Bodies, bones, bans and a legless bull

01 January 2000 by
Bodies, bones, bans and a legless bull

Dead bodies and bones have been the theme of the month recently, but for once I was not to blame.

Last week, along with the deceased Audry von Munchen, we hosted a murder mystery evening for our clients. A murderer was among us, his or her identity unknown to myself and the clients.

A team of actors set us the task of solving the mys-tery - before the dinner was complete.

The clients entered into the swing of the event and Dan the gardener - a cheerful old soul who was very proud of his cabbages, raspberries and parsnips - approached me, Elsie Earnapenny, a keen member of the local Girl Guide group, to see if I had anything I wished to share with him.

Inspector Clu d'Eau ensured that appropriate clues or red herrings were thrown in during the evening, and awarded a prize to the team that unmasked the culprit.

At the end, the miscreant was revealed to be one of our area managers, who had gone into a cold sweat when he opened his envelope at the start of the evening to find that he was the designated murderer.

The other "dead" body that appeared this week was a tailor's mannequin that was seen happily sitting in the passenger seat of the project manager's car as he was completing a mission.

We were holding an open day for a new greenfield site, opening at the end of the month, to show the client's employees what would be on offer. When we do this, we like to try and set the scene with the restaurant furniture, china, a sampling of food and the staff uniforms - which explains the dummy.

Lead-in time

The day was a great success, and the staff can't wait for the launch day. The only snag at the moment is that there isa possible delay in the availability of the Italian marble for the servery. I get the feeling that our respectable lead-in time could be getting shorter and shorter.

My involvement with bones this month came through an invitation from Charles Boyd, of Chester Boyd, to join the Backbone Party for a Bone of Contention dinner at Butchers Hall to support the party in its fight against the beef-on-the-bone ban.

The dinner commenced with oxtail soup served with a Georges Duboeuf wine, followed by Roast Banned Beef of Old England, and finished with beef suet spotted dick. After the speeches, we were each presented with our very own "stress bull", to squeeze to our hearts' content.

When I got home that evening, my daughter was taken with my new "toy" and decided that it was her new friend. It now goes everywhere with her, and when last seen it was very grubby and missing one leg.

Stress is a funny thing.

Next diary from Robyn Jones will be on 9 April

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