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I prefer to eat alone...at buffets. I get up so many times to refill my plate there's no time to talk.
There's a man after my own heart. I LOVE buffets!
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I don't think I ever went to a restaurant alone in my life. But I have been to loads of restaurants over the decades with woman and relatives.
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I eat alone regularly. I ate alone this lunchtime. It's never been a big deal.
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I don't think I ever went to a restaurant alone in my life. But I have been to loads of restaurants over the decades with woman and relatives.
Playa!
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Posted: |
Aug 3, 2014 - 7:48 AM
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By: |
Regie
(Member)
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I don't go out these days if I have to eat alone. But during business trips earlier in my working life, if I stayed at a hotel, I would have to eat alone (and that wasn't such a big deal). Most of the other guests dined alone anyway because few people take a partner or friends on a business trip!! Often a conversation would start amongst the lone diners and that could be very nice. It's amazing what interesting stories other people have to share with us, if we take the time to be interested in them.
I would feel extremely uncomfortable dining out alone at night, especially on a weekend when others were celebrating with family and/or friends. Neither my husband nor myself would do that. And I wouldn't read anything at a restaurant (except during a lunch break from shopping or work in the city) because that would look a bit darn obvious!!
In past years I've been to noisy evenings with groups of people - either a work gathering, our children's school P&C - dinners, dancing etc. - or with fellow teachers or groups of female friends - and these CAN be fun, but sometimes absolutely not so. I detest loud noise and having to shout to be heard, and often I'll grow bored during such events, especially if I don't have somebody really interesting and engaging to talk with. I've been known to leave these kinds of events very early, much to my husband's annoyance!
My preferred mode of social intercourse is 4 to 6 people absolute MAXIMUM, with me targeting the most interesting member of the group and never letting them escape from excellent conversation. I've had people for barbeques at my place and by 10pm I'm wondering when they'll go home because I'm sick of them by that time!!
And I loathe parties for reasons which remain obscure. But these comments are light years from "eating alone"!!
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It seems to me that over the years so many people who I have seen eat alone in sit down restaurants appeared to be sad. Now this observation seems to be based on the combination of the personal facial expressions these people seemed to express in these situations and the contrast factor that in most cases the other people with people are in good spirits, laughing and enjoying the dining experience so in comparison they look like sad sacks.
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Posted: |
Aug 3, 2014 - 10:43 PM
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By: |
mastadge
(Member)
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It seems to me that over the years so many people who I have seen eat alone in sit down restaurants appeared to be sad. Now this observation seems to be based on the combination of the personal facial expressions these people seemed to express in these situations and the contrast factor that in most cases the other people with people are in good spirits, laughing and enjoying the dining experience so in comparison they look like sad sacks.
On the contrary, yes, sometimes I see someone eating along who doesn't appear to be happy, but on the other hand there's no reason to be ecstatic while eating alone -- if I'm eating a meal and reading a book without company, I'll default to my "resting bitch face," probably not looking ecstatic.
What makes me sad is how often I see couples eating together looking miserable. It's one thing when it's an older couple -- I wonder if they've exhausted things to talk about but still take comfort in each others' company, or whether, having nothing to say to each other, they eat out together out of routine but joylessly, or what the story is. But often I see young couples eating together mirthlessly, even silently. A terrible date? Do they already have so little to communicate about so young?
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Posted: |
Aug 3, 2014 - 11:25 PM
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By: |
Regie
(Member)
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Mastadge, I think you're really onto something here! Yes, the countless couples I've seen silently sitting at table, both staring into space or peering at some attractive young thing....so sad. But, then, I know of many marriages which are held together by, well, what exactly....I don't know. One friend is totally controlled by his wife and it's affecting his health - his spouse is a joyless control freak nobody likes. They dine together with hardly a word spoken. I have counselled him to leave her but he already has significant symptoms of "Stockholm Syndrome"!!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stockholm_syndrome
THIS IS MY ADVICE:
Eat, drink and be merry...(anon?)
If music be the food of love, play on.... (Shakespeare)
Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter;
Sermons and soda-water the day after! (Lord Byron)
...or something like that!
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While I've eaten at home alone often, in restaurants I rarely ate alone up until about four years ago. Since I normally eat one meal a day and then snack at home when I'm hungry, I must say I have grown very fond of eating alone. I, too, am a regular at one specific place, they know where I like to sit and what I like to eat and I get a lot done during that hour or so.
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One of the best eating alone stories is the one told by Orson Welles during a lengthy interview for the BBC Arena TV programme in 1982. He said he went into Mr Chow’s in London to have lunch alone. He said he liked to have lunch or dinner alone and that he had brought a book with him. The waiter asked him if he had ever made a picture after CITIZEN KANE. In Welles’ words:
“I had just been told by Huw Weldon (BBC broadcaster/executive) that I was out of fashion so this came at the wrong moment. I said politely. Yes, MAGNIFICENT AMBERSONS. Then I listed my pictures. Now Joan Didion wrote a piece in Esquire magazine a few months afterwards in which she described me coming into Mr Chow’s with impressive silence; how all heads turned. I opened a book and sat reading it and then suddenly silence was broken by me saying “I made CITIZEN KANE in 1941” and so on….
You know, I’ve been brooding about that thing for six years. That I’d just sat and delivered a monologue to the audience of lunchers about the pictures I’d made. Imagine someone sitting by himself in a restaurant and suddenly reciting his screen credits!”
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). 
