Omar's Diary for Halloween Night - 31st October 2016

Tonight is Halloween Night, the night of ‘Trick or Treat’ whatever that entails.  It cannot be a very nice thing as the Servants have drawn the curtains at the front of Omar Towers, switched off the lights in the rooms at the front and retreated to the bedroom on the upper floor at the back of the house.  From my position in the entrance hall I can hear the voices of little Servants outside knocking on doors and calling out ‘Trick or Treat’.  I find this sort of street ritual just a bit uncomfortable.  So,  it must be very intimidating for elderly Servants living by themselves to have this sort of thing going on outside their houses.  I understand that this tradition is a dreadful import from across the Atlantic.

Over the weekend the Servants were kept very busy, especially yesterday morning, making the final preparations for a surprise birthday for the Equine Servant.  They seemed to spend an eternity making up place name cards with guests menu choices and then designing a seating plan.  Leading up to yesterday I quite often heard Man Servant exhale with the words ‘Why don’t people just say if they are coming or not?’  Or, ‘Why can’t people answer a simple message?’ His language was a bit worse sometimes but it is not correct that I quote him verbatim.  Mind you, yesterday morning his words were quite choice as he carried out a final check on numbers of guests and their menu choices and found out he had missed one guest off his list and the list he had sent to the hotel.  Oh dear, he did get slightly stressed.

The seating plan caused some problems as well.  I understand this person had fallen out with that person so it would not be good to seat them to close to one another.  That groups is a family group so they should all sit together.  They would get on with those so let’s put them together.  It all sounded so frightfully tedious.

About lunchtime yesterday Equine Servant left his canine with my Servants.  This canine visitor was most upsetting for the Chav and myself.  The canine, although of excellent breeding if that is possible with that species, was just so uncouth.  Leaping on the furniture, running around the grounds of the estate in a most boisterous manner and on our territory as well. If my Servants and the Equine Servant were contemplating some sort of cross species mutual acquaintance I am afraid their intentions were most mistaken.  This was especially so when said canine chased me along the hall and up to my perch of safety on the telephone table.

I can appreciate that canine lovers would appreciate ‘Annie’ as they would see her scruffy unkempt appearance as endearing.  I must say her manners had the same quality as her coat. After the incident with the telephone table I will be quite reserved about the path of mutual acquaintance and understanding.

By mid-afternoon and after their valiant efforts to keep canine and feline apart my Servants departed packed for a night away at The Passford House Hotel somewhere in The New Forest.  At last Chav and I could kick back, relax and shoot the breeze safe in the knowledge that Annie, that most dreadful canine had gone away.

This morning the Servants returned to Omar Towers.  I believe the adjective to describe their appearance would be ‘jaded’ to say the least.  From their conversation I understand the party was a success.  The party was for the Equine Servant’s 40^th birthday and was a total surprise to him.  There was much good food, much drinking and much noise of joviality amongst the twenty guests.  One phrase I heard once twice was that they both felt that the private dining room where the party took place ‘rocked’ whatever that means. The proceedings ended about midnight which in polite circles is about the right time to end such a function.

Man Servant had to go on to work this morning otherwiseI am quite sure he would have had some lightly poached eggs on toast washed down with a Bloody Mary.  Lady Servant stayed at home  on leave keeping very quiet for the entire day. 

If getting a husky voice and feeling jaded is a measure of success then I really am not so sure now that I would really like to have a surprise birthday party.  That is one good reason for keeping my birthday a secret but it would be nice to think and hope someone would organise one for me one day.