That's entertainment.

"Thank you for accepting our invitation."

Thank me? Surely 'tis I who should be doing the thanking, as the invitee - or is it?

Sometimes you just gotta say no. Much as it pains me, at times I have to decline social engagements. And who suffers? Me? How very limited a viewpoint that is. At university I learned that 7yrs old is when children start understanding alternative perspectives (i.e. you are sitting over there so it's logical you can see round the corner even though I can't - yes, it takes until 7 to grasp this), so even though my height hasn't progressed much since then, the anti-wrinkle cream in my bathroom belies the fact that I'm big enough to comprehend the other's point of view.

So, having established that we understand the other person may desire our attendance at event x just as much (if not more) than we do, what if we don't in fact want to go? The obvious rules apply: family occasions, close friends who'll be severely let down if we don't go (though even in the case of the latter, I'll confess to not always having adhered to convention: I skipped driving at least an hour and back a birthday celebration because I actually feared I might fall asleep at the wheel - I figured that time selfishness was the correct course of action). But what of that middle range of friends - you know, the ones whom you see in social circles but never can quite remember the name of their dog?

I've got to a stage where I take the question literally. "Can you come?" Quite possibly. "Would you like to come?" Well, now that's a different story...