Inconvenient Annoyances

Still the snow.  I can't get my car out of my carport and I'm supposed to be somewhere today!!

However, each guest is asked to bring a dish (not money )which we agree in advance

This is what we've done, too, for the past 8 (omg!) expat Thanksgivings I've had. Everyone is either happy to bring a family dish, or bring some wine, or a pud from M&S if they're really not great in the kitchen. I'm sure they end up spending more than £4 in the end, but it just feels nicer and more like they're a part of the meal than just a customer.

My IA is that I started coughing during a conference call at 3pm yesterday. And now I am definitely getting sick - itchy sinuses, scratchy throat, chesty cough, the works. My infant immune system means I just don't get any advance warnings.

Also, we're struggling to keep the living/dining room above 8C/46F in this weather, even with the £400 plexiglass installed.

Still the snow.  I can't get my car out of my carport and I'm supposed to be somewhere today!!

You need a one-horse open sleigh! 

Also, we're struggling to keep the living/dining room above 8C/46F in this weather, even with the £400 plexiglass installed.

Oh I couldn't deal with that!  Sorry you're feeling under the weather. 

You need a one-horse open sleigh! 

Or, a sled dog team! 

Or, a sled dog team! 

Or skis!  Or a snowmobile = fun!    (DH really wants a sled dog team, I think!)

It sounds like that was what RAR was getting at, except that it doesn't sound like the guests were sincerely signed on to, or in confirmed agreement with, the plan.  Also, there was a new trend that - was it Jamie Oliver who was showing this on his show about America a year or two back?  Where you do like an unofficial 'restaurant' in your home - charging everyone a fixed price to come to your house for a meal - except that was something that the 'home restaurateurs' advertised on Facebook to strangers until they got the maximum number of paying guests that they wanted & the price was set and agreed in advance.

I would think that it would probably be confusing (and perhaps a bit offputting?) though to ask people to come over for Thanksgiving dinner, expecting them to pay you.  We do a Thanksgiving meal at our house where we cook all the main underpinnings (turkey, stuffing, mash, pies, etc) - but we aren't students on limited funds.  However, each guest is asked to bring a dish (not money )which we agree in advance - so we don't end up doing the whole shebang ourselves & everyone gets to have input/participation on the food.  That might be a better way forward in the future?  Or if you don't have the money to do the mains, then do a total potluck thing - you cook one dish & everyone else brings something.  Unless you're going out to eat somewhere - a restaurant where everyone pays, (IMO) Thanksgiving is about getting together with friends/family & sharing (food and the day).

I was really into pop up/RIYLR/supperclub this summer and went to a few dotted across London, aside from one slightly weird experience they were really lovely, especially a brunch place in someone's garden, but they're very different from going to someone's house for dinner, it's much more formal and really for very good home chefs to show off, get some feedback and you get a really relaxed dining room where you're more likely to talk to other people and hang out as every one I've been to so far has had shared tables.

The standard of food is  normally very high for a really nominal price.


I second the "bring a bottle or bring a pie" philosophy. I used to do a friends xmas when I was a student before everyone went back home and I'd supply the food but everyone would supply all the booze (which worked out well as everyone had different booze tastes anyway)

After 4 years of Forms...I AM SICK OF FILLING OUT FORMS!!!!! We better get this damn visa or I don't know what I'm going to do...ah I know...MORE FORMS!!! 

I'm a student.  We still don't invite folks over and expect them to pay for dinner.  Even in student-world.  

Yeah, I was trying to see her perspective. I agree.. I wouldn't expect my guests to pay anything. I had a friend (ex friend!) who always wanted to have cookouts at her place. Like every other weekend. She would be always so hurt if we couldn't come (or if we did and didn't stay till way late.) She's married and can well afford it if she wants to. However, we were always expected to bring something. It was so weird. Even to things like birthday parties. As a southerner, I just couldn't get my head around that!

I should add- that once in a while dinners are fine. I'm happy to contribute. But she wanted us over there all the time. It got tiresome. I couldn't afford it anymore, to be honest!

It was always the plan to split the costs. Yes, it is a student house and the custom of the house, since we're on limited funds, is that someone buys the food then we split the costs evenly. We've done it before with all of our shared meals, and that was what I was trying to get at with my post. I didn't do a 'restaurant' and invite people over and demanded that they pay. I asked them to split costs of the food itself and nothing else, just like we had always done. And I did ask if people could bring things, but I ended up having to get most of everything except for one side. If they brought something, someone did actually bring vegetables, it was ok. Again, just like we had done before with other shared meals.

Well that's a shame, RAR.  Sorry they left you in the lurch this time.  Maybe it's time for one of them to host the next one? 

Another IA for me today:  Cramps that just won't quit! 

the isolator switch for our water heater decided to burn out. I only discovered this because I happened to walk past it and hear a fizzing noise and touched it (no idea why) and found it was really hot. Hubby took a look and it had burned the wire, the inside of the switch and had started to blacken the wall. Thank goodness this was at 5pm and not the middle of the night as we'd likely have been killed - switch is between our bedroom and the stairs and our bedroom and the emergency exit. Landlord is coming this afternoon to fix it...


Which is another ia: I know both the landlord and the electrician he has fixing it from work and our house is a tip with having a newborn. Ok it's not that bad I just really didn't want to have to tidy today!

Grrr...

This is what I get for spending a week of my free time just planning a thanksgiving menu. I invited six people and six people told me that they were coming. Three turned up. Two just didn't turn up even after I called them. Two were late and one made plans.

That's rotten -- and extremely rude. If they didn't want to contribute towards the meal they should have said they weren't coming up front. Guess you know who your friends are now 

My cough has gotten a wee bit better, but it's still not gone!  Go away cough!  You're cramping my style.   

OMG - picked the worst time to walk downtown & go to Morrisons - it was he££ in there with all the schoolchildren having just got out.

But the very worst - what made me see red...there were these young teenage male tw*ts walking up and down the pavements pushing a shovel & collecting slush in it.  I had seen them by the post office & didn't think anything about it at first.  When I came out of Morrisons, they had just tipped a shovel-load of dirty slush over the head of the poor Big Issue seller woman standing out there.  From there they continued on up the street, chucking shovels of slush at the taxis, cars & buses.

Gosh I wanted to string those boys up by their little nuts!  Or grab the shovel off them & stick it where the sun don't shine.  People (including me) were afraid to stand up to them because they were like a little gang of sh*theads - there were about 7 or 8 of them.  I was hoping for a big burly guy or a copper to come along, but none did.  

OMG - picked the worst time to walk downtown & go to Morrisons - it was he££ in there with all the schoolchildren having just got out.

But the very worst - what made me see red...there were these young teenage male tw*ts walking up and down the pavements pushing a shovel & collecting slush in it.  I had seen them by the post office & didn't think anything about it at first.  When I came out of Morrisons, they had just tipped a shovel-load of dirty slush over the head of the poor Big Issue seller woman standing out there.  From there they continued on up the street, chucking shovels of slush at the taxis, cars & buses.

Gosh I wanted to string those boys up by their little nuts!  Or grab the shovel off them & stick it where the sun don't shine.  People (including me) were afraid to stand up to them because they were like a little gang of sh*theads - there were about 7 or 8 of them.  I was hoping for a big burly guy or a copper to come along, but none did.  

OMG!  That's awful.