Christmas Fair 2007

Programme of Events

Je suis épuisée. And jolly glad that it's finally over. But the kids had a good time and I hope we made enough money for the school so that it made it worth the time, money and effort.

Solliciting food donations was no fun when you couldn't force/blackmail/threaten people to do it. I'm new to the school so personal connections were few and I couldn't count on people liking my face to do it. So I had to work on my communication (enthusiastic letter, emails...), be thick-skinned and just ask people in the face if they were going to cook me something (and daring them to say no). I cooked 5 dishes myself, so at least nobody could accuse me of not doing what I've been preaching.

The only prob was that the Hubby didn't cooperate very much on the days leading to the Fair. Certes, he had alot of work as usual. But if I'm going to drop dead all of a sudden, surely the company will be able to survive without him.

On Friday evening, the night I was to do the bulk of the cooking and needed him to help babysit, he returned home at 11pm. Later than usual, in other words. He did it to spite me or what?

On Saturday morning, when I was desperately trying to save the lentil curry I messed up the night before when Baby Girl peed in her pants in the living room, Monsieur spent all morning stuck in his chair reading his emails. Then he had the cheek to complain that he didn't get to play golf. What the *+#%?...

Anyway, we arrived just before the Buffet was scheduled to start and I had my 5 dishes with me (and they survived the car journey, thank God) : Vegetable & Egg Samossas, Chicken Korma, Lentil & Potato Coriander Curry, Spiced Basmati Rice and Orange Pound Cake. And it was quite amazing as we had quite a lot of food donations and had to find another table in extremis to be able to display all of them at the same time. I was told that this was the first year we had so many dishes and especially so much variety. What a relief.

Part of the spread

As I was late, I had to ask for help to get the dishes rearranged in such a way that the vegetarian and the non-vegetarian dishes were separated. Dessert on another table, of course. Then it all started and I didn't get a single moment to breathe, the queue was endless. I was in charge of the cashbox and it was fortunate that I've eaten a few burgers at MacDonald's as I remembered basics like

1. always greet your clients
2. tell them how it works
3. do not forget to propose dessert and other promotions (i.e. recipe booklet in our case)
4. answer questions about food and ingredients with a knowledgeable air
5. return change with a smile
6. hope that they enjoy their meal
   
   

Cover of my recipe booklet

I didn't get to eat till when it was almost all over. All my curries and samossas were sold out within the first 20 minutes (yeap, first to go) and I had to promise a few disappointed people to cook them some another time.

R's Krispies Cookies

It was quite educational day as I discovered a pretty nice Swedish dish known as Jansson's Temptation (with potatoes and anchovies) and I saw what Krebinetter (a Danish dish) looked like.

Dessert Spread

I missed the auction but apparently there were a number of rather interesting things for the hammer e.g. a week in a villa in Cyprus, Ferrari goodies, decorated X'mas tree, toys, vegetable hamper, 1-hour massage, my cooking class (went to an English mother whose husband liked my hot lentil curry)...

Paintings for Sale

Baby Boy bought himself a few jars of sweets, an old pirate ship (from the 2nd hand toy stand) and the Hub bought up all of the kids' paintings at 5 euros each. Eldest Son's was really quite lousy and as the Vice Principal's also the Art Teacher, I tried to take her to task for it but she claimed that she wasn't the one who got the kids to do it...Got a set of kids' sofas from the 2nd hand toy shop with the idea of using them to decorate the extra room for Baby Girl's Bday party and Eldest Son for once only spent a 10th of what we gave him as he wanted to save the rest for his piggy bank. As he's losing more of his milk teeth lately, he's obsessed with money and could spend hours counting the coins in his pig.

The Stage

Well, now I can get on with my life. There are still loads to do before we leave for Singapore and I'm not sure I'll be able to deal with everything in time.