First Annual BAFTA Awards Party

This genius excuse for a party was conceived by a lovely friend of mine who recently moved to London from NYC.  Over dinner at my place one evening earlier this month, she was lamenting the fact that, thanks to the 5 hour time difference, she was no longer able to host her annual Oscars party.  In true New Yorker style, she was looking for a way to adapt and rise above, a way to bring this party back to life.  And so The First Annual BAFTA Awards Party was born:

Nearest & Dearest,

Antonia and Sophia would like to invite you to our First Annual BAFTA Awards Party

Sunday, February 12th

From 7 PM

Red Carpet: Commencing 7:30 PM

Ceremony: Commencing 9:00 PM

In case you men are reluctant to read on... there is money involved$$$

Here's how it works:

1.  Everyone participating puts 10 GBP in the pot (Please bring with you in cash on Sunday evening)

2.  Review the ballot of nominees in each category (below)

3.  Select your predictions for winner of each category

4.  Print and complete your ballot

5.  Bring your completed ballot with you on Sunday evening

6.  NOTE: No ballots will be accepted after 8:30 PM

7.  Votes will be tallied in real time as the winners are announced on live TV

8.  The person with the highest number of correct predictions will be declared the winner

9.  WINNER TAKES ALL

P.S. We are entirely open to upping the ante to 20 GBP per person but don't want to scare anyone off. Open to feedback on this point.

P.P.S. Black Tie Optional 

The ante was upped to 20gbp each, so the total pot of money up for grabs was a non-paltry 220gbp.  It was at this point that people's true colours began to show.  Some discreetly looked up the 2011 Golden Globe Awards winners, always a good leading indicator of future awards ceremony success.   A few checked online betting websites to see which option had the most favourable odds in each category.  One person with no shame at all to speak of used twitter to follow bloggers attending the actual ceremony who were tweeting winners before they were announced on TV (there was a lag between the real time and televised ceremony).  Scorned by some yet admired by others, it was only fair to disqualify him.

As a nod to the industry we were all gathered to recognize achievement in, we set up an authentic cinematic experience by using a movie projector to cast the ceremony on my  living room wall.  It was a nice touch, see below:

Martin Scorsese wins Lifetime Achievement Award

After the ballots were marked and votes were tallied, the winning ballot had 15 correct answers out of a maximum possible score of 23.  This impressive ballot belonged to none other than the lovely Antonia herself.  Yes, readers, the very same friend who planted the seeds for this whole idea one chilly night not so long ago.  Eerie coincidence?  Or mini-Madoff international ponzi scheme of her own design?  In her defence, she did arrive at my apartment with her completed ballot a good two hours before the ceremoney began, and did not resort to social media sites for inside information.  And in the end, she very kindly used her winnings to buy us all yummy pizza from http://www.madeinitalygroup.co.uk/  for dinner. 

Completed Ballots

Winner's prize

So, if you are a cinema fan, feeling a bit strapped for cash, and that is really Grazia you are reading folded in between the covers of The Economist, this fun way to gather friends is probably right up your street.  It will certainly be an annual event for this crew going forward!

30th Birthday Surprise!

Thirtieth birthdays separate the men from the boys.  So when my boyfriend hit the big 3-0 in January, I wanted to do something special for him that he would always remember.  My plan was to throw him a beautiful, fun, intimate surprise dinner party at home with great food and his best friends.  I wanted it to be a perfect evening, worthy of the big occasion.

There were a number of obstacles standing between me and perfection:  Although he appreciates simple things, my boyf can be (a-hem) difficult to please.  He works very long and unpredictable hours which make him an unreliable dinner companion.  Most of his closest friends live in different country.  We live together, so I had to conceal any signs of advance preparation in order to maintain the surprise.   I rarely cook and don't own kitchen basics like a colander.  I only recently learnt the word colander.  

Hmmm.  I was going to need help.  Here's how I pulled it off:

The Invitations:

First things first.  You need guests to have a party, and because I wanted to convince his best friends to travel from abroad in order to attend, I needed an enticing invitation.  Mission accomplished via the fabulous website www.paperlesspost.com which allows you to customize beautiful online invitations that arrive via-email to your guests but retain all the formality and intimacy of proper old-school post.

See for yourself:  http://www.paperlesspost.com/events/1380918-e49ebeec/replies/33639269-c4ce9aa5

It also allows you to manage your guest list, by keeping track of who has accepted, who has declined, and who has opened your invitation but has not responded (you know who you are, and thanks to paperless post, so do I :)).

The Set-Up:

My boyfriend is blessed with wonderful friends, and I was thrilled when I realized they were willing to  hop on planes to London to be there for his birthday.  I was not so thrilled about the size of my dining room table, however.  Enter the fabulous (and burly!) man from Capital Hire, who fought through the Saturday morning market on my street and up 5 flights of stairs with two 6-foot trestle tables on his back.  He also brought me a linen tablecloth big enough to cover the whole thing, sparing my lovely sheets.  I highly recommend:  http://www.capitalhire.com/

The Food:

Now what to serve these charming friends on my new massive dining table which has replaced my living room furniture?  I called a number of caterers before I found exactly what I was looking for.  Many companies are willing to cater smaller events, but specialize in large events such as corporate receptions and weddings.  This was not for me.  I wanted something much more small scale and bespoke.  No tomatoes cut into the shape of roses, no manufactured canapes.  Basically, I didn't want the food to look "catered".  Thankfully, I found Sarah Annoh.  Her company Chef's Compliments acts like an agent for great chefs from top restaurants in London who are willing to come to your home and cook for you.  She listened to what type of menu I wanted (my boyfriend is a huge fan of steak), and then matched me with Hamza, who is a chef at the excellent Argentine steak restaurant Gaucho, and was formerly at Soho House (one of our faves).  She also provided me with two wait-staff who ended up being so much more: they helped me move furniture, organise the seating arrangement, took pictures, and even ran out to get espresso shots from a nearby restaurant at midnight when guests asked for coffee following the meal!!  They were wonderful.

I didn't have enough matching cutlery and wine/ water/ champagne classes for all the guests, but this was  not a problem for Sarah.  She waited for me to text her that my boyfriend had left the house two hours before guests were scheduled to arrive, and then promptly showed up with her husband in tow, carrying all the required tableware for the evening.  At no extra cost to our pre-agreed price per head.  Amazing.

I am fortunate to have found her, and would use her again in a heartbeat, and now so can you:

http://www.chefscompliments.co.uk/

Here's how it looked:

The Cake:

No birthday celebration is complete without a birthday cake, and my boyfriend's favourite happens to be from The Hummingbird Bakery.  Give them two days notice, and they will create you a red velvet confection- dark red vanilla sponge with a light taste of chocolate, topped with cream cheese frosting.  You can specify whatever decoration you want, and they take orders on-line:

http://www.hummingbirdbakery.com/

Guests seemed to love it!

Guest Stars:

Special thanks to Arnold, who helped me plan the guest list, got my boyfriend out of the house on the pretense of birthday present shopping so that I could set up the party, and brought him back right on time and only mildly tipsy depsite having spent 4 hours in the pub...

...He also made a very sweet toast...

...And thank you to Giorgia, Giacomo, Suzie and Dario for coming from Milan and NYC:

...Also, to my dear and lovely Flavia who came early to help me and made everything glow:

...And to Natash who brought those mustaches:

...And to Ferdi who brought the Jagermeister:

It was a wonderful night!!!  Happy Birthday Umberto!!!!

SALUTE!!!

The 'Bring Your Own Mom' Business Trip

Travelling for work is annoying because it means you don't get to go home to your personal life at the end of the day.  OK, it can break up the monotony of your usual office routine, and you might get to see a few new cities, but it tips the delicate work-life balance in entirely the wrong direction.  As a frequent business traveller, I have often thought how great it would be if I could bring along a loved one in order to counter-balance this.  It's tough to invite my boyfriend or my friends along, because they have jobs of their own to attend to, and are strangely reluctant to take time off in order to wait around all day for me to finish work so that we can hit the town.  Luckily for me, I do have one such faithful companion, which lead me to an interesting idea:  The Bring Your Own Mom Business Trip!

The best business trip breakfast companion- My mother.

I know this might seem inappropriate.  What's she going to do all day while you are in back to back meetings?  Won't you feel guilty in the evening if you have to take a client for a drink?  What if she hangs around the hotel lobby introducing herself to your colleagues (awkward)?  Admittedly, this works best when your business destination city has more to offer than a sheet metal factory tour and the hotel bar of the local Radisson.  It is necessary to exercise some discretion here.  Fortunately, my business trip last week took me to Paris, the ideal BYOM work destination.

Work travel means corporate rates and free upgrades, so you can treat your mother to some well deserved luxury to make up for all those times you behaved like a mental person when you were younger (or last week).   There are many luxurious hotels in interesting cities that will do the trick, but you really can't go wrong with the Four Seasons George V in Paris.  Here are some reasons why:

• Mothers appreciate fluffy towels more than the average human, and this is what your bathroom/ vanity area looks like:

• Louis XIV antiques are to your mother what the X Box and Lay Z Boy are your boyfriend:

• While Paris with your friends is more about the clubs and the night life, with your mother you will appreciate all Paris has to offer by day, providing essential nourishment for the culturally anorexic:

Strange balloon man hanging out the window of the Louvre

Montmartre

I highly recommend the BYOM business trip.  Work trips and bonding with your mom don't seem like an obvious combination, and yet this works on many levels.  She will be so flattered you invited her along, she'll feel like she is sharing a part of your life that is usually kept entirely separate from her, and she's waaaaaay better company than Dan from Accounting.

Looking Back on 2011

Happy New Year!  Here are my fondest memories of 2011:

• Maroma Margaritas on the beach in Tulum, Mexico
• Lazy Sundays spent in Notting Hill street cafes, squeezing in tighter around the table as friends wander by and pull up a chair
• The Museum of Innocence, by Orhan Pamuk.  Karoo, by Steve Tesich.  The weekly Modern Love column in the New York Times.
• Morning runs in Hyde Park followed by frothy cappuccinos and fruit from the market stalls on the way home
• Dancing all over London, racing dawn in 4 inch heels
• Limen at the Royal Opera House, then dinner at The Ivy, avec maman
• London Freize week parties
• Gypsy Kings in the piazzetta of Portofino
• Late night transatlantic Skype conversations with my siblings
• Summer days in Pilion, trying to dock my little boat in its impossibly awkward mooring in a little port in a little fishing village in a little peninsula that is my paradise.

I am certain that I have left out many many glorious moments, but a pattern has begun to emerge that illustrates my motivation to create this blog:  All these experiences and objects are peripheral to my every day life, they do not form its core.   The core is what I studied for, sacrificed summers to internships over, and subjected myself to rigorous examinations and interviews to achieve.  Its the subject of the majority of conversations I have with my father.  It is what 50% of the clothes in my wardrobe are appropriate for, and the only reason that I own sensible shoes.  It is what I wake up early for, and what consumes the most significant number of hours of my day.

And yet, when I look back on 2011, the core becomes irrelevant.  My real life, the actual me, is in the halo that surrounds the core, made up of hundreds of particles of my suspended weightless joy, revolving around the central mass, like the rings of the planet Saturn.

My true passion lies not in my day to day routine of work, but in my free time, in the life that my work facilitates.  What bothers me is that the meaningless mass of my life is so well documented.  I have 100s of emails, files, receipts and folders detailing each interaction and event of my work.  Who cares?  What I really want to remember is the halo.  Hence this blog:  My exploits, thoughts, tastes, trips, experiences, and adventures that are the real me.  Voila!