To not want to go out to dinner on a week night?

[Anna8888]

We get endless invitations to dinner parties on a week night. While we manage to fend many of them off, some people are so persistent that we end up having to accept. I don't want to go out at 8.15 pm, eat dinner between 9.30 and 11 pm and not get to bed until half past midnight on a week night when we have to get up for work/school at 7 am. It KILLS me, and the dinners are unbelievably tedious.

AIBU?

Also, if the mysterious sleb has a name that starts with N, and four more letters, and is always on his own, perhaps he is
Norme no-mates!

Anna I do so apologise, I didn't realise it was an occasional problem. I must have been confused by your use of the phrases:
"endless invitations" [your italics]
"endless excuses"
"I stand firm so often you wouldn't believe it."

It struck me that the problem was with your possible lack of confidence and overwhelming desire to fit in (they often go hand in hand).

But you didn't really want people's opinions, did you?

And what exactly do you think your gratuitous unpleasantness opinions tell us about you, Marmite?

Anna, you are hysterical. Thank you for a very entertaining thread. And I hope you resolve your very occasional unbelievably tedious dinner problem satisfactorily.

I have decided that all French are WANK.

That's a bit harsh hf!

Please don't generalise based on Anna's experience.

Yes, you are right I mustn't generalise.

I was in Lille at the weekend (and had a lovely time) but the ignorance of the locals I met on the pavements - 'Excusez moi' I say and they do not move. After the third request they move about 2 inches.

Snort. How dare they not make way for an English Ladeee

Anna8888 your rather peculiar response reminds me of arguing with my sister when I was about 13; I don't think continuing this discussion will be fruitful for either of us.

Two peas in a pod we are not.

Why do the French think they are superior?

They cannot win wars by themselves, can they?

They are superior at a lot of things, e.g. presidents' wives, being closed at odd times, interesting drinks in tiny glasses, apartment life, affairs, pared back literature, cheap supermarkets. But they are rubbish at e.g. graphic design and welcoming English matrons into the fold.

And Paris is lovely.

hf what strange englishness!
The correct way to proceed is to barge through and say 'excusez moi' as you bump into people- that is how it is done in France.

LOL EachPeach.

You can also shout "Pardon" three times - once to signal your intention to barge, once to signal your intention that you are barging and once again to signal (triumphantly) that you have barged successfully

hf, "They cannot win wars by themselves, can they?"

PMSL! A certain phrase involving cheese and monkeys comes to mind.