📙 Part 2 - Describe a time when you organized a happy event successfully

You should say: what the event was, how you prepared for it, who helped you to organize it, and explain why you think it was a successful event.

This episode's vocabulary

• Flat-warming (noun) - a party to celebrate moving into a new flat (apartment).
• Affair (noun) - an event or sequence of events of a specified kind or that has previously been referred to.
• Nibbles (plural noun) - small pieces of food that are eaten between or before meals, often with alcoholic drinks.
• To accommodate (verb) - (of a building or other area) provide lodging or sufficient space for.
• To put on the ritz (idiom) - to live in elegance and luxury, especially to make an ostentatious show of one's wealth.
• To busy oneself (idiom) - to make or keep yourself busy.
• Non-edible (adj.) - not intended for eating or not safe to eat.
• Party animal (noun) - someone who enjoys parties and party activities very much and goes to as many as possible.

Questions and Answers

R: To be honest, I don't often put on big events, like throwing parties or something like that, but a few months back, I did host a flat-warming which was quite fun, actually. It was just a small affair with some close friends and nibbles, but it seems like everyone had a fun time, and I suppose that's what counts. I've actually lived in my house for ages, but the repair work took a long time, at least it took a long time to finish. Actually, it's still ongoing, but it was even worse when I got the place, if you can imagine that. Anyways, after a long delay, I was able to invite people around for the evening and cook some things for them. I don't think I did that much to prepare, really. I just threw some snacks in the oven or on some trays and tidied up a little bit and organized all my furniture to accommodate the small crowd I'd invited. Even though it was one of my first flat-warmings. I didn't feel this great need to put on the ritz or something. It was just towards the end of summer, so the nights were still quite warm and light. I don't think I even had to put the heating on, to be honest. I think I bought most of the food for myself as well, but my partner and flatmate are pretty good in the kitchen, so I just left them to do anything that involved the oven and the microwave and busied myself with sorting out the glasses and other non edible things. Everything else connected to the organization was just me asking people to come over on Facebook and Instagram. Well, it doesn't sound or seem like I did much, everyone still managed to have a good time. And so I consider it a success overall. There wasn't even that to clean up, and I don't think even a single glass was smashed, when it's unusual... Well, it's unusual when it comes to my parties anyway. If I hadn't had this event, I don't think I'd have been terribly upset, like I say, I'm not a big party animal, but it was nice to have people around. So I think I'd definitely do it again if I had the chance.

M: And what about your friends? Did they enjoy the event?

R: Well, they certainly seemed to.

Discussion

M: Yay. Thank you, Rory, for your story! So, dear listener, you organized a happy event. So it could be a birthday party, a wedding, a flat warming party, like you moved to a new flat and you organized a party.

R: Maria has been to many of my parties.

M: Yay. Rory usually has like at least five birthday parties. So, dear listener, if you never organized anything, you should lie. Imagine that you organized a birthday party for your friend, for Rory. You can start off with, to be honest, I don't often put on big events like throwing parties. So we throw a party, we organize a party. And you can say that I don't usually throw big events. I don't often put on big events. I hosted a flat warming. It means that you organized a flat warming party for your friends. It was a small affair. Affair here means a party, an event. With close friends and nibbles.

R: Nibbles are small things to eat.

M: Yeah, like snacks. Small nibbles. Nibbles? Something to eat, like, when you take, like small bites, like party nibbles. Like peanuts or some crisps. Everyone had a fun time. A fun time. I was able to invite people round for the evening. So when you organize a party, you invite people round to your place, to your house. So I invited all my friends around to my place, or I invited all my friends around for the evening. And even cooked some things for them. Ooh, Rory, did you microwave eggs for your friends?

R: Well, I should have said I got other people to cook them, but, you know, I bought things, so I contributed to the cooking.

M: Yeah. I don't think I did that much to prepare, really. So I didn't prepare much for the party. I threw some snacks in the oven, so to throw something. So I threw some snacks in the oven. So like to cook them and on some trays. So when you have a party, you usually serve some food. So Rory put some snacks, some nibbles on some trays. I tied it up a bit, so I cleaned my flat a little bit. And I organized all my furniture to accommodate the small crowd. When you accommodate people, you kind of, you invite them to your house and you like... What do you do? You make them comfortable.

R: Party on down.

R: Here, dear listener, it's a good idea to use Past Perfect. For example, I organized my furniture to accommodate all my friends I had invited. So first I invited them, and then I organized my furniture. Past Perfect. Yay. I didn't feel this great need to put on the ritz. Ooh, Rory, put on the ritz. It's an idiom.

R: It is. I only heard it recently myself.

M: So what does it mean?

R: It means to make everything fancy and spend a lot of money on doing that, because the ritz is like an expensive hotel. But I heard it on a TV show, and I was like, oh, what does that mean? I've never heard this before.

M: And actually it's a song, put on the ritz, and it means to make something like really fancy, like really expensive and show off things. So Rory didn't do much. So he just like, didn't decorate his house like it was a Ritz hotel. He didn't buy Michelin food. I bought most of the food myself. I busied myself with sorting out the glasses, so I was busy like arranging the glasses and other non edible things. So if something is non edible, you can't eat it. My friends were responsible for food in the kitchen, and I arranged non edible things, like furniture, glasses, plates. I asked people to come over on Facebook and Instagram. So you can say I invited people round to my house, or I asked them to come over to my place. I consider it a success overall. So it was a successful party, hey!

R: I think of it as a success.

M: Yeah. I don't think even a single glass was smashed. Usually during parties, people smash glasses. They break things. Yeah... Rory, how did you organize your answer?

R: Well, I just told the story to be honest with you. If you talk about any time you had a party, any party, to be honest. It's very unusual that parties are not successful. And probably in the process of describing it, you will hit all of these requirements. But I did give a little preamble again, because I really don't like parties, and I think that that's okay, because then we can move into talking about a few months back, so not a specific time, just a few months ago, a few months back. I did host a flat warming, did for emphasis. Good chance to use your good pronunciation. And then I described how I prepared for it. Well, the apartment had to be prepared. It had to be renovated, in fact. Not for the party, but just in general. And then I launched into the preparation in terms of the food. So I got people to help me, but it wasn't very complicated. And then I talked about what everyone did to have a good time. But it really wasn't that much work, to be honest. It was just telling a story about one time I had a party and why it was a success. A good marker of a successful party is that everyone had a good time, no one complains, and no glasses get smashed. I hate it when people smash glasses in my house.

M: And now Rory's quiz time. Vocabulary show.

R: Yes. It's that part of the episode when I ask Maria about different kinds of grammar and vocabulary I used, and Maria has to guess what I'm talking about. You can join in. So Maria, our first one is an expression that's used to describe not a very big party, but I didn't say that. What did I say?

M: It was just a small affair. A small affair.

R: Then I said I'd lived in my house for a long time. But I didn't say a long time. I used another word that means this.

M: For ages. I've lived in my house for ages.

R: Then I drew special attention to the fact that my central heating was not on. But how did I do this, Maria?

M: I didn't even have to put the heating on.

R: Yes, so if you didn't even have to do something, you're putting special emphasis on the fact that you didn't need to do it. And then I said that I focused on preparing the glasses and the other things that people didn't have to eat. But I didn't say I focused on it. I used something else.

M: I busied myself with something.

R: And last but not least, I used a special expression to say that I thought it was successful, but I didn't say I thought it was successful. What did I say?

M: I consider it a success overall.

R: Oh, Maria, well done. All five correct. And do you know what that means?

M: A bonus question.

R: Oh, yes. I used a special idiom to describe doing extra special, fancy things and spending a lot of money.

M: Put on the ritz.

R: Oh, yes, excellent. And it was part of a bigger expression, put on the ritz or something. So just adding this or something softens the expression a little bit. Nicely done, Maria. And hopefully nicely done for people at home.

M: We'll get back to you in our next episode. Bye!

R: Bye!

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