Come Dine With Me

With no wedding to plan we have a winter of blissfully free weekends ahead of us. So what are we going to do - aside from redecorating the sitting room and bathroom, a spot of gardening and numerous afternoon teas at the George - £3.95 for two very large scones with jam and clotted cream - bargain!?

A while back, during a competitive cooking conversation between myself and Mr Swift(there are many - but I always trump him because I have a four slice Dualit) the idea of a Come Dine With Me style competition was floated - less the ferreting about in other people's undies draws and the thousand pound prize of course. Everyone jumped on board and the first dinner party - to be hosted by me - has been penciled in for two weeks time.

I fear Mr Swift and Mr Jones are getting slightly carried away by the whole thing. Yesterday talk of videoing everyone's verdicts quickly turned to "candid shots of the host/hostess preparing food and little snaps of the party in full swing" - until Mrs Swift and I pointed out that we hadn't actually been commissioned by channel four to make the next series. (Hear much muttering about girls always ruining the fun).

So the menus and shopping lists are being planned - and we're all pondering whether being excited about this make us sound really rather old and tragic?