In the end, his drinks were held at the RAF club in Mayfair (below). She took me with her, and it was very nice to drink a gin and tonic in this setting, overlooking Hyde Park.
After I left, Katie stayed on and a group of them went to dinner. It was there the trouble began. Her new friend began to subtly suggest that her manners were lacking for a place as refined as the RAF club.
Katie retaliated by wrapping her fingers around her white-wine glass. (You should only grasp a white-wine glass by its stem so you don't bring the wine up to room temperature because your hands are on it.) He didn't like that.
She ordered fois gras as a starter but no main course because she wasn't very hungry. "It's not correct to order only one course when everyone else is having a main course," he said. She refused.
Then she began to pick up the wrong knives and forks for eating. Her lack of manners and refinement were beginning to drive him insane.
Their blossoming friendship has now been nipped in the bud. "You know," he said at the end of the evening, "I don't think I can take you to the East India club after all. You just aren't ready for it."
10 comments:
Not that the fellow is worth bothering with, but it's pretty easy: use utensils from the outside in (you may skip over the spoons to get to the knives). Dessert fork/spoon is placed above the plate, butter knife on the bread plate.
Yes, Katie knows that. She was just trying to irritate her host. She's like that.
I think it's more a case of the East India Club not being ready for Katie than the other way round.
Seriously though, the wine thing, doesn't she realise that she's toying with forces beyond our puny human understanding... ;)
I must remember this when I'm invited out by a 'high-class bloke in Angleterre. I tend to order only an appetizer myself (you see, here in the South women are raised to NEVER appear hungry and eat a lot in public! I think the logic behind this (if there ever was any) is that one should appear to have been adequately fed at one's home. So, Katie, next time you're dining with that pretentious dandy, inform him haughtily that your aristocratic Colonial lineage forbids a display of base gluttony!
But he was right about the wine. Crass of him to point it out, though; a gentleman never chides a lady! I suspect he was not properly raised by his mother...
Too funny Katie!
Oh Brenda, I know you only get appetizers because you are a Southern lady, but you know you pick food off of other diner's plates during the rest of the meal. You are famous for that.
That's a terrible lie! At any rate, I'd never steal off your plate because you'd bite my hand off:):)...
I came across this blog by chance.
I would like to apologise on behalf of a fellow member from the East India. Not all of us make such petty remarks and we certain would have made every effort to ensure our guests enjoyed themselves.
By the sound of the story, this guy is probably not worth hanging out with too much if he proves to be socially awkward. Should you and your daughter, Katie, wish to take up an offer to visit the East India, I would be more than happy to be your host.
Thank you, James! We would LOVE to come. Send me a message at elizabethamythomas@gmail.com
Thanks
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