What's the funniest misunderstanding you've had?

[CuriousLadyBird]

Do you have a funny story about a misunderstanding where it be you've misunderstood something or another person has misunderstood you?

I'm just starting this thread because I thought about something that happened last week and giggled to myself.

I'm currently under the community mental health team as my mental health is not where I want it to be but next year I've been accepted on to a mental health nursing course and can start If my mental health is stable enough (just a bit of background).

So I had a home visit off someone from the CMHT and we were chatting and discussing my future etc and they asked what my goal was and I said "I think my long term goal is to be sitting where you are" and I meant like becoming qualified as a mental health nurse and helping people but this person must not have understood what I meant and said "Well you live here so you can sit here anytime you want".

I was a bit like what? But didn't say anything and carried on with the conversation so I don't know, I think maybe this person thinks my long term goal is to sit on the other side of the sofa (and I appreciate people with other mental health conditions may have issues sitting in certain places so maybe that's where we've got mixed up) but thinking back to it has really made me giggle.

Next time they come I might sit on that side of the sofa and they'll think I've reached my long term goal

My late DH was a member of a professional body, & the House Magazine printed news of his death & a short obituary.
However, they kept sending demands for his annual subs.
A friend who was in the same organisation took it up with them.
I got an apology & they printed news of his death & a short obituary again.

I said to the friend that he always was a show-off, hogging the limelight.

Used to work in an office where I was absolutely the least 'posh' person there. One day I'd come back from my lunch break and mentioned that I had bought a birthday card for my Nanny L (childhood name for my Nan).
My colleague was so impressed that I'd remembered the birthday of the family Nanny - it took a little unpicking that Nanny L was actually my Mum's Mum and forgetting her birthday was more than my life's worth!

I once sent my boyfriend to a local shop to get some bits and bobs, and one of the items I asked for was some toilet roll.

When he came back however, he handed me a packet of kitchen roll instead and when I questioned him he said, “Sorry, I just saw the words clean and wipe and assumed it was toilet roll” 😂😂

On our honeymoon in a very fancy rooftop hotel bar, the waiter brought our cocktails over and DH asked if they had any nibbles. Cue waiter “nibbles, sir?”, DH “yes, nibbles, I just want to see if you have any nibbles”.

Waiter, looking confused and slightly distressed, puts down his tray and starts unbuttoning his shirt “yes sir, I have nipples…”

I couldn’t breathe for laughing

Should add we were in Hong Kong, hence obvious language barrier!

I was putting a work colleagues number into my phone.
He said "it's spelt with two E's"
I typed into my phone 'Graemee"
It wasn't until a while later the light bulb went off in my head!

I've just made myself laugh by failing to realise that there was a typing error in this post title https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/4842953-left-a-medicore-restaurant-review-restaurant-wants-me-to-email-them-to-discusswhat

I assumed the restaurant was part of a group called Medicore and thought it was a rubbish name for a restaurant group. No wonder It was poor.
It took another poster to write mediocre before I real my mistake. I'm usually good at spotting and translating these little mistakes. I did actually laugh to myself.

Paying for something in a shop years ago with a five pound note which in my haste I didn't straighten out or look at properly just gave it to the male cashier and awaited my change.It was a small shop with a long queue...I heard the cashier begin to speak and looked at him.
He smiled kindly and handed me back a slip of paper that had a mobile number on.
Said to me " Thank you love but I'm married "
I heard the collective ear pricking behind me.
Flushing red I said I didn't realise the bit of paper was in the £5 note,cue cashier looking sorry for me and assorted snorts and laughter from customers.
Picking up my purchase I shoved it in my bag and left only to be called back for my change,unwilling to face the mocking faces I told him to put it in the charity box and fled never to return.

Ha ha that's funny! Did you correct her?

Pls tell me followed up with a comment about wanting nuts not nibbles.

@Vinvertebrate I enjoyed that one 😂

I always remember an AIBU thread complaining about sweaty binmen. A few posters responded saying she was being unfair as emptying g bins is hard manual work. It turned out the poster had meant sweary binmen.

I worked at a kids summer camp many years ago. It was movie week and we asked the kids to make a poster of the film 'Grease.'. One little boy kept coming up to me and asking, 'Does he have brown eyes?' And 'Does he have light or brown hair?' I assumed he was talking about one of the main characters so said he did. At the end, we all got together to look at the posters and said child handed me his and said 'Here's the picture of Rhys.' (His friend in the same group as us). He had misheard and thought we were asking him to draw a poster of his friend Rhys when it was meant to be about the movie, Grease !

@PronounWanker

I love that she still handed the card over!

I think I've posted this one before but one of my dental implants was loose and I was terrified it would fall out. I made an appointment at the emergency dentist near my office in London. I was in a panic as I filled out the online registration and accidentally registered myself as male, then couldn't change it. I set off for the appointment and on arrival was greeted as Mr Honeylulu in such a straight faced and respectful way I didn't have the heart to correct them. To be honest I was more worried about my tooth until afterwards. I don't know which way they thought I was transitioning as I don't look very blokey (I hope!)

Another sillier one. I asked my husband to get me some cheapo shower gel when he went to the supermarket. He came back and said "I couldn't find the brand you wanted so I got Imperial Leather". Turns out he looked all over for "Chipo" brand shower gel!

Not me, a friend, but still makes me laugh. She'd started seeing a personal trainer. PT told her to take a photo of herself in her underwear as motivation and to track progress. So she did, and she sent it to him. He replied to say "no, no, the photo is just for you, so you can monitor your progress, I don't need to see it". Bah ha ha!

This reminds me of a post from Mumsnet years ago that makes me cry every time I think about it (does anyone remember who the poster was?)

The poster had gone to the dentist for a filling, and was a bit stressed out, so was trying to follow all the dentist's instructions carefully. "Open a bit wider", she opened her mouth a bit wider. "Bite down on this", she bit down, etc etc.

At one point, he popped his finger in her mouth to hold something in place and she heard the next instruction: "Suction please"... so she sucked on his finger....

It wasn't until he gently pulled his finger out and the dental assistant appeared at her side with the suction tube that she realised he wasn't talking to her!! 😂😂😂😂

Makes my sides hurt just imagining it!

I have a good family one.

My DGrandfather used to travel a lot for work, back in the fifties. On one trip, he stopped to call in at a friend's house, as they hadn't seen each other in a while. The friend's wife opened the door and said "Oh, you must be here to see 'Friend'". DGf was ushered into the main sitting room, where his friend was... lying in an open coffin. Turned out the friend had sadly died recently and that the wife thought DGf was there to pay his respects. DGf had the shock of his life and had to have a little sit down!

The wife later noted that Friend would have found the whole thing absolutely hilarious and that it even made her smile, so every cloud....

When I was a teenager I was having a minor operation at a private hospital nearby. I went there on my own, and the nurse showed me into my room. I sat down, and she went through various forms etc, then said “ would you like to settle now”. I said thank you, I was quite settled, it was a comfy chair and all was fine. She said “no, I mean settle the account, pay for the operation”. I was so embarrassed!

Around 2003-2004 time my best friend came haring into sixth form and informed me that she loved Yellowcard. “Not even joking, I am obsessed with Yellowcard.”

Me: “Yellow… card? Okay”

I’d never heard of the band but I didn’t want to be rude because she seemed so enthusiastic.

I started saving her pieces of yellow card, as and when they cropped up in my day to day. I can remember wondering if she’d like be to cut up the weetabix box, or whether it mattered that only 1 side of the card was yellow.

I presented them to her in maths the next week and…. She went with it. Kept me on the hook for a few more weeks, before she eventually spilled the beans after I recommended to her that she listen to a band called Yellowcard, since she likes yellow pieces of card so much.

🤦🏻‍♀️

DH and I were invited to a work colleagues house for a BBQ. They had a massive fruit bowl and I asked if I could have a lime. The couple looked at each other and shuffled about. I said 'well, I mean just 1- would that be ok?'

They rummaged around and produced a bag of cocaine! I had to reiterate it was a LIME I was asking about, for my drink, not a LINE!!! 😳

I was born abroad. When I first moved here, the in-laws took me to a pub. FIL said he was going to have the Steak and Ale pie. I said 'Ohh, I didn't know people ate them. Are they wild or farmed???'

I thought he'd said Steak and OWL pie!

Not me fortunately, but a pal who'd just moved house
Chatting to her new neighbour outside, someone pulled up in a brand new Fiat Mulipla (remember those?!!) and she joked about who'd spend good money on something quite so hideous

Turned out the driver was from the local dealership and they were delivering the very same neighbour's new wheels ...

Back when we were 17 and first learning to drive my friend had her first ever driving lesson, approached a roundabout and the instructor said "ok go right round the roundabout", which was an unfortunately ambiguous turn of phrase it turned out to a very very learner driver.....

Oh goodness! That one is hilarious 😂