On their way home from putting their kids in to high school, two ladies break the two days of flying with an ovvernight stop at the Wayside Tavern.
Neither of them has ever before entered a restaurant.
They have never before had a cocktail.
They have never before heard of a cocktail. They have no concept of what a cocktail is.
They ate a restaurant meal, they drank a cocktail (a "mai tai" each)
The Wayside Tavern dishes up the best tucker north of Adelaide.
It was the first night on duty (and his second night in the country) for the barman in the Wayside Tavern's cocktail bar.
This country is much larger, and the backgrounds and experiences of the natural born citizens more diverse than one may first think.
Showing posts with label social graces. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social graces. Show all posts
Friday, August 30, 2013
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Otto? Isn't he Mr. von Bismarck?
Not having written for a while on eligible females who turn out to classless and nowhere near as intelligent or broadminded as they believe themselves to be, it is time for another in the series.
The star of this episode was yet another who dwelt in an inner city suburb in one of our great metropolitan areas, Sydney. I never did find out which suburb she lived in, nor her occupation. But it would have been something suitably "toney".
Conversation with her was certainly a challenge, as to her celebrities & the Sydney "A-list" social scene was the most highbrow of subjects. (You're already starting to get the picture)
I would never be so narrow minded as to call those topics the most trite, trivial and irrelevant of subjects (not to mention pretentious). In the interests of charm & better interpersonal relations I made an effort. Nothing is as novel or broadening to the mind than to meet & interlocute with someone whose worldview is entirely different from one's own.
However I fell at the first hurdle.
This broadminded & savvy city girl, with the most cosmopolitan of outlooks (yeah, right!) made a comment (without any sense of irony) about "pretentious types" and how they "sit at Otto's" and watch the world pass by.
Years later I was to learn that "Otto's" is/was a Sydney restaurant frequented by the "A-list", however at the time it meant nothing to me, she may as well have spoken in Greek.
Thankfully she kept talking and gave me some context, it seemed Ottos was a fancy noshery prone to trotting out highbrow tucker.
It just so happened that the day before I'd been at a place called "Cafe Otto" in the suburb of Glebe.
Thinking this was the place she meant, I made an observation about not only the attractiveness of the .. er... view onto the street in Glebe, but the tucker produced by this cafe.
As I found out years later, this was not the cafe she meant, nor the view she was speaking of. It wasn't even the same suburb.
Without another word she got up & left. Just like that!
For some time I pondered what faux pas I'd made. It would have been handy had she at least had the courtesy to say "bye" or something.
After considerable reflection the most plausible explanation I could come up with was that she believed I'd deliberately & obtusely pretended to not know of "Ottos". (After all, the whole world knows the restaurants in Sydney where the A-list linger over brunch).
The star of this episode was yet another who dwelt in an inner city suburb in one of our great metropolitan areas, Sydney. I never did find out which suburb she lived in, nor her occupation. But it would have been something suitably "toney".
Conversation with her was certainly a challenge, as to her celebrities & the Sydney "A-list" social scene was the most highbrow of subjects. (You're already starting to get the picture)
I would never be so narrow minded as to call those topics the most trite, trivial and irrelevant of subjects (not to mention pretentious). In the interests of charm & better interpersonal relations I made an effort. Nothing is as novel or broadening to the mind than to meet & interlocute with someone whose worldview is entirely different from one's own.
However I fell at the first hurdle.
This broadminded & savvy city girl, with the most cosmopolitan of outlooks (yeah, right!) made a comment (without any sense of irony) about "pretentious types" and how they "sit at Otto's" and watch the world pass by.
Years later I was to learn that "Otto's" is/was a Sydney restaurant frequented by the "A-list", however at the time it meant nothing to me, she may as well have spoken in Greek.
Thankfully she kept talking and gave me some context, it seemed Ottos was a fancy noshery prone to trotting out highbrow tucker.
It just so happened that the day before I'd been at a place called "Cafe Otto" in the suburb of Glebe.
Thinking this was the place she meant, I made an observation about not only the attractiveness of the .. er... view onto the street in Glebe, but the tucker produced by this cafe.
As I found out years later, this was not the cafe she meant, nor the view she was speaking of. It wasn't even the same suburb.
Without another word she got up & left. Just like that!
For some time I pondered what faux pas I'd made. It would have been handy had she at least had the courtesy to say "bye" or something.
After considerable reflection the most plausible explanation I could come up with was that she believed I'd deliberately & obtusely pretended to not know of "Ottos". (After all, the whole world knows the restaurants in Sydney where the A-list linger over brunch).
Saturday, September 10, 2011
But soap sales wouldn't have declined.
Skepticlawyer, longstanding occassional commenter on this site, one of Mine Host's engaging reads, and noted for her propensity to make blog posts that are 2,000 words long, has posted on manners & broaches upon gentlemen courteously taking "no" for an answer.
The ensuing comments thread mentions an apparently well know case where a lady, one with seemingly no class whatsoever, dates a man & afterward treats him very badly.
I've had the experience of bumping into a few women who turned out to be classless and nowhere near as intelligent as you'd first think. Though they'd see themselves as the opposite, by dint of nothing more than dwelling in inner suburbs, & having been tertiary educated.
Narrow minded & bigoted (they'd see themselves as the opposite) I've had them just plain stop talking to me, for what would be the oddest reasons.
Here's one I lost about 3 seconds of sleep over:
(a) I'm only guessing, but I never heard from this one again after I opined that a "stop the war" rally in Sydney (in 2003 or thereabouts) was a golden opportunity that had been missed: A couple of well sited Vickers guns, several minutes of enfilade firing, and you'd have raised Australia's average IQ. Without having lost one useful citizen.
The rally in question was the one where NSW Premier Bob Carr (an opponent of the war) was attacked by an "anti-war" crowd. My observation had focused subtly upon that point.
I wasn't being contrarian, merely making conversation with one who represented herself as broadminded & able in a highbrow manner to "discuss & dissect" a wide range of current affairs topics. (Yeah, I saw then just how much detached discussion she was capable of.)
She wasn't even polite enough to say goodbye. Actually she didn't say anything, it was only the passage of time that clued me in that she'd cut me dead.
She was a film editor or something like that. Lived in the inner city Sydney suburb of Glebe, or Ultimo.
The ensuing comments thread mentions an apparently well know case where a lady, one with seemingly no class whatsoever, dates a man & afterward treats him very badly.
I've had the experience of bumping into a few women who turned out to be classless and nowhere near as intelligent as you'd first think. Though they'd see themselves as the opposite, by dint of nothing more than dwelling in inner suburbs, & having been tertiary educated.
Narrow minded & bigoted (they'd see themselves as the opposite) I've had them just plain stop talking to me, for what would be the oddest reasons.
Here's one I lost about 3 seconds of sleep over:
(a) I'm only guessing, but I never heard from this one again after I opined that a "stop the war" rally in Sydney (in 2003 or thereabouts) was a golden opportunity that had been missed: A couple of well sited Vickers guns, several minutes of enfilade firing, and you'd have raised Australia's average IQ. Without having lost one useful citizen.
The rally in question was the one where NSW Premier Bob Carr (an opponent of the war) was attacked by an "anti-war" crowd. My observation had focused subtly upon that point.
I wasn't being contrarian, merely making conversation with one who represented herself as broadminded & able in a highbrow manner to "discuss & dissect" a wide range of current affairs topics. (Yeah, I saw then just how much detached discussion she was capable of.)
She wasn't even polite enough to say goodbye. Actually she didn't say anything, it was only the passage of time that clued me in that she'd cut me dead.
She was a film editor or something like that. Lived in the inner city Sydney suburb of Glebe, or Ultimo.
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