What is the most pretentious thing you've seen someone do?

[kinzarose]

Inspired by another thread. When I was at university there was an older lady who thought she was vair posh, was very keen to have her designer labels on display and loved name dropping brands into conversation. We had a group tutorial over lunch once, so we all ate together. This woman took a two foot (yes, literally) wooden salt and pepper mill out of her bag, stood up and started grinding pepper onto the shop bought sandwich she had with her. It was just the most pretentious thing ever, she was a "food snob" apparently 🤣

@nomoneytreehere

My jnlaws call hummus, crisps and olives nibbles. They generally have nibbles with Prosecco which they call bubbles. Makes my skin crawl and my eyes itch.

Oh wow....nibbles and bubbles. I am stealing that. Its so awful its brilliant. Thank you you made me laugh out loud.

@NotPersephone

I was waiting for a draft court order from counsel. It finally arrived by fax (I’m old) and was important so I started speed-reading it out loud to the rest of the team. One of the paragraphs referred to a hearing “in camera” so I read it as the pedestrian English word. (I went to state school and never studied Latin).

Our (insufferably posh, privately educated) trainee made a huge drama of being totally confused, full on throwing her arms up and facial gurning “in what? What on earth did you say?” Someone explained that it meant in a closed room. More theatrics, forehead slapping:”oh you mean in caMEra! Now I understand!” Followed by lots of belly clutching, braying and guffawing. And then some comedy finger guns in my direction.

I mean okay, I pronounced it wrong - but what a pretentious bell-end she was.

You were right in these circumstances. She was wrong and what an awful way to behave too.

[quote Wbeezer]**@SoosanCarter* @LadyCarolineDester* DS2 stayed in that hall of residence at St Andrews for two years and would have had a nicer time if there had been more pretentious but "genteel" students on his floor but as it was he was surrounded by mostly noisy American boys who went a bit mad on the legal drinking at 18 thing. And kept vomming all over the shared bathroom.
We did see a girl turn up wheeling a large Louis Vuitton trunk as we manhandled DS2s possessions in blue IKEA bags on drop off day though.[/quote]
I wasn’t in that hall but my boyfriend was. It was in the 1970’s so overseas students were rare. Nowadays, the UK students are in minority because the foreign students are more lucrative. I’m afraid the university has lost its way.

@Ulelia

A headteacher who described himself as an 'education revolutionary'.

We possibly had the misfortune to know the same man.

@DeclineandFall

So many A friends mother who had us for dinner and when clearing the starter plates asked who would do the 'first remove'? Then there were more 'removes' requested after each course. She was quite mad though. The guy at Univ who wore plus fours and a monocle and carried poetry books around with him..He wasn't posh but so seriously wanted to be. My son who when the P3 class was asked to try and write 3 hard words they didn't know how to spell, tried to phonetically spell out antidisestablishmentarianism. I saw it when I was looking through his jotter at parents evening. Luckily he'd made such a cack handed attempt I think it had all passed unnoticed. I hope. I'd taught him a few extra long words as a sort of novelty.

DD2 had to use the word anti-and then add to it to make a word for her SATS book homework, I answered antidisestablishmentarianism and she looked like a deer in the headlights.

We settled on antibiotics, anticlimax and anticipate

@WalkingOnTheCracks. Oh, but she probably thought it was charming!

Your post made me laugh. It's clear you are still a writer...

@MolyHolyGuacamole

Name their child Ptolemy

How do you even pronounce that ?

A bloke I used to work with.
Came in to my office to discuss a work matter, opened up his laptop to a screen from Harrods where he'd ordered X amount of over-priced t shirts. "Oh, golly, my really expensive Harrods order was left on screen, I was checking they're delivering tomorrow because I need them for a £3000 per day grouse shooting event I'm going on next week, its £3000 per day to attend. It's in Scotland. £3000 a day y'know. Did I tell you it was £3000? Very exclusive event. £3000 a day. Extremely exclusive. Invite only. £3000 per day. Incredibly exclusive. Special Invite only. Did I tell you it is £3000 a day?".

Queue a very sarcastic "how much is it, I don't think you said?"

@EdgeOfTheSky, dammit, I was going to drop everything and get me some of that Exocet washing-up liquid right now!

[quote Potpourri23]@HighlandCowbag I hate to tell you this but I'm pretty sure owning ponies makes you middle class 🤣[/quote]
Common misconception. It's not all French & Saunders sketches.

Loads of working class folk scrimp to pay for horseflesh, & will cheerfully go without holidays or expensive vehicles to do so.

I was waitressing one night at uni in Edinburgh and was working with another student. I asked which uni she was at, and she said "THE university" meaning Edinburgh - but there were three in the city, one of which I was at.

Had a relative from abroad come over for dinner with his new girlfriend, both nice but with big spending habits. We had bought a couple of fairly expensive bottles of wine (£20 and for us not something we’d usually buy, even if we could). They were left out on the counter before dinner and they both had a closer look at the bottles and asked my husband if that was the cooking wine. We still joke about cooking wine 20 years later!

We had a dog called Archie - a lovely scruffy mongrel. We met another Archie in the park, who was an immaculately groomed, gleaming white Bichon. His owner looked down her nose at our dog, and then turned to me and said 'I assume yours is short for Archibald. My Archie is short for Versace.'

@TheWayTheLightFalls

A school gate acquaintance who keeps dropping into conversation that her youngest child was born in a private hospital. As in:

“Did you eat your lunch nicely today?”
“Yes we had cheese sandwiches.”
“Oh she just loves cheese sandwiches, it’s what they served at the Portland after I had her and I think we all developed a taste for them ha ha ha.”

And another former boss who used to imply close relationships with various slebs. Though he was a very senior psychoanalyst so tbh even if he had worked with the people in question he ought to have kept his mouth shut!

I think we know the same Portland woman. Or there are two of them! Has 2 DDs?

@spiderlight

We had a dog called Archie - a lovely scruffy mongrel. We met another Archie in the park, who was an immaculately groomed, gleaming white Bichon. His owner looked down her nose at our dog, and then turned to me and said 'I assume yours is short for Archibald. My Archie is short for Versace.'

Lol

I know someone the same age as me. Late thirties. Who wears a bowler hat, smokes a pipe and listens to the 'wireless'

I can kind of understand the pepper thing, as I don't mind some panninis but always want more pesto on them. My mate has said I should carry a jar. But that combined with considering herself a 'foodie' is definitely pretentious.

@simitra

Moved into new neighbourhood. One day I pinned up a sheet against the dividing fence to use as a photo backdrop. Towards the end of the session nosy NDN asks me what Im doing.

"Photographing things for insurance purposes". I wasnt going to tell her I sold antiques online.

Then she starts to tell me that its "her" fence which she paid for and I shouldnt be pinning things on it. I told her ok, you show me your reciepts to prove you paid for it and I will stop using it. But until then its just a boundary fence and I will continue to use my side as I wish.

She then launches into a long diatribe about new people moving into the area and how she and hubby have lived here since the dawn of time.

"There was no fence when we moved in, only the concrete posts. We put in the fence"

"So you built it to keep the dinosaurs out then?"

You should have seen her face.

What's pretentious about that?

She's right and you sound like a nightmare neighbour

Unless she did actually use the word "hubby". That is if not pretentious, at least nouveau

An ex boss who was buying a house. He told us all that was heading off to a meeting to 'structure a loan' for the purchase. That's a mortgage to you and I

@SoosanCarter as the parent of a Scottish student from an ordinary school, I agree. DS2 definitely feels in a minority doing an arts subject, its limited his friendship prospects a bit. I'm also on the st Andrews parents Facebook page (set up by American parents) i joined partly out of curiosity and partly in case i could clear up cultural confusions. Let's just say there are often remarks made that would be right at home on this page and my blood pressure has often suffered!

[quote Notjustanymum]@EdgeOfTheSky, dammit, I was going to drop everything and get me some of that Exocet washing-up liquid right now![/quote]

“blasts away grease and stains”

Boris using a Latin word for feast when talking about pig cull / slaughter.

Posh education, no common sense or ethics.

Not pretentious, but inspired by the two-foot pepper mill, when I was an undergraduate on the way home from a night out with a woman I'd only met that night (we were at a conference together and walking back to the hostel) she stopped for a wee in a bush then pulled out of her (tiny) bag a roll of loo paper, plastic bag, soap and water. This was 20 years ago, way before carrying hand sanitiser around with you was a thing.

I went to Oxford, so there was plenty of actual pretentious behaviour around of the sort listed above, but this has always stuck with me as the epitome of being well prepared. I now have all of these items in my handbag every day (and it's bloody heavy).

@ChargingBuck exactly that. We go without lots of things to have the ponies and I do everything for them myself so it keeps the costs down.

M and S is cheaper for some things than Morrisons. And going to uni is funded by the grants and bursary I get. Cos am first generation, live in an ex coal mining authority and our household income is low.

Pretty sure that makes us very working class.

On the strength of the opening post, I bought myself a ten-inch sea-salt cellar and grinder this morning. From B&M.