CF Acquaintance turned up today despite refusing invite

[Grumpusaurus]

We live in a popular tourist destination and after numerous people took advantage of us, we nip it in the bud now. Most seem to follow the same script by contacting us out of the blue and mentioning that it would be so lovely to see us. I now answer in a very friendly manner that it has been years since we last heard from them and it would indeed be lovely to catch up over coffee in a nearby spot when they are in the area. This does tend to put an end to most of those potential CFs, however, one acquaintance pushed back and asked to stay with us at the beginning of September. I told her that this would not be possible, especially as we have a very tight deadline and will be working flat out to finish a commission. DH and I are self-employed craftspeople and sometimes we do work all day and most of the night to finish pieces and the DC stay at their grandparents during that last push. Not heard back from the acquaintance since July even though she clearly read my WhatsApp message.

The doorbell went this evening, I ignored it as DH and I were in the middle of working on our commission but someone kept pushing the bell. Our property is an L-shape so you can see from our workshop who is at the front door. CF acquaintance was standing there with a suitcase! DH is more of a people pleaser and while really cheesed off was about to answer the door till I told him no bloody way! He redeemed himself by immediately agreeing. The bell went a few more times and then got a flurry of WhatsApp messages, which I ignored. She eventually left after half an hour. I am almost bemused by the cheek of it but there is no way I am going to let anyone railroad me into being their free accommodation and greatly inconveniencing us, especially while we literally get up to work all hours and fall into bed. DH is fretting about her coming back but I told that we will just continue to ignore the doorbell. We have a back gate to a dirt track we can stealth like leave the property if she is holding a siege at the front door 😎 There are plenty of hotels and B&Bs in the area, albeit quite dear. Who does that! A rhetorical question but am just shocked by the cheek of just turning up after saying emphatically No!

I’ve been to someone’s house with a suitcase once. Two suitcases, actually. I didn’t expect to live there, I was on my way to another destination and had stopped by straight from the station.

I have just twigged.

OP lives at Balmoral.

Seriously. The CF is MM.

No, she arrived three days ago

Wat no update?

Octopussys?

Octopussys?

She's the best kind of cunt though.

Yes. I do agree, to be fair she has come to my aid before.

Slippery when wet though. 🙂

I have the scoop! Here’s a photo of OP and DH working together on a previous commission….

@MeridianB Good detective work. If only…

IMstill think it was rude not to open the door. You should have opened and explained no she couldnt stay sorry.

I have a feeling we are all going to have a slow breathe out soon. With all that comes of it was-she went home.what else are we thinking will occur.she won’t come back now.

Maybe OP has changed a few small details in suggesting that they produce items, to be less outing, but in fact, maybe THEY themselves are the product and their intensively-practised productions more performative than tangible.

I think we're getting closer now - let's just hope it's much more the first picture than the second!

IMstill think it was rude not to open the door. You should have opened and explained no she couldnt stay sorry.

Ruder than turning up with a suitcase with the clear intention of staying with people you barely know and who have expressly told you that you cannot stay?

OP has already said that she has form for steamrollering people in order to get what she wants. People like her are well-practised in manipulative sob stories, wearing people down, getting a foot in the door and forcibly getting their way.

The request was already made and politely but clearly declined months ago. She didn't even respond to OP's original reply, having read it, and hasn't been in touch since - like close friends would usually do, even when not seeking free accommodation. OP & DH's home should be their sanctuary and they shouldn't be subjected to people who refuse to respect that, preferring to act like wasps at a picnic the instant you open the lemonade.

Maybe it is15' giraffe sculptures made out of driftwood.

The mind boggles really ….

Beyonce the chicken is from this

thebloggess.com/2011/06/21/and-thats-why-you-should-learn-to-pick-your-battles/

I would have the biggest locks on all means of access and the very biggest gusrd dogs roaming free in that scenario! Did anyone ever work out how her white top, or whatever it was, stayed white, I always found clay to be an absolute bugger to work with, even without such a distraction!

We finished ‘early’ this evening, about an hour ago. Despite not wanting to engage or give the CF any headspace, I did slowly begin to feel a low level of unease today. Against my best intentions, it turned into unnecessary drama and ‘cliffhanger’ dangling over me. I can be quite stubborn, so purposely did not look at WhatApp at all after the first message preview yesterday and used the tablet instead to look at MN. Anyway, I got DH just now to check the messages in incognito mode in case the content was gonna make me explode in rage. I hadn’t set any ringtones for Whatsapp so did miss a few calls, some yesterday evening after CF left and today. I had turned the sound off after the first set of messages.

To be fair, after all the build up, it is an anti climax. No real juicy stuff. First reaction was more of a WTF is that CF on about! She totally ignored my ‘you can’t come’ reply from July despite having seen it. I cropped the screen grab top and bottom and missed some of the last messages as they contained too much identifying info but essentially, she seemed surprised that we were not at home, as I told her we would be working on our project. It was just repeated questions of when we are getting back, plus asking us to get in touch ASAP as soon as we saw her messages. The level of cognitive dissonance is mind boggling!

DH is not at all surprised and told me that he expected that as other people for her really only serve a purpose. However, he reckons that she may also have written the messages to make it look like we let her down, very likely omitting my very clear refusal to host her. She really did expect to stay here. We both reckon that she did reluctantly go to a hotel last night but may have hoped to get hold of us today to host her for the weekend and next week. Absolutely no chance! I will not reply or call her back. We got a lot done today and are quite ahead but if we hopefully finish early, I want to relax.

We are talking about a CF here

Oh OP, you went there 😂

I love the word chutzpah for situations like this, it's the Yiddish version of brass neck!