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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

....or was this an unusually frugal picnic?

205 replies

GeraldineAubergine · 06/08/2011 11:50

last week my dp invited his friend over with his new girlfriend (she's 20 he's 49,unnecessary but I felt I had to add it) and his daughter who was visiting for a week. I bought beer, coke, snacks and we ordered takeaway pizzas as it was a treat for his dd's holiday. All was lovely. Anyhow to say thanks he invited us (dp, ds and myself for a picnic yesterday. I didn't eat thinking il fill up on delicious picnic food.
The picnic consisted of ( for 4 adults and 2 kids): 2 cheese sandwiches cut into 4, 1 small prepack salad, a pear and an apple plus 3 low fat yoghurts. There was a carton of oj too. And six packets of hula hoops which I'm glad I brought :). It was a bit awkward. Am I being unrealistic was this a reasonable picnic? Or do I have greedy tendencies?

OP posts:
DitaVonCheese · 06/08/2011 21:16

Thanks OP Grin

A friend of mine once served us a starter I can't remember (Blush), followed by a LOT of homemade mojitos (took a while to perfect them Wink), then decided to skip the main (Jamie's pan-baked cod with green beans and black olives) despite the fact she'd already prepped it and it was just there on the side, and move on to the cheese course instead. Unbeknownst to us though, she slipped the cheese course into the oven (which had been preheated for the cod then turned off again) briefly "just to take the fridge chill off" and served us a massive plate of melted cheese which we ate with spoons whilst spectacularly drunk. Best. Meal. Ever.

Serve them that Grin

Original poster
GeraldineAubergine · 06/08/2011 21:27

I could just give them straws and tell them I was trying something new.

OP posts:
Original poster
GeraldineAubergine · 06/08/2011 21:27

Your friend sounds a bit like a few of mine dita :)

OP posts:
duchesse · 06/08/2011 21:31

I just laughed like a drain at your drunken/stoned feast Dita. Sounds like an episode of The Young Ones.

Original poster
GeraldineAubergine · 06/08/2011 21:34

I have given people ham cooked in plastic too. Shiny skin it had.

OP posts:
quirkychick · 06/08/2011 21:37

Lol at Dita Grin

Some people are just crap at catering. We have friends who we know just don't provide much food so we stuff ourselves eat beforehand. One party, which we were assured there would be plenty of food, with about 15 adults plus lots of kids was just some grapes, olives, a small baguette and a few bits of cheese. Dp could have polished the lot of himself.

quirkychick · 06/08/2011 21:37

off himself, even.

Original poster
GeraldineAubergine · 06/08/2011 22:32

Amongst my friends quirky, your dh is a glutton.

OP posts:
LineRunner · 06/08/2011 22:38

Being offered a very small sherry indeed always makes me feel uncomfortable.

Original poster
GeraldineAubergine · 06/08/2011 22:40

What about if the sherry had a maraschino cherry in and a liitle sparkler?

OP posts:
PumpkinBones · 06/08/2011 22:46

I have a lovely friend who hugely enjoys picnics. I do too, and we both have a tendancy to over cater. Thus, the last time we went for a picnic - a casual picnic in the park - me, her, two 4 year olds, a 1 year old and a baby had :

2 punnets of strawberries
A multi pack of dip
Box of breadsticks
8 rolls with various fillings
Pack of frubes
Pack of cheese sticks
pack Mini sausages
sausage rolls
mini scotch eggs
2 packs of tortilla chips
1 pack prawn crackers
1 pack salt n vinegar sticks (all family sized)
Pringles
Carrot sticks
Pack mini muffins
Pack mini doughnuts
Pack cupcakes
Flapjack

The children ate for about 5 mins before going to play, leaving us to finish off the food, lest it go to waste...!

Original poster
GeraldineAubergine · 06/08/2011 22:48

Were you the people on the trestle table to the east of us with the roman banquet pumpkin? Grin

OP posts:
LineRunner · 06/08/2011 22:52

Geraldine, it's so hard to know what's the correct form with an unfeasibly small sherry. After coating the maraschino cherry there would be precious little fluid left for a sip. Would the cherry be on a cocktail stick? I suppose one could lick it enthusiastically for a while; although I do find myself becoming desultory in the presence of inadequate drinks rather quickly.

LineRunner · 06/08/2011 22:53

My word, Pumpkin, a Satyricon indeed. But no peacocks?

Original poster
GeraldineAubergine · 06/08/2011 22:58

I think you will find my sherry far from inadequate line runner. The cherry will be speared on a handcrafted stick of line dried Edam. The rim of the glass will be coated in ovaltine and it will be served 3 degrees above room temperature. I can assure you, conversation never flags at chez aubergine.

OP posts:
PumpkinBones · 06/08/2011 23:09

Geraldine, now you mention it I do recall a rather drawn looking family staring intently at us and our repast. At one point I thought I spied a tear escaping from the woman was trying to wipe yoghurt from her miniscule salad with a used tissue...Grin

PumpkinBones · 06/08/2011 23:10

No peacock, I find it repeats on me in combination with Scotch eggs Smile

Original poster
GeraldineAubergine · 06/08/2011 23:12

Yeah peacock is really a bastard for heartburn.

OP posts:
deste · 07/08/2011 00:14

PML at the fish finger starter.

LineRunner · 07/08/2011 00:22

I suppose for the Atmosphere of Iceland Picnic, based on food cooked on the BBQ from frozen, presumably from the shop called iceland, there would be cod fish fingers, cod fishcakes, and an assortment of icepops for pudding.

I rather fancy that one.

Thumbwitch · 07/08/2011 00:54

friend's GF is Russian?? No way!! They are renowned over-caterers and feeders! And also massive eaters. Biggest mistake to make with Russians is to take them to an "all you can eat for £10" place (or whatever the price is these days) - they'll eat the place dry. Dad has many Russian friends - it's part of their culture to feed and eat loads - although possibly not any more, by the sound of it!

iscream · 07/08/2011 05:00

*2 cheese sandwiches cut into 4-to be shared between 2 adults and
one child
*1 small prepack salad-" "
*a pear and an apple-one fruit for each of 2 people
plus 3 low fat yoghurts-1 for each of them
*There was a carton of oj too-to share between them

Maybe she said she would arrange the food, and arranged the meal for the 3 of them. It sounds like a light lunch for three. He probably had no idea.
If I hosted a picnic, it would have a lot of food. Now I kind of want to arrange a picnic! I think I shall!

GwenCooper · 07/08/2011 07:41

My mum popped over one day while her friend and her husband were having lunch. It was a small bowl of sweetcorn. Nothing else. WTF !

My MIL also eats like a flea. At Christmas I am a target for jokes, but now they make more just for me. Mil had 3 mouthfuls of food last year. I am not kidding. My family on the other hand know how to eat !

lisianthus · 07/08/2011 09:51

That is dreadful! It's not even enough for three people as there were only two sandwiches (albeit each sandwich was cut into quarters). And this was what they did to THANK YOU for your hospitality? More like a punishment. I'd have been tempted to say brightly "oh, i interpreted your text to say you were providing the picnic- i'll just dash off and grab a few things then so we can all have something" then i would have run to M&S.

I cannot believe they weren't embarrassed. They jolly well should have been. How incredibly mean and inhospitable.

And even if it had been delegated to the 20 year old, she's 20, not 4. By 20 you can't possibly be ignorant of what people eat and basic multiplication.

Marney · 07/08/2011 10:25

iTseems like a normal enough picnic to me depends on what your used to i think

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