Aussie, Aussie, Aussie (oi, oi, oi)

I dedicate this post to the great Australian Yob!

Last night I went to dinner with the social group that I have told you about many a time. This time I took myself off to a group that were a slightly older age group - try something different and see what happens.

Where I sat on the table was interesting - the other end of the table EVERYONE was involved in conversation. At my end it took some time until the conversation actually got started and that wasn't until another lady joined me along with a much older, very nice, but technologically challenged, man.

I had arrived late and so had limited spaces to choose from, all at the one end. Here was what I had to choose from in terms of seating. Between 3 men who were rather loud and seemed a bit icky (one man had a really bad fitting and obviously cheap toupee on - I did my best not to laugh!), a man sitting opposite them who was well dressed and very quiet, or further up from him another man who looked as though his clothes were given to him by a giant.

I chose the well dressed man. I sat down and went through the pleasantries and then found out that that was pretty much it for conversation! This man could answer any question put to him but struggled when it came to continuing the conversation in any other direction.

I was very pleased when the lady sat next to me and the technologically-challenged man joined us. (She sat next to me with the 3 loud men on her other side, he sat on the other side of the well-dressed man next to the giant-dressed man). Once these two joined me we had conversation flowing like nothing else. We talked movies, music, current affairs, cameras and photography, cats and dogs, and pretty much anything in between. I enjoyed their company greatly.

I was also well entertained by the three men sitting opposite. (I am speaking with my tongue firmly placed in my cheek.)

We were at a Thai restaurant and we had a choice of banquet (4 Thai banquets or 3 Chinese banquets) or a la carte. I went a la carte and had beautiful Tom Yum Soup, basil and chili stir-fry, and a banana dumpling - all very yum. Those sitting near me also went a la carte. The three men went with a Thai banquet and chose one of the four based on the quantity of food that would be placed in front of them. In the words of one of the men "I am so hungry so I need lots of food to make me feel better!"

They asked me if I would join them in the banquet and when they told me why they chose what they did, I declined politely.

I need to say that the restaurant was packed and there were only two waiting staff. Meals came in interesting timings. I got my tom yum very quickly, as did the others who had ordered it, but the 3 men had to wait and wait and wait. They complained and talked about leaving as they were so hungry and were not being looked after adequately. Ok - they had to wait about 45 minutes from ordering to when the food arrived....... When their entrees finally arrived there was a huge cheer from them including a "you beauty" in a thick Aussie accent from Toupee man. The other two chimed in with "about bloody time" etc. All other diners had a quick sideways look at us - I was rather embarrassed.

Main meals came in reverse order to that - the banquet people got theirs first and again another cheer from the men. I was rather pleased that they had their meals as this meant that they were very quiet as they hoovered down their food. The type of conversation that they thought was appropriate contained many a sexual innuendo, a racist comment or even talk about stupidity of those of the female gender. Watching them eat, although a little disconcerting, was a relief in comparison to listening to their conversation.

When we, the a la carte diners, finally got our food, the men were a little foul and the woman next to me said quietly "bloody yobs!". I had a quick laugh and we continued with our dinner conversation. I then noticed that her body language was quite direct - she had turned her back to the 3 men and was facing us in the conversation.

Desserts came and the 3 men got their banana fritters with A scoop of ice-cream. The lady next to me also had a banana fritter but she had TWO scoops of ice-cream. Did the men rant and rave about that! Then they caught sight of my dumpling (steamed in a banana leaf) and off they went about weird looking food.........

Then they left, after paying.

It became very quiet as soon as they walked out the door. The volume on our table was quite subdued.

I know that all cultures have loud, obnoxious people who are rather embarrassing but the great Australian Yob is a doozy!

[Just an aside, I hope you like the change in my layout. I have also spent some time narrowing down the number of tags that I am using as I was getting a little confused. A little more narrowing is coming and I will be quite happy.]