A capuccino made with breast milk.
It’s a little espresso cup filled with frothed milk and topped with a sprinkle of cocoa for the younger members of the coffee set. Usually, coffee places will give them to kids for free, but I’ve seen places that charge $2-3 for them. Yeah, I know, not enough :rolleyes in the world…
I’m thinking that wouldn’t froth very well…too high in fat.
A big thanks to mhendo for explaining the whole “services club” thing for me… it really is a bit hard to explain to people from outside Australia.
I stand by my view that a half-empty, warm glass of water in it does not count as a “claim” on a table.
A pair of reading/sunglasses, a book, a handbag, coat, cellphone, and/or a FULL cup of coffee/alcohol/soft drink- all of these things would, IMO, be acceptable as a “claim”- but a half-empty, warm glass of water is more likely to be left over from a previous diner.
I used to work as a glassie in a pub (A glassie’s job is to collect the empty glasses and bottles from patrons and tables), and if I’d been working at that club I would have taken the glass of water away, assuming it was from a previous diner.
I feel for the staff at these sorts of clubs- I’ve dealt with elderly members of the public quite extensively in my various jobs, and I’d like to say the majority of them are wonderful people. Unfortunately, I must seem to attract the cranky, irritable, stuck-in-their-ways ones… :smack:
And I always thought a “Babycino” was just a small cappucino, designed for arty wankers who like tiny little drinks (at enormous prices), or people with body issues who think that drinking an entire cup of coffee with lunch will turn them into Jabba The Hutt.
Can you clarify this view please? I’ve heard two interpretations in this thread:
- A glass of water is not sufficient to reserve a table. A person wanting to reserve a table should know this rule and leave something more obvious.
- You should not have expected the table to be reserved because people don’t typically reserve tables with a glass of water, but when rudely informed of your error, you should have found another table.
Honestly, I really don’t see much difference between your behaviour, your friend’s, and the lady’s. You were all arguing over a table, being rude and nasty about it, and debating the minutia of who reserved the table first and does a glass of water count. Your friend was so worked up about the confrontation, that it ruined his lunch. You were so angry about it that you went back to speak to the manager. The lady was so outraged that she was loud and insulting. I don’t see much of a difference between the three of you.
Interpretation 1) is completely correct, and Interpretation 2 is 50% correct. The bit about finding another table is incorrect, IMO. If you fail to r
Well, had I just said “Oh, I’m sorry” and found another table, Crazy Old Lady would have had it reaffirmed in her head that it was “Her” table, which would have led to further problems in the future with both other patrons, club staff, and the Crazy Old Lady, and I would have- once again- been forced to suffer inconvenience because of the assholery of someone else. I’m getting tired of it.
Look, if she’d been very polite and taken the “I’m terribly sorry, I’m having lunch with my friend who hasn’t arrived yet and I’d just gone to the bar to get another drink/the toilet, I didn’t realise how quickly the restaurant was going to fill up or I would have left something more substantial” approach, then it wouldn’t have been an issue and both my friend and I would have laughed the incident off as one of those misunderstandings and found another table.
But when she turned into a shrieking Crazy Psycho Lady, then all bets were off. It’s not like I’d gone up to the table and been “Hey, bitch! That’s our fuckin’ table! Fuck off and get your own!”- I’d been very polite to her up until the point she started speaking extraordinarily loudly and getting argumentative.
Of course, she’s now been reminded that the table does NOT belong to her, and that there are- the horror- OTHER PEOPLE who are also club members, and who- more horror- also wish to dine at the same time as her.
To put it another way: Crazy Old Lady isn’t going to stop dining there because it’s her second home. My friend and I may have stopped going there as a result of this incident, were it not for the excellent handling of the situation by staff and management- which has ensured we will return, and we’ll make a note not to sit near Crazy Old Lady in the future.
Really, being “polite” only gets you so far, and I’m increasingly finding that the distance decreases every year. Of course, being an asshole straight off the bat isn’t the done thing, but when diplomacy fails, it’s time to invade Germany, so to speak.
I was thinking this too.
There’s a restuarant chain here called Fresh Choice that uses a varient on this idea. It’s a buffet, so you come in and get your food and pay for it and then go find a table. A few minutes later, the staff comes by to see if you need anything and drops a little laminated card on the table. One side of the card says “be right back” and the other says “all done.” When you are up for seconds, you leave the “be right back” side up so the staff knows to clear the empties, but not everything. When you’re done, you flip the card over. The services place could have cards that say “reserved” on one side and “all done” on the other, so you wouldn’t even have to return the card when you had finished.
(My bolding).
Where’s the fun in that then? 
Nah, the mad old coot needs a bit of a prodding, and you and whoever accompanies you to the establishment in future need to make it your ‘project’ to give her one.
Either nick her table again (just for shits and giggles) or pull up another one right close to hers. Then give her a BIG CHEESY 
as you proceed tell your lunch-mate (loudly) all about the last time you were here and some crazy biddy went mental on you.
And just as you are leaving, present her with a flower (you can pinch one from the carpark) as you bend down in a little bow.
And please take pictures.
I really don’t see why the management have made the system so inherently difficult. We live near a restaurant that is self service - but
-
there is a table full of numbered cards. You take a card, place it on your chosen table (the table is now reserved for you)
-
you order your food, giving your table number. The waitress then delivers your food to your table
-
If you want to get more food, go to the toilet etc, your number’s still on your table and therefore is still reserved
-
when you’re done, you pay your bill, and your number is removed, thereby signifying that your table is free
Simple!
It’s not so simple when you are talking about ‘Service Clubs’ (or RSL’s as they are known in Victoria).
They’re not* just* eating places, and they’re not just bars. Many ex-servicemen (and women) and their respective spouses AND children regard them as Sacred Sites, and I mean that quite literally.
If you’re standing up to someone to teach them a lesson, it’s a different ball of wax. You’re talking about being a moral arbiter, not just a diner.
This whole thing happened because YOU see a glass of water as insufficient claim, and a coat as sufficient, and SHE draws the line somewhere else. It’s totally subjective.
But, you just said thet you yourself are “tired of” being “forced to suffer inconvenience because of the assholery of someone else”.
Imagine you’re an old lady who’s alone.
She probably routinely gets treated shabbily and ignored by other people. She’s probably pre-conditioned to assume your coats are evidence of assholery by which she will once again be inconvenienced, and she’s tired of it too.
Moral arbiter again. Look, there’s nothgin really wrong with doing that, but in situations where it turns ourt the other person was actually there first, it comes across a little more like the aforementioned assholery.
You’re out to defend yourself against perceived encroachments you’re tired of – and she is, too. You’re ready to go to war (“invade Germany”) over it, and she is, too (yelling). She pre-judged you as jerks without waiting for an explanation, but you dismissed her as unimportant, regarding her glass of water as insignificant. Well, whether coats are or aren’t significant is subjective too.
It looks to me like you have a lot in common with this woman. You’re both tired of being disrespected and preparted to fight over it.
Of course, the really heroic thing to do would be to apporach her some day and apologize – you did usurp her table, it seems – and try to explain yourself. Probably you won’t want to do it, probably she won’t want to hear it, but imagine if you broke through to each other. You could alleviate her loneliness and perhaps invade Germany together.
Sailboat
Sailboat, I see you’re well-intentioned, but really, it doesn’t work like that.
The possibility no-one’d mentioned, and that’s partly my fault for not clarifying it earlier, is that The glass of water may not have been hers, and she may have simply saying it was, as an excuse not to move- possibly because she didn’t see our jackets and bags until she sat down, or more likely, ignored them, since it was, in her eyes, “Her” table.
I never saw her drinking from the glass or touching it during our brief conversation, FWIW.
Based on the information I had at the time, the odds were stacked much greater in favour of Crazy Lady having arrived there after us and deciding she wanted “Her” table, than her having actually “reserved” the table. And even if she had intended to reserve said table, a half-empty glass of warm water was insufficient to do so, thus rendering said “reservation” invalid, IMO.
‘ceptin’ that he’d be paying when ordering. It’s a service club, not a restaurant. 
Otherwise, a perfectly fine idea. I prefer the sound of the ‘reserved’/‘all done’ cards though, as they’d work better in this situation.
Okay, but how does a numbered-card system interfere with the sanctity of the site? Are you saying that people are so thoroughly set in their ways that a system that facilitates seating would still be a disruption, simply because it’s new?
Basically, yes.
It really is hard to explain how incredibly set in their ways some elderly people here are.
In my job as a Nightfiller at a supermarket, I cop endless amount of shit from elderly customers bitching because we moved the shelves around slightly, to make room for new products.
Suddenly, the brand of pet food they usually buy has moved 6 inches to the left (still on the same shelf!), but the way they carry on you’d think someone had deliberately plotted to hide it so poor Mr. Tiddles would have to go without his Kitty Num-Num™ Cat Food.
At some of the RSLs, especially ones with a lot of older members, a numbered seating card system would be seen as an affront to a lot of the older members, who’d start going on about the ANZAC spirit and how young people should respect their elders and so on…
And this is the first time you’ve been to an RSL and had to deal with a crazy old person? Seriously, I’m inclined to say “her house, her rules”. Life’s too short (and hers is going to be a lot shorter than yours) to give yourself heartburn before you eat your $6.50 steak… and get used to crazy old people in RSLs! One day you may get the opportunity to BE one