Mediocre Mother
I know its bad form to be mentioning Christmas at this time of year, but bear with me on this. My husband received a rather lovely box of chocolates from a client during the festive season, something much nicer and I’m sure more expensive than I would ever consider buying for myself or spending on anyone else. They were promptly tucked away, not for personal consumption, but to be given to someone as a gift. So when my husband who ‘doesn’t really eat chocolate’, appeared with said box in hand to open and eat whilst doing a bit of telly watching, I snatched them away and advised him why we wouldn’t be opening them.
He did look at me as if I was slightly mad, but am I? Although I would love to eat the chocolates, (they are my favourites), giving them to someone else, makes me look very generous, but does it also make me look stingy that I haven’t bought them myself, not that they’d know? I’m not sure if this is something that all women do, so if they have people round for dinner, do they put aside the chocolates to pass on to others? Perhaps there are only ever a few boxes in circulation and they keep doing the rounds until they are out of date at which point someone says they might as well eat them. You obviously also have to keep a mental note of who they came from so as to not to ‘gift’ them back.
My mum tells a story of when she and my dad were younger and going to parties at friends’ houses. This was in the days of spirit drinking – wine was very posh, only consumed at restaurants and usually came in a raffia basket. Even Mateus Rosé was quite ‘the thing’! It’s hard to imagine now that people would spend a whole night drinking gin, and then probably get into the car to drive home.
Anyway, one couple apparently would always turn up with a bottle of Martini for the hosts and then proceed to drink whisky etc. The bottle of Martini would then be taken to the next do by the new owners and so on. This bottle did the rounds for years apparently even going back to its original home several times. I doubt, however, that a bottle of anything would come into my house ever to see the light of day again. Oh, apart from a bottle of Chaumet, the cheapest bottle of sparkling wine in the UK at about £2, that someone brought to a party at ours once. I was almost too embarrassed to take it to the bottle bank, still intact I might add, and as my friends will vouch, I’ll drink anything, well nearly
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My youngest son has started to learn French at school and often comes home pointing out things that are different colours in French or body parts etc. However the other day we had this exchange:-
Son, “Mum, what does, C’est français’ mean?”
Me, “It’s French”
Son, “Yes, but what does it mean?”
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