Saturday was when I decided that having 12 people for dinner to cook Mexican was a good idea. Except that they had to include dishes that were; gluten free, onion free, garlic free, fish free, dairy free, and vegetarian. This is my list of what contained was suitable for who and doesn't include the 3 dips or additional soup that were also made.

At about 2pm I took a break from cooking to have some lunch and watch half an hour of rubbish tv. This is where everything went a bit wrong. There was a massive rattling and scratching sound from the fireplace. I'm terrified of most crawly, scratchy things, so ran away to hide on my bed. J came round and took apart the fire and couldn't see or hear anything. I'm sure at this point he thought I'd gone mad. So I made him sit in the living room while I got on with cooking. Within half an hour he agreed that there was something, probably a bird in the chimney.

After phone calls to the SSPCA, the gas board and 4 plumbers/gas engineers, we found one that could come to remove the fire. The man arrived at 5, and turned off all the gas (a minor flaw when attempting to cook on a gas hob) and disconnected the fire.The SSPCA officer arrived shortly and I hid in my room. When the fireplace was moved a sooty magpie flew out, round the room a few times and then was caught and checked by the SSPCA officer. He then let it fly out the window. The gas man then put the now none functional fire back in place and turned back on the gas.

A hour after the gas engineer left 10 people arrived and with some help, dinner was served. Everyone seemed to like it and hopefully the next time I cook for this group it won't be so stressful.