To be raging at shortbread instead of pastries?

[pinotnow]

I am at a conference type event. As a teacher I rarely get to come on this type of thing. I've looked forward to the pastries on arrival throughout the two hour drive. I'm here and there are no pastries. It's biscuits of a shortbread type, which I don't like anyway and are not appropriate as a substitute for pastries. I haven't eaten so it's going to be a long morning until lunch, which I now have concerns about anyway.

Why is everything so relentlessly fucking shit now?

I don't think having a light hearted moan about expecting the standard thing and then getting the non-standard, crappier thing is entitled or sad.

But then I have a sense of humour and I don't go to free conferences, I've always paid a fairly high (often bloody exhorbitant) fee to attend!! I don't see where the OP said this was a free conference? - edit - ah I see it now.

Still think its a bloody liberty to switch pastries for shortbread!

I feel your pain, in the days when I had a proper grown up job, I often attended meetings, conferences etc away from the office. We once had while week meeting in the same hotel. It was the same buffet days one and two....day three kinda went bottom up at lunchtime....we went out for chips/greggs/Tescos meal deals days 4 & 5.

All I'm saying is I sense a northern football venue of the blue variety in this shit provisioned teacher-hosting venue, having had the misfortune of two days there myself recently.

And they're stingy with the posh fish fingers.

What! That is a hate crime!

There were hot drinks AND squash at lunch today.

You get those high end pastries? We just get mini croissants and mini danish type things.

There was one halcyon day they had mini eclairs and macarons.

No pastries at mine today (also a teacher) but Jude’s ice cream at lunch ftw!

I empathise completely. There are so few perks to being a teacher for these days. They could at least have given you that one!

ALMOND croissants, please!

This sounds unhinged.

I used to work in an independent school. All meals were free and good quality so I was not used to providing anything for myself during the (very long) school day.

I went to few meetings/conferences but one was held in an office building at least three hours travel time each way from door to door.

My stated dietary requirements were “gluten-free, no onions or peppers”. Whatever the biscuits/pastries at the morning or afternoon break were I don’t remember, as they were not gluten-free so there was nothing for me to eat then. The best bit was lunch, though. While everyone else got gluten-full sandwiches, little pies, etc, I got a special plate on which were nothing but raw onions and peppers.

Shortbread is one of the most delicious things ever invented. I cannot be trusted in the same house as shortbread.

'Pastries', though - does OP mean croissants? Danish Pastries (or Danger Pastries as my son used to call them when he was 3)?

It depends what time of day. If it was coffee time, I'd say shortbread was the business. If it was 8 am, then fill your boots with pastries - if that's what you like!

Gasp of intake breath. On behalf of my fellow Scots, how very dare.

I'll tell you what IS shit, though - and that's pain au chocolat. Chocolate and croissant pastry...ugh.

It's only shit when there's not enough chocolate!

That's amazing!

I would love to try this.. two of my favourite things combined

Wow! That’s amazing. What type of conference was this?

It was a public health conference! Clearly coffee and apples was thought to be on message. At Birmingham New Street afterwards I had another ‘lunch’ alongs with many of the other attendees.

Having organised one for public health before, I know weirdness of this. I had to arrange all vegan lunches too on that occasion. I do understand why that’s disappointing as It’s just not normal to have apples with coffee! It’s kind of pointless. But if it’s free, it’s ‘get what you’re given’ really. I think the point I was trying to make is it’s a bit entitled to expect a basket of freshly baked pastries and be ‘raging’ (even if it was a joke…it wasn’t a joke…she was raging 😂) when shortbread is offered instead.
PS the amount of conferences I’ve organised and catered for where people then just don’t turn up is the worst. So much food waste. Which is why publicly funded ones can tend to be conservative at times. It’s just wasted money.
PPS still think shortbread and coffee is a perfectly acceptable intro to an event and should not be rage-inducing in a person of normally balanced mind 😂

They must have read the thread 😉.

Just to make you froth a little more, @KaleQueen , there were no pastries this morning either. But I didn't mind as I had already had pancakes at the hotel I stayed at, paid for by, gasp, public money 😧.

(I think..not actually sure how it's funded in this case, but I'm sure I should be feeling bad and should have spent my free time marking/flogging myself/being grateful for the choc-chip shortbread).

Oh hell no I’d be furious too! Such a letdown!

Im a teacher too and go to a subject leader network course three times a year. It’s afternoon only. I USED to arrive to boxes filled with lovely fruit/jasmine/peppermint teas, and trays of home made cakes.
They seem to be cutting costs and now there’s just an urn of standard tea/coffee and shortbreads in packets. Devastating.

I would be so very happy to arrive to find shortbread.

I can never eat the pastries because 1) there is never an ingredient list and 2) they rarely worry about cross contamination in packaging to bring them in. even if some of the pastries are safe they probably came in a box touching the ones that are not.

Shortbread has so few ingredients that it is almost always a known entity in terms of safety,

I’m not frothing in the slightest, I hope you enjoyed today. What a lucky life. Hotels paid for by public money. I do that too. Regularly. So would never whinge ever, I feel lucky.

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