Most of us go out to visit on the first of the new year. On such days we may even miraculously find ourselves in complete strangers’ company. Usually it goes like this: you met with friends at the rink, and then they offered to come over. You go, but before you do, you first make sure that you are welcome and ready to receive you.
I have been in this situation three times.
The first case.
We were then persistently invited to visit, but we did not plan to go anywhere. However, the people who invited us were very persistent, and we gave in under their pressure. When we arrived, it turned out that the hostess to put on the table is nothing, she carelessly splashed his hands and said that we are now, joint efforts, something to think and moves me a bag of potatoes, they say peel it. I had nowhere to go, and I am in a beautiful holiday suit and started peeling potatoes in the trash in the guest. I am not against the idea of a joint feast, but I did not like that I was put before the fact.
Second case in point.
You sit down at a fancy table, which has everything… There is everything: hot meat rolls, chops, steaks, salads, ten kinds of salads. But the hostess rolls her eyes piteously and tells you that she is exhausted and burnt to death, as she cooked half the night, never left the stove. She starts shoving her hands under your nose and rubbing your strained back. And at that very moment you become terribly uncomfortable to eat all these delicacies, which the hostess cooked with such difficulty.
The third case.
The table is even richer than in the second case. There is nothing on the table: red caviar, black caviar, red fish, marbled meat, salads of crab and squid… The hostess begins to list all the dishes cooked with undisguised pride and names the price of each of them. And you sit there and burn with shame, as you brought with you only a bowl of olivier, herring under a fur coat and roll of pita bread. At the same time the hostess wouldn’t shut up, but kept on telling how much she spent to buy this or that delicacy, and wailing about how expensive everything was nowadays…
It is with such people that I avoid meeting at the same table again…
