Dinner Party Guest List

A while back I was asked the question of ‘who would you invite for dinner if you could invite anyone?’ Not a question I had previously thought about. However, when you compared my answer to the others I realised I live in a parallel universe to normal people. Why? The four names I listed are all people in agriculture, ones that I have met but would love to chat more to. The names that the others listed were mostly people I had never heard of (such as musicians, authors, people on TV), or the one I did recognise, David Attenborough. Hmm, no thanks, I still want to talk more to my ‘real life, full of knowledge, stories and experiences of working the land’ people. They are all people I could have a conversation with (I really have no idea what I would chat about to celebrities so why would I want to join them for dinner?).

So, who were my four? Hmm, not sure I should confess…but two are farmers (Murdo/Ian), one is a retired farmer (Watson), and the fourth is a leader of promoting agriculture/smallholdings, milks her own cows, has them halter trained and has time to set up all kinds of websites and seminars to help others (Rosemary -she’s also the only one of these four to be reading this so debated whether I should confess this where she may find out). My list is a potential reality, I don’t think anyone else had a single plausible invite. Which, why dream of inviting people who can’t or won’t come?

My brain just seems to work in the reality field, rather than reality TV, and maybe that comes about from having no TV. A shock to a lot of people but I don’t have time. Nor do I need to watch Hollyoaks when I have my own holly and oaks to watch and keep an eye on from pests; why watch Neighbours when I can watch my own neighbours (stray cow on the council road last night, got the community Facebook Page buzzing). News bulletins: go catch up over the fence. Rom com: our bull trying to jump a gate. ER: in the byre, feed tubing a calf, clock ticking on its survival. Nature documentaries: binoculars work fine. Six Nations Rugby: there is no substitute, go to local pub…but with people you can chat to.