- Joined
- Oct 5, 2006
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First, apology in advance for the length of this thread. I just have to vent.
We were having friends round for dinner last night. They were supposed to have arrived at 7.30pm. It was a sit down dinner with nice chinaware, crystal glasses and home cooked food (pumpkin soup and boeuf bourguignon - all made from scratch, by moi, over the course of 2 days). I heated up the soup, the beef, and put freshly baked bread in the oven at about 7.25pm, just after I'd taken my shower, thinking they'd be nice and hot by the time we get round to eatting (which I expected to be around 8, after some aperitifs and chit chat).
So came 7.30pm, nothing, no-one showed up. So I thought oh ok, maybe they'd just be five, ten minutes late. Came 7.45, I was still thinking, ah..maybe just traffic or something.. then came 8pm, still nothing...I went to check my HP thinking maybe they'd try to call or sms me and I didn't hear them..but nothing, nada, zilche! By 8.10pm, i started to get a bit annoyed, as my bread was now already cooked and the soup and beef already heated up and things started to get cold and we had no idea when they'd be here.
The first couple arrived at 8.15, no apology, nothing. Then the guy started to walk in with his shoes. Now you'll have to understand, in Asia people don't wear shoes indoors. AND we'd just have our place renovated and we have pristine white marble floor. So I asked him to take his shoes off...again, no apology from him (this is someone who never wears shoes inside his own home).
The other couple arrived at 8.30pm, with their child. Now, don't get me wrong, we love children and have had many parties in the past where we'd specifically asked friends to bring their kids. But we'd just moved into our new home about a few months ago and a lot of the furniture (due to the fault of the designers) has not been made kid-proof, like our glass-topped dining table which has extremely sharp corners and our glass-panelled wardrobe doors which are not secured properly and one came crashing down (almost killing me...not exaggerating here). Whilst we're waiting for them to be fixed, we're careful not to have kids around, just in case. They hadn't even asked us and I spent the entire night worrying about this child getting hurt.
We then started to sit down and have drinks and finally sat down to dinner at about 9pm (or thereabout - I didn't check the clock). We had our soup and then when it was time to have the main course, I proceeded to warm up the beef, pototoes and veggies (again!). When I came out of the kitchen with the food, the guests were no longer there at the dining table
! Apparently, they thought it was perfectly acceptable for them not to excuse themselves (to go out to the side patio and have a smoke). They didn't even tell me beforehand to wait for a while (which I wouldn't have minded so much), before I started getting the main course ready. So all this food was sitting on the table getting stone cold (again
) whilst they took their time puffing on their cigarettes. This, despite me going out to the patio and telling them (smilingly or at least trying to smile) that the main course was ready and would they like to come in whilst it was hot. On top of all this, they walked all around the garden and then dragged their muggy dirty feet (it'd been raining during the day) back into the house, leaving dirty footprints all over the marble floor and Persian rugs
.
I was brought up to believe that there are certain rules and etiquette that one has to abide to, especially when one comes to someone else's home. So what was up with all that? Was it just me? Was/ Am I being petty?
Anyway, thanks for *listening*. I feel a bit better being able to "let it out". I'll tell you this, it'd be a cold day in "h..l" before we invited these people back into our home again. Funny thing is, we've had them round to dinner before and I don't remember them behaving like this.
We were having friends round for dinner last night. They were supposed to have arrived at 7.30pm. It was a sit down dinner with nice chinaware, crystal glasses and home cooked food (pumpkin soup and boeuf bourguignon - all made from scratch, by moi, over the course of 2 days). I heated up the soup, the beef, and put freshly baked bread in the oven at about 7.25pm, just after I'd taken my shower, thinking they'd be nice and hot by the time we get round to eatting (which I expected to be around 8, after some aperitifs and chit chat).
So came 7.30pm, nothing, no-one showed up. So I thought oh ok, maybe they'd just be five, ten minutes late. Came 7.45, I was still thinking, ah..maybe just traffic or something.. then came 8pm, still nothing...I went to check my HP thinking maybe they'd try to call or sms me and I didn't hear them..but nothing, nada, zilche! By 8.10pm, i started to get a bit annoyed, as my bread was now already cooked and the soup and beef already heated up and things started to get cold and we had no idea when they'd be here.
The first couple arrived at 8.15, no apology, nothing. Then the guy started to walk in with his shoes. Now you'll have to understand, in Asia people don't wear shoes indoors. AND we'd just have our place renovated and we have pristine white marble floor. So I asked him to take his shoes off...again, no apology from him (this is someone who never wears shoes inside his own home).
The other couple arrived at 8.30pm, with their child. Now, don't get me wrong, we love children and have had many parties in the past where we'd specifically asked friends to bring their kids. But we'd just moved into our new home about a few months ago and a lot of the furniture (due to the fault of the designers) has not been made kid-proof, like our glass-topped dining table which has extremely sharp corners and our glass-panelled wardrobe doors which are not secured properly and one came crashing down (almost killing me...not exaggerating here). Whilst we're waiting for them to be fixed, we're careful not to have kids around, just in case. They hadn't even asked us and I spent the entire night worrying about this child getting hurt.
We then started to sit down and have drinks and finally sat down to dinner at about 9pm (or thereabout - I didn't check the clock). We had our soup and then when it was time to have the main course, I proceeded to warm up the beef, pototoes and veggies (again!). When I came out of the kitchen with the food, the guests were no longer there at the dining table
I was brought up to believe that there are certain rules and etiquette that one has to abide to, especially when one comes to someone else's home. So what was up with all that? Was it just me? Was/ Am I being petty?
Anyway, thanks for *listening*. I feel a bit better being able to "let it out". I'll tell you this, it'd be a cold day in "h..l" before we invited these people back into our home again. Funny thing is, we've had them round to dinner before and I don't remember them behaving like this.