Lap of Luxury

Brianne and I worked a catering gig last night for an Indian-English family home. The house was a swanky split-level number in the ritzy Knightsbridge area of town, with about three giant flat-screen TV's in various rooms, a kitchen straight out of Martha Stewart Living, and (not to seem crude but I feel it bears mentioning) a guest bathroom with both a toilet and a motion-sensing urinal, something I'd never imagined to see in a private home. The owner described it as his second home, as London brings him in from Dubai for business almost every month. Hoo-wah.

We were the only two servers at the home. I was bartender and Brianne was waitress/doorperson/Swiss Army knife. The total number of guests was about ten people including the host and hostess, a bunch of business friends meeting for drinks and canapes before heading out to dinner. Hardly a morsel of food was indulged in, the drinks were simple and few, and B and I found ourselves just standing around for most of the two hours of the soiree. In short, we did a little bit of set-up and clean-up for a party that could easily have been thrown without us, but the family could readily afford the help so they paid for us.

Highlight of the night: Host realizes that his house doesn't have the cocktail glasses he'd hoped for, so he pops out to the corner store to pick some up. The corner store: HARROD'S, the most expensive high-end department store in Christendom being used like a Dollarama!

A slightly surreal experience. It was a good job, though. Despite their obvious wealth the family was very friendly and personable, never demanding, and at the end of the night gave us both a generous tip.