Eating on your own in public

[didactic]

Re: Eating on your own in public

It used to be a difficult one for me but I got used to it. If I eat out with people it is usually as a small group of 3 or 4 or when a visitor is in town. My better half is confined to bed and it is about seven years since she was able to eat half-properly anyway. She has MS, very advanced now, and was affected cognitively very badly from the start. So I'm neither single and free nor part of a 'normal' couple. When fed up of cooking myself (see what I did there?), and want something more of an experience than just a takeaway, I do go out and eat alone. There are plenty of good eating places in town and the nearby villages, but it is never, at the end of the evening, a satisfying experience. What I find more depressing actually is being seen around town always on my own. That's why I do the shopping first thing as soon as the shops open and the couples aren't out and about. Oh god, pass the sleeping pills.

Sorry to hear that blue I know you not seeking it but sunds like a tough situation. It does take a strong confident person to eat alone, I enjoy it too.

 

[Plaything of the gods]

Re: Eating on your own in public

The owners of what I regard as the best two restaurants in town - the best Thai and the best Indian (Bengali) - are near neighbours. One used to live a few doors down and now lives round the corner, and the other lives down the end of the road. They always smile and say hello in town and always ask after my wife when I go into their restaurants. We used to go in a lot going back to the mid 1990s! In fact I think we kept the Indian restaurant in business back in the early 2000s because we'd eat there at least a couple of times a week and were often the only ones in. Spent a fortune there! But a lot easier than cooking and nice to get out of the house. So eating in those two alone is not a problem, nor in any of the other places we used to go where the owners and staff are still there.

Going into the new restaurants - and this small market town seems to grow a new restaurant every month! - is not easy now that I think about how I feel about each one. Bright and open restaurants are difficult, particularly if passers-by can look in. Give me a dark corner any day. My eyesight for reading had deteriorated so taking a paper or a book wasn't really an option (could always have pretended to read I suppose!) but with my recently new glasses I could now pass the time between courses - beats embarrassing eye-avoidance with the odd couples in the bright, open restaurants.

I never had any difficulty eating out alone when away on business. If it's on the company, it's a no-brainer!

I quite often have a meal whilst watching the game in a pub. As a City supporter I've got the perfect excuse for eating out alone...