Awkward guests.

MarieElla - I have never heard that phrase before but like it.

Oh dear what a disappointing guest she is.
Never mind, she’ll never have to do this again.
No good deed ever goes unpunished, as they say!

I've had awkward guests before and they don't get invited again .
What a cheek .
I really think that people's expectations are too much at times .

I don’t think she will be invited again, partly because of the diet but also I think my friend has realised that it was really too much and too long for them both. I am seeing her tomorrow so I will hear even more details.

MT62

Who foots the bill for all that DD?

I think you need to ask Allira .

Being one of the 3am thread people who wake in the night, I could really never be a guest now. As I go to bed v v v early and wake in the night and need a drink of tea or hot milk so need to go downstairs to the kitchen waking host's dog or parrot or children, I would be very unwelcome. And then I am immunosuppressed so would have to be v careful about what I eat and hygiene standards in the kitchen.
So best I stay at home.

I have lots of friends to stay but always ask if they have any dietary requirements. I also keep a well stocked freezer so can usually rustle up a meal for someone . Surely if they are friends we can have a giggle about misunderstandings or inconveniences or tbh I wouldn't want them as house guests!

"My friend was preparing a meal for the first evening when she announced she only ate fish now, no puddings and no chocolate."

For the life of me, I cannot understand why people with such specific dietary needs don't tell their host in advance of their visit.

A similar thing happened to me. My late OH had invited his brother, wife and 2 children, to spend Christmas with us. I was just bringing the Christmas food to the table from the kitchen when my BIL announced that his wife was now a vegetarian... we had been sitting and chatting for hours prior to this with me running in and out of the kitchen preparing the food...

I did, as it so happened, have a couple of vegetarian ready-meals in the fridge because I also occasionally eat such dishes. However, I was hot, tired and had had enough, so I politely told her she'd have to make do with the vegetables and roast potatoes (of which there were plenty).

I'm just so puzzled why people think it's acceptable to give you such information quite literally at the last minute.

Yes I'm surprised that someone with specific food requirements did not mention it before arrival.
Everyone I know understands that I'm a vegetarian, but I have eaten at a table where a roast dinner was served and I ate potatoes and vegetables, which didn't trouble me at all.

Some of the things people on this thread are describing aren't dietary requirements they are eating disorders.

I'm just so puzzled why people think it's acceptable to give you such information quite literally at the last minute.
It's not acceptable at all, IMO.

I can understand if there is a foodstuff that makes you ill, or that you really hate, but for most people that's probably a small number of things. In my case it's eggs with yolk and white separated (scrambled and omelettes are fine) and seafood. Long-term friends know this, and if they haven't cooked for me before I always tell them.

There are things I don't love to eat (sprouts and cauliflower mainly), but if someone made them for me I would force myself. It's just polite. I always put food on the table for people to help themselves, so if they have forgotten to mention their hatred of carrots or whatever they can take one and leave it on the plate with no embarrassment.

As for staying for a week with such a restricted diet and not even mentioning it - were they raised by wolves?

My brother’s partner is vegan and gluten intolerant - so a double wammy. When they stayed a couple of years ago my brother cooked for them both - he’s vegetarian. She is lovely but doesn’t cook!

I think 3 nights is more than enough, however logistics dictated a week as she had to be fetched and taken home

Weren’t we all brought up to acknowledge that fish and guests go off after three days ?.

fancythat

People have so many allergies, and changes in taste nowadays, that I nearly always ask their preferences some days before they arrive. Even with family.

Not so many surprises on what is going to be eaten, but better that, than the other way.

Well, they say they do, have allergies I mean. I was involved in the Covid vaccine programme and had to ask health related questions before I could authorise people to have the vaccine. Due to years of experience when people said they were allergic to X, Y or Z I would then ask them to describe how the substance affected them. In many cases it transpired that the ‘allergy’ was a mild intolerance or just a plain old dislike.

This thread reminds me when some friends asked if they could stay the night as they wanted to visit their daughter’s prospective university near us. They would only be staying for breakfast.

We decided to give them a variety of breakfast food similar to what they serve say at the Premier Inn. This consisted to a choice of cereal, toast and marmalade/jam or croissants, and a bowl of mixed fruit and yogurt.

Our guests just had a bowl of Rice Krispies each and ignored everything else. ☹️

I know it is silly but I was really upset that they didn’t try anything else we offered.

This happened about 25 years ago and it still hurts.

Many, many years ago my mother's cousin wrote to ask if we could put her daughter up for a night. She would only need an evening meal and breakfast - easy! When she arrived at about 5pm she casually mentioned that she was now vegetarian. No freezer in those days that might have had a couple of vegetarian ready meals tucked away, and no shops staying open after 5.30pm so we couldn't nip out and buy something. In the end my mother had to borrow a cauliflower from a neighbour and make cauliflower cheese, which was not one of her better dishes. The girl didn't come again.

😂😂😂😂DD

I once had a guest who was to stay with us for 3 nights-I was going to give up my room and ensuite to her and sleep in a "box room". On arrival she informed me that she could not stay in someone else's home and would need to be put up in a motel. I had to pay. Our water (filtered) tasted nasty and she needed to be taken to a cafe for cups of tea. Did not like home-cooked food, demanded to be taken out to eat, and insisted on fish - very expensive at that time. She came on a coach, so no transport, so required being taken to her accommodation and picked up, and I took her out and about to local attractions. She sat in our sitting room and talked, literally for hours, about herself. Her visit literally cost me hundreds of pounds, lots of stress and exhaustion.

Ladyleftfieldlover

My brother’s partner is vegan and gluten intolerant - so a double wammy. When they stayed a couple of years ago my brother cooked for them both - he’s vegetarian. She is lovely but doesn’t cook!

Very difficult for someone who is coeliac and vegan, I would have thought.

Deedaa

Many, many years ago my mother's cousin wrote to ask if we could put her daughter up for a night. She would only need an evening meal and breakfast - easy! When she arrived at about 5pm she casually mentioned that she was now vegetarian. No freezer in those days that might have had a couple of vegetarian ready meals tucked away, and no shops staying open after 5.30pm so we couldn't nip out and buy something. In the end my mother had to borrow a cauliflower from a neighbour and make cauliflower cheese, which was not one of her better dishes. The girl didn't come again.

Sounds like a great way to get rid of awkward guests.

We had a great guest come to visit a few months ago, a relative from NYC who was desperate to come and see how my DH was doing after having a stroke. She booked into a hotel not far from us and when she came to our house she brought take away with her or ordered it on her way to us. And she never stayed too long just said ‘he’s tired now, I need to go, ‘ before popping into an Uber and going back to her hotel.
As a result I really miss her.

Never mind three days, as far as I’m concerned guests, like fish, go off after three hours!!

The guest is no friend, She is incredibly selfish and mean. I am surprised your friend hadn't seen those traits before. I would have said something to her, The least she should have done having not warned her before of her strange boring eating habits, was go out each day to buy her expensive fish and treat her friend to a meal out even if she doesn't like eating out.. I think a couple of nights is more than enough.

This is why I am glad that I live in a house with no spare rooms!

Apparently, the saying “After three days, fish and guests stink” is attributed to Benjamin Franklin from his Poor Richard’s Almanac. I had always thought it was of French origin. Every day’s a school day