Another of the Steering the Craft exercises:

The untold event: Give us a glimpse of the mood and nature of some event or deed by describing the place—room, rooftop, street, park, landscape, whatever—where it happened or is about to happen.

The room was ready. Crisp, white cloths on the round tables, polished silverware and cut crystal bouncing rainbows off the ceiling.

The bar along the side of the room, facing the windows, was polished and the bottles of red wine lined up like soldiers, ready and waiting. Below the counter top, should someone slip behind the bar to look, the champagne and beer were similarly arrayed behind the glass doors of the fridges.

Walking across the room was slightly hazardous for anyone carrying trays or other large items. Each chair was wrapped like a present and adorned with a pouffy pink and silver bow that seemed formed to catch on any unwary corner or button going past.

The pink and silver was echoed in the floral arrangements at the centre of each table, pink roses in glittery silver vases, tied with smaller versions of the chair ribbons and ringed around with tealights floating in little glass baubles.

The dance floor was in the centre of the room. A tiny square of parquetry, distantly overlooked by a DJ podium sitting alongside the bar.

While there was no ‘high table’ in this venue, one of the tables had been set with a pink cloth and the chairs covered in a scratchy, sparkly silver fabric before being tied with the inevitable pink-and-silver bow.

On that table, one chair, in addition to the silver, boasted a fringe of pink feathers, each a foot long, fanning across the top of the seat back. And it was separated from its table partners by two white pillars, each five feet tall, with glittery, silver ivy winding up to a ball of pink roses at the top.

There was a long, cloth-covered table, ready for gifts, by the door and long, white curtains drawn across the windows. The view did not match the colour scheme.