To all the ones 8? 9? of you who stood me up ce soir (ie arranged but didn’t come), just a little note to say I am not impressed!
No names – you know who you are.
I’m really amazed this has happened because after all, it was you who called me, and you who said you knew nobody and wanted to get together.
In the end, I’m left feeling it's probably not worth the effort - that some 'new' people only want to get together when they’re really desperate and don’t know anybody, but if something else comes along in the meantime that appears interesting, they’ll abandon the first plans/earlier people with hardly a second thought – or in my case, just an impersonal text message less than an hour before we were due to meet
(and by the way, I was not invited to the BBQ and would never have invited myself - the more old fashioned way of Australian manners). If you want somebody to come to something, you have to ask them.
That makes:
• 40 minutes of wasted text messaging (since my phone is new and I didn’t know how to text message so well)…now I
really hate text messaging
* 2 hours of wasted walking around the city looking for a restaurant for everybody for drinks and maybe dinner (my fault for trying too hard to find something nice for new FDU members to Melbourne to show them something typical)
and also a problem of very few pubs in the whole area, many cafes only open for lunch & closed for Xmas holidays.....and the nearby cafe strip under heavy construction with noisy machinery. ... More bad luck.
* another wasted 1/2 hour waiting for the final person who was evidently meant to be at the meeting point (by which time I'd missed my connection out of the city and had to wait another hour
)
I’d just like to calmly explain that with Australian etiquette, it’s considered very bad form to make plans and then cancel them if somebody else invites you much later in the day to something else – or for those with a few scruples, a polite apology at least IN PERSON or by phone is required to be able to get away with this – otherwise in this country, you’re likely to get the wrath of the person on the receiving end of your actions – and believe me, they would be MUCH more angry than me!
Just a future tip for you if you want to make friends and fit in with Australian society.
Kate