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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To think I may have just hoisted my sister by her own petard?

179 replies

FelicityFlops · 29/05/2022 21:56

My sister just messaged me to ask about feeding people for a buffet next week. I do not live in the UK.
Slightly as a joke I said I would be more than happy to come and help and was told I was welcome :-)
I responded that I would be happy to come over (it will cost around €1k) if her VERY comfy guest bed was available. No response so far.
Did I overstep the mark?

OP posts:
Jeelypieces20storeys · 29/05/2022 22:54

Complete non story..

LaSavoie · 29/05/2022 22:55

I love this thread

HippoRaine · 29/05/2022 22:55

Thia thread is pleasingly insane

GeorgiaMcGraw · 29/05/2022 22:56

For context, I'm a gemini with mostly Irish ancestry, but none of what the OP is saying makes sense. Perhaps I have hoisted my petard above my own head.

MichelleScarn · 29/05/2022 22:56

I always thought hoist by own petard, would be like someone who made chocolate chip cookies with chocolate laxative, but then accidentally eat them themselves.

HereIAmBrainTheSizeOfAPlanet · 29/05/2022 22:57

MichelleScarn · 29/05/2022 22:56

I always thought hoist by own petard, would be like someone who made chocolate chip cookies with chocolate laxative, but then accidentally eat them themselves.

How often do you have thoughts about making laxative cookies?

Bellagio40 · 29/05/2022 22:57

And it’s hoist, not hoisted

Maireas · 29/05/2022 22:58

Testina · 29/05/2022 22:16

Say your sister wanted you (as a good cook) to come and cook for her dinner party, and pretended (her own scheme) that a work colleague she hated (whom she knew you fancied) was going to be there to persuade you come… and so you came… but you innocently contacted the hated colleague to check dietary preferences, and he assumed yours was the official invitation, and so he came and your sister ended up sat with hated colleague all evening…

That would be closer to being hoist with her own petard.

This is indeed petard hoisting.

goodplanbatman · 29/05/2022 22:58

Is the OP doing that thing where you just keep tapping on the next word that predictive text suggests?

Let me try one

Thanks for the lovely pics I hope you have had some fun and I hope you have a wonderful weekend and merry Christmas to everyone.

Yep that's pretty clear.

Juniper68 · 29/05/2022 22:59

I bet the party would be a hoot

Maireas · 29/05/2022 23:02

What have your jobs got to do with anything?
I think someone's been hitting the sweet sherry.

SweetMystery · 29/05/2022 23:02

Do you mean the following OP:

Your sister wanted help with the buffet and phoned you.

You (tongue in cheek) asked her if she wanted you to come and help (knowing that it would cost a lot to travel there and you fully expected her to say no).

She said yes, she would like you to help.

You told her you would come and help - in exchange for 1K travel costs and an invitation to stay at her house her comfy guest bed.

Your sister is now having second thoughts and has not replied as it would cost her 1K and she would have to host a visitor (You).

Is that it?

ProfessorFusspot · 29/05/2022 23:03

I'd have thought she was originally asking for advice, e.g. how many tins of Spam and bottles of champagne to feed 30 adults, three toddlers, and a medium-sized dog?

But if she says you're welcome, I'd assume she means it - she could easily have clarified that she meant you should stop by if you're in town; unfortunately the bed's spoken for next week.

(Personally I would not choose next week to go to the UK; it will be wall to wall polyester Union Jack suits, blow-up corgis, and plastic tiaras.)

Doggyfish · 29/05/2022 23:03

Loginmystery · 29/05/2022 22:38

If it helps you put all this in context, she is a bank director and I am a freelance IT anti-financial crime consultant

well you should have put that in the first post really. Instead of leaving everyone confused. Context is everything

This is hilarious. OP is the one being hoisted by her own petard now.

Johnnysgirl · 29/05/2022 23:04

goodplanbatman · 29/05/2022 22:58

Is the OP doing that thing where you just keep tapping on the next word that predictive text suggests?

Let me try one

Thanks for the lovely pics I hope you have had some fun and I hope you have a wonderful weekend and merry Christmas to everyone.

Yep that's pretty clear.

That only made marginally less sense than op's sorry tale.

Mellowyellow222 · 29/05/2022 23:04

Drink a big glass of water and go to bed

Justkidding55 · 29/05/2022 23:12

😂 eh?

GreenFingersWouldBeHandy · 29/05/2022 23:13

You you actually want to go and help your sister?

If yes, say 'yes'.

If no, say 'no'.

It's that simple!

Kennykenkencat · 29/05/2022 23:18

FelicityFlop

Your sister rang for advice on a buffet she is dping next week

You asked your sister if you could come over

She said Yes

You then said was a bed available and what it was going to cost you.

Because she didn’t answer immediately you thought she was plotting something

She was probably

doing something else

She then said You are always welcome.

Are you always this paranoid. Do you often think your sister or others are plotting against you, trying to catch you out.

The only one who has been hoisted by their own petard on this occasion is you as you are probably now expected to turn up

minutesturntohours · 29/05/2022 23:22

Nope, still lost.

Redlocks28 · 29/05/2022 23:22

Mellowyellow222 · 29/05/2022 23:04

Drink a big glass of water and go to bed

Yup-good advice for the OP! Plus, stop posting on the internet when you’ve been on the sherry!

I think you’re trying to come across as a bit of an amusing intellectual…sadly, you really aren’t.

JaneJeffer · 29/05/2022 23:25

Can I do the buffet instead of you? I am not in the UK either but can get there for a lot less than €1k and am partial to a VERY comfy bed.

Pixiedust1234 · 29/05/2022 23:26

Its bedtime for you OP. Your conversation with your sister is only funny to you. Even your sister doesn't think its particularly amusing (if she did she would have sent lol or a smiley face)

Staffy1 · 29/05/2022 23:28

I don’t know why anyone starts threads on MN, it’s really not worth the inevitable aggro a lot of the time.
OP, I think you should take her up on it and go. By the sound of it she would be happy enough to have you and you would enjoy it.

Christinatherabbit · 29/05/2022 23:28

I have no idea what's going on but i have now decided its time to switch the Internet off and go to sleep before my brain explodes 😳