Desert island discs dinner party

This evening we hosted a Desert island discs dinner party. Beforehand, Jon wrote an app to collect anonymously two tracks chosen by each guest. Our instruction was that one piece of music selected should be a favourite, and the other music that has meaning in your life. The full set of eighteen tracks that became our Spotify playlist for the evening comprised: 

1. Ring my bell – Anita Ward (1979)
2. Not strong enough – boygenius (2023)
3. Make it rain – Catfish (2017)
4. A forest – The Cure (1980)
5. Jolene – Dolly Parton (1973)
6. Poorboy (the greenwood) – Electric Light Orchestra (1974)
7. Elves – The Fall (1985)
8. Bless the telephone – Labi Siffre (1971)
9. Special star – Mango Groove (1989)
10. Yes – Manic Street Preachers (1994)
11. Floral dance – New Tribute Kings (originally 1978)
12. Echoes: part 1 (live) – Pink Floyd (1971)
13. I remember that – Prefab Sprout (1988)
14. Avalon – Roxy Music (1982)
15. Adagio for strings, Op. 11 – Samuel Barber (1938)
16. Romeo and Juliet: dance of the knights – Prokofiev (1935)
17. Mrs. Robinson – Simon and Garfunkel (1968)
18. Plea from a cat named Virtute – The Weakerthans (2003)

The guests can be seen in the extra. Left to right we have Mr hazelh, Caitlin, Jack, Elly, Jon, Paddy, Katharine, and Bruce.

Everyone also chose a luxury to take to the desert island. Collectively we 'packed' the Vera Rubin telescope, a Mason and Pearson hairbrush, fishing tackle, a fulled-loaded Kindle, an endless supply of cheese and wine, sun tan lotion and moisturiser, a Swiss army knife, a memory foam pillow, and a video game console.

We all had a lot of fun at the dinner table matching tracks and luxury items to one another. Elly was very good at this and declared supreme champion by the end of the evening. (I'd be interested if anyone can guess my two tracks and luxury item from the lists above.) We also played a couple of rounds of Empire in the sitting room between our main course and pudding. Our last guests left just before 1:00am. 

Earlier in the day, I popped into the Edinburgh Coffee Morning (at which Jon explained the work that went into his app), visited the gym (with a great chat in the hot tub with Ali, Ali and Liz), met my friend Kate's widower Ian for lunch at Modern I, and made a dash to Tesco for a few extra ingredients for our meal.* 

*Menu: chicken liver pâté/Craster kipper pâté/hummus; Lochinver pies, peas and mashed potatoes; cinnamon figs with maple syrup, Greek yoghourt and flaked almonds; cheese and biscuits; dark chocolate fudge birthday cake. Mr hazelh was in charge of most of the prep, including making the birthday cake.

Exercise today: pilates class; indoor run; swim (30 lengths); walking (21,348 steps including run).