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?

Och, you know, I'm not sure it would be quite this gripy a thread if it wasn't Anna's - come on - I'd rather stick pins in my eyes than spend three hours talking about train timetables, followed by about 5 hours sleep. Anna - turning veggie surely the way to go?

I am not moaning (I am not a moaner about anything, it really isn't my nature). I am asking how to deal with it. And, since this has seemed to get a lot of people posting, I have given info on what actually happens.

yes you are moaning

Gripy?
what is this?

Habbibu - I'm sure they'd accommodate vegetarianism since I am expected to accommodate their kosher eating habits...

Anna, can you not have occasional "babysitting crises"? Or fake child illnesses?

Go, someone, ask me about M Priapism. Pleeeese.

An in "Alors, qui est M Priapism et pourquoi?""

Vas-y!

CD - umm - gripey? Did I make up a word? I meant "full of griping".

I've faked a babysitting crisis for tonight .

I really do have zillions of excuses. It's just that there is so much of this stuff to fend off. There is a point where we both get fed up of looking for yet another excuse.

alors, have just twigged who you are, didn't realise you'd name changed. A bit lente on the uptake, moi.
Glad you're around, had been wondering how you are.
Look forward to your mail.

Anna, sorry for momentary hijack

This is because he is a grand fromage, Anna. If he was a baby bel, you would not have the midweek dinner party problem.

In my part of the bois, we discuss EVERYTHING at dinner parties. Except the Thalys timetable.

tmmj, I don't understand your food code. How will that quite pleasant-sounding meal put off the French hordes?

Go on then, alors:

Alors, qui est M Priapism et pourquoi?

Is that fair exchange for the jeans?

Thank you AA.

Apparently, it is this risqué Paris thing, where someone does a phallic origami thing with a napkin in the middle of the table, which you all have to ignore.

If you are caught looking at it, the person who catches you yells "M PRIAPISM' and elects a forfeit (involves either nudity or alcohol or both) and you have to do the forfeit.

I don't remember how you elect a winner or loser but it apparently livens dull Parisien dinners up no end.

God, we don't do anything that risqué down here en province.
Though DH did have a drinks thing at work last night and came home to inform me that all Marseillais lawyers can talk about is penis size.
AA wanders off the point...

but of course...

Reading this thread has livened up a dull lunchtime, merci! Off to check if the hostess has started a Suis-je unraisonnable? thread moaning about how a certain dinner party guest keeps cancelling at the last minute....

I think this thread is borderline racist. Or is that anna888 irritates you all? Can't understand the level of sneering otherwise.

you're all total gits and delusional (that includes you anna). no self respecting french person I know (and I was born there and know a few) would waste their sacred booze or food or time on an evening they knew they wouldn't have a chance of having fun at. this doesn't sound like a french problem at all. this sounds like a particular social strata problem. i'm guessing your or your dh's job makes a lot of this socialising a requirement? i'm guessing his relatives inhabit a particular (tiny) tranche of parisian society that is indeed cold, devoid of personal engagement and contact. that tranche exists in england too guys.

farking french hating gits the lot of you. bet you drink the wine though eh? and go on hols there.

parisians are fantastic when you get through the big city persona that also exists in london.

farking xenophobes the lot of you.

x posts enid.

The most disturbing thing about this thread is discovering that the French don't take booze as a gift to a dinner party!

And here was me thinking that the Le Piat d'Or ad was an exact recreation of La Vie Parisienne...