Last week the missus and I were invited to a wedding dinner which promised to start at 7.30 pm SHARP. Like the morons that we are, we thought that the wedding couple was serious about being SHARP and, being well-mannered people that we are, we were determined not to be late. We arrived at the banquet hall of a hotel in the city at 7.25 pm and found that we were the only invitees present, other than members of the family of the wedded couple and a few close relatives. The dinner, not surprisingly, started at 9 pm. I woke up at 3 am the next morning, suffering excruciating gastric pains. I told the missus that that would be the last wedding dinner I would be fooled into attending. If people who invite you to their wedding dinners have no respect for punctuality, I don't see why you should bother to give them face by turning up. In the past few years the missus and I have religiously attended wedding dinners at beach and city hotels, sometimes driving practically half way across the island just to "give somebody face" and attend his/her wedding and without fail there was never ever any respect for punctuality. If the dinner started one hour later than the usual appointed time of 7.30 pm we should be lucky. Excuses given for the delay would be the usual "we had to wait for some important guests to arrive". Once the classic excuse given for the delay was that "the bride's maid's corsage was caught in a traffic jam"! That dinner was one and a half hours late and everybody at our table was griping about the delay. From now onwards we will give a RM24 angpow and cook up a plausible excuse for not being able to attend instead of the customary RM120 for being present, to be abused with uncivilised disregard for punctuality. We save money and we are spared the stress of having to engage in small talk with eight strangers and not knowing when the food would be served.
5 comments:
I also suffer from gastric attacks, that's why I always grab a light snack at home before going out for any function cos I know people are always not punctual.
I can forgive people who are late by ten or fifteen minutes, even half an hour, but late by one hour or one and a half hours is atrocious and an affront to good manners.
From experience 'sharp' is about an hour later than the actual timing. I detest waiting for dinner as well, since I eat very early most of the time. Completely sympathise.
9 pm?!?! that's a little bit rude. all the wedding dinners i've attended since childhood, teenage years and now start around 8 pm, 8.30 latest :P
my friends and i were talking about this the other day; the invitation cards should note that the dinners start at 6 pm, so everyone can eat at 7.30 pm.
Good to know I'm not the only victim of uncivilised people who have no regard for punctuality. I wouldn't be so incensed if these people didn't specify "sharp". I would like to rejoice with people who are getting married but not at the expense of common civility. If people started their married life with such tardiness, I can't imagine what sort of future they would face.
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