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Original poster

Inappropriate present, hideous bookends and me in drag!!!!

514 replies

confusedgoldilocks · 26/12/2025 14:53

I love christmas, and I love christmas presents, I got my best friend a lovely calendar showing photos that were precious to me throughout the year of all the good times we have shared, in return, and this is so strange, I got two bookends, which have obviously been handmade, but look like my face, but in a grotesque punch and judy way, I'm not sure whether they are supposed to look so scary, but they are hideous, I actually had nightmares about them last night, and on top of that, a smaller 3D figurine which is basically me looking like a drag queen in hideous blonde hair and a massive red bow, they obviously took a long time and I get that, but I wonder what they are trying to tell me, they have sent me a message asking what I think of them and I really don't know what to say, to be honest, Im quite upset they see me that way. Im just a normal person who loves christmas, I was hoping for tickets to see a christmas carol or something like that.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
8
XWKD · 26/12/2025 20:57

Look up bad Diana statues.

Bigboldfont · 26/12/2025 20:56

OP, are you in fact a transwoman?

XWKD · 26/12/2025 20:53

Maybe they're just crap at art. Just look at the ridiculous mess that is often made in wax museums.

You need to give them £300 regardless.

UxmalFan · 26/12/2025 20:48

OP, you need to insist on paying your friends back for the meal. If they think you don't have the money of course they are going to refuse, but that's not the point. Find it somehow and take it round in cash if they won't give you bank details.
Who knows what their intention was with the book ends? The might have asked for a video because they knew you would be astonished, rather than upset. FWIW I don't think the figure looks like a man in drag, just a poor likeness of a woman with lovely hair, an oval face and full lips.

applebee33 · 26/12/2025 20:47

I hope this is a wind up. Op you sound unhinged and your one cheeky mare to expect anything after landing them with a bill like that. I’d defo presume they did that to get back at your complete cf-ery 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

AngryLikeHades · 26/12/2025 20:46

The amount of effort to create these obscure bookends is... obscure and somewhat funny.

AngryLikeHades · 26/12/2025 20:44

honeyytoast · 26/12/2025 16:11

That is a very strange gift to give I’ll give you that

😝no shit!!!
The book end looks better than I thought it would, but it's still not a looker.
'passive aggressive bookends' what a niche gift... by your description I thought they'd look more like Fagin than they do!!!

GarlicRound · 26/12/2025 20:42

mondaytosunday · 26/12/2025 16:32

Yea I go to the trouble of making bookends and a figurine in my own quirky style just to let you know I think you are… what? Cheap? Mean? Ugly?
Or could It be that your friend loves you but has different taste and thinks these things look great (have to say I think the image looked charming not at all scary)! I think you are reading WAY too much into this. And frankly if someone said they’d take me out to dinner, didn’t in the end so I had to pay, I’m not sure I’d be giving them a present at all!

Well, yeah. If forced to summarise this situation:

  • OP let friends pay £300 for meal SHE had offered & hosted
  • OP failed to repay the £300 meal she hosted at friend's expense.
  • OP expected a £300 Christmas present from the same friend
  • OP gave the friend a £30 gift.
  • Friend gave OP personalised artwork for Christmas
  • OP's outraged that the artwork isn't flattering to her.
I really hope OP's friend sees this thread and reconsiders the number of self-centred twats she needs in her life.
Nifty50something · 26/12/2025 20:39

So what have you decided to do, OP?

Fangisnotacoward · 26/12/2025 20:35

Reminds me of Cissie from the old Les Dawson "Cissie and Ada" sketches.

Inappropriate present, hideous bookends and me in drag!!!!
Thedownwardspiralpath · 26/12/2025 20:32

Tigerbalmshark · 26/12/2025 19:18

I wouldn’t either (we are the type of family who fights over who gets to pay). But maybe OP was supposedly paying them back for some previous debt/cheeky fuckery? It sounds like it’s turtles all the way down with this one.

I’d accept dinner if, say, somebody had been staying with me for a while for free, or I’d helped them redecorate their house, or I’d rescued their child from a burning building.

Show quote history

It was supposed to be an early Christmas present, which she never had the money for but enjoyed being the generous host at the time, then still expected the “gift” to be reciprocated with expensive theatre tickets.

I’m not sure the quirky presents are connected and I don’t believe the story about the video.

The whole thing is weird to be honest.

Katflapkit · 26/12/2025 20:30

UncannyFanny · 26/12/2025 16:26

Anyway whatever happened to Baby Jane? 😳

Best comparison ever

GRCP · 26/12/2025 20:29

OP pleeeeeaaaaassseeeee post a pic of the bookends I beg!!

daisychain01 · 26/12/2025 20:28

confusedgoldilocks · 26/12/2025 16:17

I DO NOT LOOK LIKE THIS!!!! it looks like a man in drag

If you don't look like the bookend, what are you worried about. You said they made it look like you, but now you're saying it doesn't look anything like you.

so they're not having a go at you by giving you the bookends as a gift surely...

Blarn · 26/12/2025 20:28

IreneFromSkibbereen · 26/12/2025 20:22

More like the Bette Davis character I think

Show quote history

Yes! I mix them up, no idea why.

Sassylovesbooks · 26/12/2025 20:24

You need to pay the £300 restaurant bill, without a shadow of a doubt. You encouraged your friends to eat/drink what they liked, because you were paying the bill, but then couldn't after several cards were declined. Your friend then had to foot the bill. I appreciate you offered at the time to pay her back and she refused, but common sense should have told you to pay your friend back, regardless of her protests. You were expecting theatre tickets from your friend as a Christmas present, yet she'd unexpectedly forked out £300 on a restaurant bill, you were meant to have originally paid for. Why on earth did you think she'd be buying you theatre tickets???!! Common sense should have told you, that it was highly unlikely, given the £300 she'd already paid!! I think making the bookends and figurine to purely humiliate you for not paying her back, is an awful lot of trouble to go too. If she wanted you to pay her back, then why didn't she simply ask?! It would have been much easier. I think the figurine is awful and I wouldn't want it either, so I dread to think what the bookends are like. The video being taken and your friend showing it to relatives, so they can have a good laugh, at your horrified face as you opened the present, was rather cruel and insensitive. Personally, I'd pay the £300 back, and step back from the friendship. You need to speak to your brother too, because he sent the video after you asked him not to.

ilovepixie · 26/12/2025 20:23

confusedgoldilocks · 26/12/2025 15:17

They do have a partner, and I have met them, we all went out for dinner just before christmas, and it seemed fine, although I think I may have embarrassed them, I offered to pay and we all ordered quite a lot with quite a lot of drink which I encouraged as I was paying, but then my card got declined, well, I say my card, I ended up trying a few, as you do, and in the end my dear friend paid and refused to let me pay, so I thought it was all sorted but maybe they are trying to tell me something, its quite confusing because the book ends really are quite scary versions of me, maybe I should send them the money for the bill, as they refuse to take it in person.

Why did you offer to pay if you didn’t have any money?

GarlicRound · 26/12/2025 20:22

JustCabbaggeLooking · 26/12/2025 15:45

This thread!!! Hahahahahaha

Agree!

IreneFromSkibbereen · 26/12/2025 20:22

Blarn · 26/12/2025 20:18

The bust is surely Joan Crawford in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane. I don't know why that would be gifted to you but that's who it is.

More like the Bette Davis character I think

PuppyKeep · 26/12/2025 20:20

We need to see the bookends, or they don’t exist. I bet they’re not even that bad.

Blarn · 26/12/2025 20:18

The bust is surely Joan Crawford in What Ever Happened to Baby Jane. I don't know why that would be gifted to you but that's who it is.

SouthernNights59 · 26/12/2025 20:15

Why didn't you split the cost of the meal between cards? Honestly, this all sounds ridiculous. What would have happened if your friends couldn't have covered the cost of the meal? You NEVER offer to pay for something without making sure you have more than enough to cover the cost. And you then expected expensive show tickets when all you had given as a gift was a calendar?

I would have laughed at the gifts, I really don't believe your friend was trying to insult you.

limetrees32 · 26/12/2025 20:05

We don't know the time scale between meal and gift but I agree that this seems a lot of effort, and expense to go to to play a cruel joke.
On the other hand filming and laughing at you is unforgivable.
How could your brother be so unkind?

GottaBeStrong · 26/12/2025 20:02

confusedgoldilocks · 26/12/2025 16:11

this is it

Goes with your username!

ResusciAnnie · 26/12/2025 19:58

This whole thing is so bizarre. What weird presents. What a weird way to behave. Weird that you were filmed and it’s been shown to people at their gathering, presumably who don’t know you? If you don’t look like that I’d just assume they’re not of you and send them to the charity shop/bin.