Ding Dong - Dinner Is Served
Have you ever tried to get out of something by making an excuse and ended up feeling a complete twit? I know I have…
…some years ago I was pottering about in my flat one evening when there was a ring on my doorbell. On answering it I found on my doorstep a young man who was desperate to persuade me to switch my gas supplier. Having had a particularly tough day at work I wasn’t too keen on letting him in and pursuing the conversation so I quickly pulled any old excuse out of thin air. I adopted an air of grandeur, put on my haughtiest voice and said that I was awfully sorry but I was in the middle of “having dinner” and, even though I say it myself, I managed to infuse those two words with all the superiority and importance of Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham from Downton Abbey. Oh yes, anyone hearing that I was “having dinner” would have been in no doubt whatsoever that I was sitting down to a feast of many delicious courses, all cooked to the highest culinary standard and, in all probability, surrounded by a dozen other discerning diners.
However, the young man was persistent and had all the necessary skills to make a successful sales pitch i.e. he was fit, fantastically good looking with a drop dead gorgeous smile and dressed immaculately. He managed to hold my attention so well that eventually I completely forgot all about the excuse I had made and let him in.
On entering, his eyes, quite naturally, under the circumstances, scanned the room for evidence of the “dinner” I’d said I had been “having”. He glanced at the dining table; devoid of dinner or diners (discerning or otherwise) and eventually turned his gaze to the coffee table in front of the settee where it finally settled on…a mug of cuppa soup!
True story.
…some years ago I was pottering about in my flat one evening when there was a ring on my doorbell. On answering it I found on my doorstep a young man who was desperate to persuade me to switch my gas supplier. Having had a particularly tough day at work I wasn’t too keen on letting him in and pursuing the conversation so I quickly pulled any old excuse out of thin air. I adopted an air of grandeur, put on my haughtiest voice and said that I was awfully sorry but I was in the middle of “having dinner” and, even though I say it myself, I managed to infuse those two words with all the superiority and importance of Violet, the Dowager Countess of Grantham from Downton Abbey. Oh yes, anyone hearing that I was “having dinner” would have been in no doubt whatsoever that I was sitting down to a feast of many delicious courses, all cooked to the highest culinary standard and, in all probability, surrounded by a dozen other discerning diners.
However, the young man was persistent and had all the necessary skills to make a successful sales pitch i.e. he was fit, fantastically good looking with a drop dead gorgeous smile and dressed immaculately. He managed to hold my attention so well that eventually I completely forgot all about the excuse I had made and let him in.
On entering, his eyes, quite naturally, under the circumstances, scanned the room for evidence of the “dinner” I’d said I had been “having”. He glanced at the dining table; devoid of dinner or diners (discerning or otherwise) and eventually turned his gaze to the coffee table in front of the settee where it finally settled on…a mug of cuppa soup!
True story.
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