The Corporate Wife

July 2005 - As I was soon to become a kept woman, I figured I should learn how to become a corporate wife. The first step was to host a dinner party, one slight tiny snag here though; I just don’t do cooking. Ironically my mum is a cook; me on the other hand could never be considered one. I have no problems cleaning up afterwards, I’m a very accomplished ‘scrubber’, and as his nibs is a very good cook this works well. However, as Alain would soon be the sole bread-winner, I thought I ought to start baking it. I had made his nibs a few meals, I have a vague recollection of a slightly burnt hot-pot, but my speciality; beans on toast, would definitely not make the grade for a corporate wife. I had to start sooner or later and where better to start than on his nibs’ big boss, Stuart?

Stuart was in Dubai for a few days and Alain had for some crazy reason decided to invite him to our house for dinner so he could meet the new missus. Fortunately Stuart is a typical down to earth South African, so I made sure the fridge was well stocked with beer. My thinking was I ply the poor man with Corona and he won’t notice how bad my chicken fajitas were. I cheated a bit by going to Maria Bonita’s (the best Mexican restaurant in town) for the tortillas, but the chicken fajitas I swear I made myself. My plan worked and Stuart thought my dinner was lovely, his nibs was very happy with the evening and loved my cooking. Though he’d have said that even he didn’t, you see he knew that anything other than praise would mean I’d never cook for him again!