Section 1: You will hear a woman phoning a restaurant to book a room for a party.
Good morning Shaw’s Restaurant.
Hi, I’d like to book one of your function rooms for a party, please.
Okay, fine.
How many people are you expecting for the party?
Well, I’m not quite sure yet, but about 60.
Fine.
So you will need a big room.
And what day were you thinking of?
The party for my daughter’s birthday, it’s her 21st.
Her birthday’s actually on the 17th of November, but that’s a Friday, so we thought
we’d have her party on the 18th as that’s a Saturday.
There’ll be lots of her friends there as well as all the family.
And what time would you like the room for?
Oh, I’m not sure. Uh, 7:45? Not too late.
Okay, and people will probably be leaving about 11.
Fine, we’re open until 11.30.
Excellent!
And what about the menu?
So, do you want a sit-down meal with waiter service?
Yes, not a buffet.
Right. Well, there are several options including different menus at various prices.
So there’s the standard menu. That’s 25 pounds per person.
Okay.
Or the celebration menu, which is three courses, it’s very popular, that’s 35 pounds.
Okay, I think I’d rather go with that.
And there’s also our gold menu, that’s a 5 course menu at 50 pounds.
No, that’s definitely too expensive.
No, okay.
Now, not all the guests eat meat. Will there be something for them?
Of course, we’ll make sure there’s a vegetarian option for each course.
Great.
And do you know if any of the guests have food allergies? Anything like shellfish, for example?
I’ll need to check, but I do know that one of my daughter’s friends is very allergic to strawberries.
Even just being near them can be a problem.
Okay, I’ll make a note to our chef to avoid those completely.
Do you have any other requests for desserts?
Well, I’d like a choice if possible, and could we have cheese as well?
Of course, no problem. We can provide that.
Now, do you have any other requests I could help with?
What about after dinner entertainment?
You can book a band if you’d like live music.
Actually, I think a disco would be best if you can arrange that.
No problem.
And I heard you might be able to put on a fireworks display, is that possible?
We aren’t offering that service anymore, I’m afraid.
It was just too expensive.
Oh, I see.
Now the menu package you’ve chosen includes a few other nice things.
Oh, like what?
We’ll decorate the room for you which creates a nice party atmosphere.
We can use different colors for the balloons. Silver, gold, and silver.
She loves pink, but actually I think she’d prefer flowers to balloons, so let’s go for them instead, in the same color.
No problem.
Now you mentioned that the party’s for your daughter.
We make birthday cakes if you’d like one.
Okay, yes, we’ll definitely want a cake.
We can put a special message on top.
What would you like?
Um, congratulations, and then her name, that’s Susie.
Fine.
Now, one or two of the guests are coming by train, but they stop running quite early, so they’ll need a taxi to take them to the Forest Hotel after the party.
Is that something you can sort out?
Absolutely.
Anything else?
I think that’s all for now.
Okay, well just get in touch if you think of anything else. Now if I can just take some contact details I just need your name and phone number.
I’m Maria Nelson and my number’s 07749132760.
Excellent.
We look forward to seeing you soon.