is wearing.

By this time, I can tell you that most of the females in the room I have segregated off in to categories. The ones who seem older who have children and have dinner parties all the time, those slightly younger who join their families for get togethers frequently and those slightly worried about what they are wearing and are trying to fit in.

And there is always one. A young lady dresses as a bond villain in a quite revealing blue/white dress with blonde pigtails. She provides some much needed conversational topic for the night.

I start to mingle and watch peoples eyes as they meet new people and you can tell when they want to talk to someone else. They say nothing but their body language towards that person switches off and in the opposite direction. And those you switch away as you run out of things to say. The champagne and orange juice is in full flow and the atmosphere is getting louder as more people are chatting.

The majority of the males in the room are not alpha. They have either been there and done that or I just charmed to be there. I joke with a fairly old man in his late 40s, early 50s about joining the local rabble to the cinema to watch the Quantum of Solace. We discuss (and with his wife) kemosabi peas and the rice chilli bites on offer. A charming chap.

So while I am doing all this figuring out and enjoying the fravolities of the evening, I wonder who was doing the same?

Could I host a dinner party with the same kind of open ended execution where the people create the atmosphere and make it comfortable and charming? Well only one way to find out. Another time to roll out the tux/suit for another evening.........