Last night I went out for drinks for a friends birthday. There was a mixture of her friends there, some of whom I knew, some I'd never met before. So, as you would expect, some conversations were a bit stilted, nothing more than small talk.
At one point I ended up in conversation with a girl I know reasonably well and her boyfriend who I had never met before. I mentioned the problems of funding in the theatre, not expecting anyone to be interested but in response to a question about how my job was going. I said it was a difficult time for the theatre and there was a bit of a money problem in the sector.
To which the boyfriend said
"One month I'm going to ask for my salary entirely in cash just so I can see what such a large sum of money looks like in notes"
I didn't quite know what to say at this point and at the earliest opportunity I moved to talk to someone else. I was well aware that this person had a well-paid job as I'd been told previously about his girlfriend's boasts. But is it not rather an odd thing to say in conversation? I don't have a problem with someone else's success and I am well aware that I made the decision to work in an industry that is never going to lead me to such material wealth.
But really is that what passes for polite conversation these days?
5 comments:
It's the sub-species observed by Harry Enfield and the like: "I am considerably richer than you", to whom the trappings of wealth are everything and all else none...
Whwn he loses that well paid job his whole existence will crumble...he'll have nothing to talk about, nothing to value himself for...offensive now, but in the end just sad...
I hate this kind of attitude and boasts - I know someone who says things like this in a thinly veiled attempt to kickstart a converstaion about how great he is based on how much he earns.
The other half and I take great delight in ignoring his boasts and changing the subject to something we can be sure he knows nothing about (seemingly most things as he is supremely uninterested in anything other than money and how much he makes and how it is bound to be more than us) to deflate his ego a bit...childish but satisfying...as cogi says for sub-species like this, without the money they'll have no existence!
Such a pity though don't you think?
All that money and no personality?
Doing something you love is far more important as I have realised. Why else would I have given up a decent job and become a student? All together now -
"We was poor, but we was 'appy"
I did think we'd left that sort of thing behind in the 80s, but apparently not.
I do wonder if it might have been a reaction to me talking about the theatre and perhaps that made him feel uncomfortable.
I've found that people with their sights firmly set on money, have a hard time dealing with 'arty' people who go for job satisfaction.
They are making the ulitimate sacrifice: no personality, ulcers, late nights, conference meetings day and night, stress related illness; and there you are talking about fun stuff.
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