Okay there were a few late comers (the South Africans!!!) but apart from that it went really well!
Those of you who know me, know how I work myself into a state before my "dinner parties". The whole day is spent in a frenzy of cleaning, food shopping... cleaning..., cooking.... more cleaning! Fortunately, I had the privilege of having not one, but TWO, talentated Jamaican ladies, with a passion for food, to help me out on the food side of things. Not to mention, my wonderful flatmate - who is just that...Wonderful!
The previous week, I'd mailed invites with attached character background information sheets to the guests. One of the South Africans (again) misplaced his copy and only told me on the day of the dinner. So had to print out a new character sheet for him to quickly memorise when he "finally" arrived!
While we were waiting ( for the South Africans), the other guests sat around nervously barely touching the food that was rapidly going cold.
Ahh! Finally they arrive and we can start!
I welcomed everyone and explained the rules. A few minutes later, we were given an Oscar winning performance by the poisoned murder "victim" dying in most spectacular manner. While everyone (ok the girls) was gasping in "shock" at such a "terrible" thing, the guys were just standing by dispassionately reading through their character background sheets. Honestly!!!
In case you don't know how a murder mystery works, it simply this...
Someone is murdered. All the guests have a motive for murder which makes them all suspects. The whole evening is spent solving the mystery of "Whodunnit?". Each guest has secrets about themselves and about others, which they must not divulge unless confronted directly. For my murder mystery dinner party, I'd hidden some murder weapon cards around the house and given the guests a set of clues to find them. These murder weapons could be used to "kill" anyone who was trying to blackmail you with information. They also had some game money to bribe their way out of embarrasing situations, or in my case, to hire a hitman to take out someone who was irritating me!
After the "murder" everyone really got into it! A couple more 'murders' happened- including the unfortunate demise of the original "murderer". I also discovered that our appointed "detective" was going around extorting money out of most of the guests (including me) in exchange for her silence! Cheeky! Did I mention that it was one of the Jamaicans?
All in all the dinner party was hilarious and a great way to spend an evening! Can't wait until the next one!
