Worst faux pas an Aussie can commit | Innovation Tech
RECENTLY my fiance and I popped over to a friend’s place for lunch. I bought three bottles of wine as I didn’t know what we were eating, and thought it’s probably best not to bring something that didn’t match.
At the end of the meal only one was drunk (as in one bottle, not one friend). We were restrained, as I expected us to be. It was lunch time, after all.
Without thinking, I picked up the unopened bottles and walked out the door.
And the aftermath was a headache. On many levels.
My intent had been to bring a few bottles for variety — to match the wine with the meal. I thought I was being thoughtful.
Cue a fight with the fiance half way home. Apparently, I had “embarrassed” him because I didn’t leave the two unopened bottles behind. “It’s a gift,” he insisted. “It doesn’t matter how many bottles were drunk. You only bring to the party what you’re happy to leave behind.”
(Thank god I had leftover wine to cushion the onslaught.)
He quizzed me on whether the host had told me I could take the unopened wine home. I clarified the host had not instructed me to take them home — I just assumed.
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Here’s where the guilt and panic set in.
Oh no, was I a rude dinner party drink thief?
Now wine, for the sake of the argument, can be substituted for beer, soft drink or juice in this scenario. Since when did leaving the extras behind become a dinner party rule? Show me the book that states you DO NOT under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES take unopened bottles of drink, home.
Here is my defence, your honour.
They are good friends, not strangers. We get together often. I didn’t know if it was going to be one of those parties that start at lunch and suddenly its dinner and you’re thirsty.
I knew there would only be four of us and we usually share one bottle, maybe two. I arrived over-prepared to the party.
If it’s a friend’s special celebration like a birthday then sure, maybe the extras are their gift. Or in the instance that you are leaving and there’s still others at the party then absolutely leave the bottles behind. No-one likes it when the bar closes early.
On this occasion we had all had a glass or two and our wonderful lunch had wrapped. (My fiance argued that the other couple may have ‘needed’ a bottle of wine after I left, ha ha. Stop kicking.)
Wine and friends. Is it true you can’t have both?
Awkwardly, we are yet to be invited back, but it’s only been two weeks. They’ll call. Right?
Kristen Henry hosts the Breakfast show on Canberra’s MIX 106.3. Follow her adventures on Facebook @kristenhenryofficial, Twitter @kristenhenry and Insta @_kristenhenry.
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