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 🤣

@50ShadesOfCatholic

sjxoxo We bought a real fixer-upper abd a few months later the house next door sold too & we had new neighbours. Their house was not ‘a wreck’ like ours, not fabulous either; but lovable sort of 1980s styling and I was hoping the newbies would spice it up and our houses (once finished) would be lovely together in our road! We were quite excited as previous couple were much much older everything v dated & the new couple were about our age so we thought ‘ooh new friends!’ And invited them round. They paid well over the going rate for the house, we couldn’t believe anyone would pay the outrageous asking price given the house stuck in the 1980s still. When they came we showed them around our house, bit of a ‘work in progress’ before having a drink, and during this the new neighbour wife said to new neighbour husband, in front of us, “still it is quite spacious” which I thought was v rude! She is about ten years younger than the rest of us & I find them so wierd even now. They’ve marked their own parking space outside and lobbied the council to put up a sign saying ‘no parking’ outside their house (it’s rural where we live!). They have finally gotten round to updating the front of their house and we did secretly have a little giggle when we saw their planning application had been refused for a 2m high wall all around the front of their property (like a fort!) and the feedback from the council was to find a ‘more tasteful solution like a green or brown fence that is in keeping with the other properties in the area’ 😁 xo

You sound like the snobbish and unpleasant neighbour, wow.

No you don’t. Don’t worry.

@sjxoxo sounds monumentally un-self aware, if she can’t grasp that on a thread dedicated to other people’s pretentiousness, she has told a story that in fact depicts her and her DH as nosy, sneery, weirdly obsessed with age (why does it matter that the female new neighbour is ten years younger, and what does it have to do with them being ‘weird’?) and bizarrely over-involved in the renovation decisions of their neighbours.

The new neighbours don’t appear to have done anything wrong apart from pay over the odds for a ‘dated’ house, have a planning application refused, and not gush over the OP’s semi-renovated house as much as she’d hoped. (We’re in mid-renovation ourselves, and while some people look and see nice bones, others just see a lot of work still to do…)

[quote Quire]@sjxoxo sounds monumentally un-self aware, if she can’t grasp that on a thread dedicated to other people’s pretentiousness, she has told a story that in fact depicts her and her DH as nosy, sneery, weirdly obsessed with age (why does it matter that the female new neighbour is ten years younger, and what does it have to do with them being ‘weird’?) and bizarrely over-involved in the renovation decisions of their neighbours.

The new neighbours don’t appear to have done anything wrong apart from pay over the odds for a ‘dated’ house, have a planning application refused, and not gush over the OP’s semi-renovated house as much as she’d hoped. (We’re in mid-renovation ourselves, and while some people look and see nice bones, others just see a lot of work still to do…)[/quote]
Yup

@50ShadesOfCatholic

sjxoxo We bought a real fixer-upper abd a few months later the house next door sold too & we had new neighbours. Their house was not ‘a wreck’ like ours, not fabulous either; but lovable sort of 1980s styling and I was hoping the newbies would spice it up and our houses (once finished) would be lovely together in our road! We were quite excited as previous couple were much much older everything v dated & the new couple were about our age so we thought ‘ooh new friends!’ And invited them round. They paid well over the going rate for the house, we couldn’t believe anyone would pay the outrageous asking price given the house stuck in the 1980s still. When they came we showed them around our house, bit of a ‘work in progress’ before having a drink, and during this the new neighbour wife said to new neighbour husband, in front of us, “still it is quite spacious” which I thought was v rude! She is about ten years younger than the rest of us & I find them so wierd even now. They’ve marked their own parking space outside and lobbied the council to put up a sign saying ‘no parking’ outside their house (it’s rural where we live!). They have finally gotten round to updating the front of their house and we did secretly have a little giggle when we saw their planning application had been refused for a 2m high wall all around the front of their property (like a fort!) and the feedback from the council was to find a ‘more tasteful solution like a green or brown fence that is in keeping with the other properties in the area’ 😁 xo

You sound like the snobbish and unpleasant neighbour, wow.

Agreed.

[quote myfaceismyown]@Hdhdjejdj just raided the kitchen drawer! Egg spoon on the left, standard teaspoon on the right. I popped an egg in the pic for reference. The little egg spoon is really useful if your eggs are small. Please be kind and don't comment adversely about the design of the spoon! I have chrome Apostle spoons that belonged to my Aunt, not a stylistic choice, but the kids love them and seems to be a family thing as my mother had them as well.[/quote]
And now I know I have egg spoons mixed in with the teaspoons.
I always wondered why some were so small.
FWIW I think two spoons match in my drawer and the rest are a mismatch from grandma, mom, aunty, charity shops, m and s and various other places.
Same with the rest of the cutlery. Theres a complete set of simple nicely weighted cutlery and a dozen more that match nothing else and are awful to use. But they are DPs so I cant get rid.
Oh and I have some cake forks, v useful and some knickerbocker glory spoons which are just long handled teaspoons. I rarely make glory's though so they are a waste of space.

Also.. It is the most resold without being finished book on record
Shortly after it was published, you could find copies in every charity shop!
@Congressdingo; the long spoons are very useful for stirring the sugar into a latte (before you add the coffee layer)

My sil (dh brothers wife) likes to act like she comes from money and tries to put on a posh accent when she speaks, now that she has kids, she sometimes accidentally slips on her 'posh accent' I have the biggest grin, trying so hard not to laugh 😂
I've met her sisters, one of them has a YouTube channel, so am always telling dh see I told you she (sil) puts on a voice!!
Also same sil, was renting in a cheaper place outside of London, once her dh got a new job, she wanted to show how rich they are so insisted they move to a new build flat in London, 3k rent a month, her dh wasn't keen but did it to please her, he was on 3 months probation, lost his job after the 3 month and had to move back to the cheap area. It was Hilarious because she liked to tell us all how she lives in such a plush area etc etc, god truly heard and put her back in her place

Oh and her family live in a deprived area which made the whole thing even funnier, don't forget where you come from hun

@Congressdingo when we got married we were lucky enough to be given a canteen of cutlery by a generous relative. My Dad insisted we had matching knickerbocker glory spoons. I have been married longer than I care to admit, and have never used them. Most of the time we just use the mix and match items in the kitchen drawer. Besides, I don't even possess the tall sundae dishes that requires them!

@sueelleker

Also.. It is the most resold without being finished book on record Shortly after it was published, you could find copies in every charity shop! *@Congressdingo*; the long spoons are very useful for stirring the sugar into a latte (before you add the coffee layer)

when we got married we were lucky enough to be given a canteen of cutlery by a generous relative. My Dad insisted we had matching knickerbocker glory spoons. I have been married longer than I care to admit, and have never used them. Most of the time we just use the mix and match items in the kitchen drawer. Besides, I don't even possess the tall sundae dishes that requires them

I actually bought the long spoons for some other reason which is now lost in the mists of menopause. Then bought the sundae glasses to make use of them, then I just cant be bothered with the faff of making glory's any more.
Kids long since left home and two left at home = no point most of the time.
However in a previous life I had a tiny shit kitchen with two drawers and three small cupboards and had to get rid of lots of items like jelly moulds and tenderiser and fish slices and pickle fork and all sorts of useful items. Now I keep it all regardless. Still fish around the pickle jar instead of just buying a pickle fork. Which I've decided I'm off to go buy right now.

I used to work with a woman who took the skin off roast chicken and wouldn't let the kids eat it even though they were stiff around salivating because it was "disgusting".

She also used to cut the crackling off a roast pork joint before cooking.

She has been to catering school apparently (even though her job had nothing to do with cooking) and was so so stuck up about food. We would have an office conversation about what we were making for evening meals and she would loudly retch and gag and exclaim "omg I wouldn't DREAM of eating that"

However she later told us that her DH had to cover everything she made with mayonnaise so 🤣🤣🤣

Everyone I know removes the skin from a roast chicken before carving it! I wouldn't eat chicken skin either! I don't think that's pretentious! It's unhealthy!

Then everyone you know is missing out on the best bit!

Chicken skin is not the demon it has been made out to be.

@EdenFlower

Everyone I know removes the skin from a roast chicken before carving it! I wouldn't eat chicken skin either! I don't think that's pretentious! It's unhealthy!

Is that you Janet?? 😂😂

@FluffyBooBoo

Then everyone you know is missing out on the best bit!

Chicken skin is not the demon it has been made out to be.

Definitely!

Chicken skin is absolute heavenly goodness - good for the body and for the soul! Everyone I know delights in every single morsel of it.

Of course it’s not unhealthy. Honestly drives me mad the way some people go on about perfectly fine things as if it’s the devil’s own doing...🙄🙄

Nah, I've tried chicken skin- it's horrible! Pork crackling though if really crispy is supposed to be a superfood! I love that!

We’re lucky enough to be able to buy free range organic chicken directly from the farm and it’s fantastic - it tastes just like the beautiful chicken I remember from my childhood when my grandmother bought it every once in a while (chicken was expensive as it wasn’t intensively reared), and the skin is bursting with flavour and gets very crispy. We don’t have it all that often but when we do it’s a real treat. But I suppose some people might not like the fat and that’s ok of course. However it’s not true that it’s unhealthy and it would never, ever be removed and thrown away in our house. In fact it’s a mark of just how much I love DH that I share it with him almost equally and only have the tiniest bit extra for myself as cook’s privilege.

Crispy crackling is on another level though...one of the best elements of a properly good pork joint. It’s the one thing I look forward to most about our traditional Christmas meal at home (Denmark).

Miss my grandmother now.

@HollyandIvyandAllThingsYule

We’re lucky enough to be able to buy free range organic chicken directly from the farm and it’s fantastic - it tastes just like the beautiful chicken I remember from my childhood when my grandmother bought it every once in a while (chicken was expensive as it wasn’t intensively reared), and the skin is bursting with flavour and gets very crispy. We don’t have it all that often but when we do it’s a real treat. But I suppose some people might not like the fat and that’s ok of course. However it’s not true that it’s unhealthy and it would never, ever be removed and thrown away in our house. In fact it’s a mark of just how much I love DH that I share it with him almost equally and only have the tiniest bit extra for myself as cook’s privilege.

Crispy crackling is on another level though...one of the best elements of a properly good pork joint. It’s the one thing I look forward to most about our traditional Christmas meal at home (Denmark).

Miss my grandmother now.

Just to make you jealous - DH went to our local butchers a couple of months ago and they had had a few people requesting they cut the crackling off the pork joints they were buying (why????) they sold them to him for a quid so he keeps cooking extra

@Suddenlyfamily5

My MIL telling me about her trousseau.

Trousseaus used to be a thing, though. My parents got my DS a large one along with a huge, very expensive wedding.

I got shite when I got married.

@Bounce55

Shopping with my Mother in Lidl I whip out my Iceland bags, large Harrods bag for her Oh how I laughed, she didn't speak to me for a week Result

Is this pretentious? I enjoy shopping in the cheap German supermarkets with a Waitrose bag, and ironically taking Aldi/Lidl bags into Waitrose. Haven't got a Harrods bag though, I hope I get one in a charity shop at some time. 'Spose I'm admitting to my own pretentiousness but I thought of it more as playing with incongruity.

Pretentious moment I've witnessed? Hmmmm. Sorry, can't think of anything off hand.

@allPfizerMinnelli not sure if your action is pretentious or playful irony. Most probably the latter. My own foible is that I like to take the correctly named bag to the same shop. So I find it uncomfortable if my DH takes the Waitrose bag to Aldi or a Sainsburys bag to Lidl. No pretentious nonsense intended. I am clearly unhinged...

@EdenFlower

Nah, I've tried chicken skin- it's horrible! Pork crackling though if really crispy is supposed to be a superfood! I love that!

Wow, you need to stop looking at all the faddy diet advice!

Chicken skin has similar amounts of collagen in it to pork skin. And it's the collagen that has made some people claim it to be a superfood. Similar amounts of fat too, which is why chicken skin isn't...

[quote myfaceismyown]@allPfizerMinnelli not sure if your action is pretentious or playful irony. Most probably the latter. My own foible is that I like to take the correctly named bag to the same shop. So I find it uncomfortable if my DH takes the Waitrose bag to Aldi or a Sainsburys bag to Lidl. No pretentious nonsense intended. I am clearly unhinged...[/quote]
Try using an ASDA bag in Waitrose. When I did, the checkout lady pulled a face like I'd spat on the conveyor belt.

@ifIwerenotanandroid then she was pretentious and up her own shopping bag - not you!!

I know. I didn't take it personally, I just thought it was funny that she felt I'd sullied Waitrose by bringing an ASDA bag in there - especially when I was in there 2-3 times a week.