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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to have not hurried for table hawks?

113 replies

howmuchwouldyoutake · 02/11/2013 22:43

I am totally willing to be told i was being unreasonable.

DP was working today so nipped into town with DS. DS fell asleep in his buggy so i nipped legged it shit hot into a coffee shop.

I sat at one of the tiny, just big enough for two tables with a scone and a posh coffee and had been there maybe 10 minutes (so still had half left) when a couple approached with a tray and asked if i'd be long. I said 'yes, sorry, a little while' and went back to the trashy mag i was reading thinking that they'd move on.

Nope - she asked how long! I repeated i'd be a little while and he said 'well we'll wait here'. Then they stood right over me for a good 5 minutes watching me stuff my face until a table came free over the other side (which i pointed out - they were too busy hovering next to me)

Cafe was busy. No other tables but they didn't ask anyone else, just hovered. My table was really tiny so i didn't offer to share. Not a big deal in the scheme of it but totally spoilt my treat. Wibu not to have hurried?

OP posts:
Beastofburden · 04/11/2013 08:02

Thank you mouth. I shall stick to my regional pronunciation (scone=bone like you) with pride, as they are our Devonshire scones in the first place, so all these incomers and grockles are saying it wrong.

BlackDaisies · 04/11/2013 10:58

They were very, very rude. Can't believe they were hovering when you were still eating. I think I'd have ordered another coffee, and maybe asked the staff if they could get them to wait somewhere else.

GhostsInSnow · 04/11/2013 13:23

The car park thing happened to us yesterday. We went to Ikea (I know, I know). DH as usual comes out with a bag of cinnamon buns and as he's loading the boot, bun in hand, a car pulls up behind him and says "Are you going?". "Not yet" replied DH, "Just eating my bun first".
Bloke then sat behind us for ten minutes while DH ate the bun.

Yes, it was an end space, but we were about the furthest point from store to car you could possibly get and there were dozens of other empty spaces around us, including more end spaces.
I can only conclude he had some special affinity for that particular space, maybe he lost his virginity there, who knows. Grin

2tiredtoScare · 04/11/2013 13:38

Argh moments of pleasure like that are few and fair between bloody table hovering bastards

Twoandtwomakeschaos · 04/11/2013 14:31

I don't think they were rude to ask, but they were very rude to hover. Perhaps it was "their" table? Still bad-mannered, though.

CeliaLytton · 04/11/2013 14:41

Scone, jam, clotted cream.

Scone to rhyme with gone.

What was the question again?

CoolStoryBro · 04/11/2013 14:46

I do love a good rude people story!

I had a car park run in the other weekend. DS was bored and DH still had a couple more things to get so I took the kids back to the car to watch a DVD while we were waiting. I hadn't even noticed someone was waiting for the space until they knocked on the window and said, "Are you moving or what?!"

I just said no and they stormed off. But there were plenty of spaces they could have driven to in the time it took him to get out his car and bother me. People are weird.

SirChenjin · 04/11/2013 14:53

YANBU for being annoyed at them - very weird behaviour and I would have told them to move along.

Otoh - YABVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVU for reserving a table

Original poster
howmuchwouldyoutake · 04/11/2013 14:58

My scone rhymes with gone - I'm northern me!

SirChen - the table bagsying was done whilst there were a couple of free ones. The cafe filled up as I was eating 'cos it started to rain. I was on my tod with DS in the buggy - the counter bit of the cafe is TINY and it would have been difficult to buy and carry whilst steer my precious scone child! I feel no guilt at all so there ;)

OP posts:
EverythingUnderControl · 04/11/2013 15:07

Blimey how rude and odd of themConfused

nemno · 04/11/2013 15:09

For those that hate table baggsiers please be kind about it. I do not go and buy anything until I have a table reserved. There are reasons for this but why should I have to explain?

Consider this story. Last week 3 siblings (all adult) left the undertakers after discussing the funeral of their last parent. They dumped their stuff, one went to the loo, one received a phone call and went to the door to take the call, the other one went to buy teas. Cue a ghastly woman haranguing the tea purchaser; "you are like the Germans" etc, until the poor recipient wept, she was totally traumatised for very many hours afterwards. The haranguer appeared not to care one jot about the upset.
So were the table baggers so in the wrong that they deserved this?

Scone (rhymes with gone) , cream, jam

EverythingUnderControl · 04/11/2013 15:10

I cant see anything wrong with bagging a table when you have a buggy with you and you're alone. What else can you do? (Other than hone your circus juggling skills Grin)

2tiredtoScare · 04/11/2013 15:11

I's never heard anyone have a problem with people that baggsy tables until mumsnet

TwoTearsInABucket · 04/11/2013 15:41

Why would people do this? Why? WHY??

Yanbu to have reserved the table or taken bloody aaaaages to finish your well deserved scone (to rhyme with gone).

Yabu to have had a cheese scone, they smell of sick.

It's scone, cream, jam with plain or fruit scones. I like glacé cherry scones with butter from the supermarket though, nice and claggy!

dubstarr73 · 04/11/2013 15:51

I cant believe no one who worked there saw this.I would have called someone over and said it to them.Or said it to the hovers.I would havve ordered something else just to piss them off

SirChenjin · 04/11/2013 15:52

The table baggsying is usually done by the baggsiers when there are other tables available. What they fail to take account of are the non baggsiers who have queued patiently for their drinks and food, who turn around to get a seat only to find that the empty tables have coats over the back of the chairs - and the owners way behind them in the queue.

The queue then becomes useless because those at the back effectively skip the ones who haven't baggsied at the front, and those at the front are left standing with trays of food and drink while there are tables with no-one sitting at them.

Original poster
howmuchwouldyoutake · 04/11/2013 15:59

There was no-one in the queue SirChen - the cafe got busy after I was sat down becaus eit started to rain. I'd rather bagsy than wrestle the buggy and a tray (I worked in a cafe as a student and would always offer to carry trays but sadly this doesn't happen now much)

OP posts:
YouTheCat · 04/11/2013 15:59

I'd have ignored them. Things like this just don't bother me.

Cheese scones are the best. Especially the ones I made last week.

FamiliesShareGerms · 04/11/2013 16:11

It's scone to rhyme with bone

I know the cream should go on first, but as I slather it on thickly I have never been able to spread the jam on top of the cream, so I do it jam then cream. Yum, I want a scone now....

SirChenjin · 04/11/2013 16:27

OK HowMuch - in that circumstance you can bags a table. In all others - join the queue and wait your turn for a free table! Grin

I've worked in cafes in my student days - if no-one offers to carry your tray just ask, although to be fair the people who are most guilty of table baggsying are groups ie they all stand looking at the menu and the cake display, leave their order with one person, and do and hog a table - then help carry the trays over. The people in front of them (who have queued properly) then can't get a table because they've hogged a table even though the person they are with is at the back of the queue. So - empty baggsied tables, people waiting to sit down, and a queue that grinds to a standstill.

Oh dear lord, I'm taking this too seriously. I said I wouldn't. I'm a weak person

intitgrand · 04/11/2013 16:32

They were being rude by chivvying you, but you were being rude dawdling when people were waiting.

YouTheCat · 04/11/2013 16:33

But why should she hurry up? I would go at the pace that I would have gone at anyway.

nemno · 04/11/2013 16:34

Hang on SirChenjin you think people who are part of a group but aren't buying should stand until the person with food arrives with it?

Nope, that ain't ever going to happen, no matter how much it screws up the ideal self-service cafe model.

Original poster
howmuchwouldyoutake · 04/11/2013 16:43

Intit - I wasn't dawdling, I'd been there 10 minutes... if I'm paying a fiver for a scone and coffee I want to relax whilst eating / drinking :)

OP posts:
Sallystyle · 04/11/2013 16:50

I only ever eat scones plain.

YANBU

I would have been so rude back.

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