A big mishearing mishap

Today is Thankful Friday.

And I am thankful to Gym Buddy for making me laugh until I nearly fell off my chair last night.

We went for dinner in Covent Garden to a little Italian place with a very amorous waiter – I think he was flirting with me, but it’s been a while, so he could have just had something in his eye that caused him to wink at me constantly.

Anyway, inbetween the free drinks he was plying us with, we were chatting about Gym Buddy’s family when she told me about how her niece – aged 2 – has a massive crush on Mr Gym Buddy and that when he’s in the room she's only interested in him. Then, one morning her niece had mistaken a bin bag for Gym Buddy’s husband and run towards it squealing his name.

I listened, a bit bemused that this could have happened – surely toddlers can tell the difference between bin bags and people? – but I laughed politely before finally asking, ‘Wasn’t he a bit upset about this?’ To which she replied, ‘No, he thought it was hilarious.’

‘I’m not sure I’d take being mistaken for a bin bag so well,’ was my response.

SILENCE

DISBELIEF

LAUGHTER

It turned out Gym Buddy had said Bin Man – one had been on the front drive emptying their bins at the time and her neice had spotted him through the window. But when when she said man, it lipread it the exact same as bag, and as my Ma had once mistaken a bin bag for my Pa – but that’s a whole other story – I guess I thought maybe mistaking people for bin bags was actually quite common.

Gym Buddy however, started to giggle hysterically, which set me off and very quickly we were both beyond help, unable to speak, breathe or sit up straight anymore.

I. WAS. MORTIFIED though and thanked my lucky stars that Gym Buddy also saw the funny side of me effectively comparing her husband to a bin bag.

And the dishy Italian waiter? Well, it turns out he was flirting with me. He made me promise to come back soon and winked so much I thought he was going to strain something.

But do you know what? Those two things combined left me with a much-needed grin on my face – and even today, it’s still there.