Phone moan

By Paul Fulford on April 11, 2008 9:12 PM | Permalink

Sometimes I'm so pleased that I'm unimportant. My lowly standing means that I'm not compelled to go out to dinner with someone and spend almost the entire meal talking on my mobile phone.

I was fortunate to be sitting at a restaurant table near such an exalted person this week. Bless his thoughtfulness: he chatted away loudly enough to allow all within his vicinity to hear his conversation. Strangely, it seemed a rather dull chat about mundane matters.

It was probably jealousy on my part that led me at one stage to consider walking over to the besuited buffooon's table and thrusting the phone sideways into his mouth to shut him up.

Why do restaurants - even relatively smart places - allow people to use their mobiles at the dining table? Mankind has survived millennia without being instantly contactable and I'm sure we can survive the time it takes to eat three courses and finish a coffee.

How I would love to see a maitre d' march up to a phone-using oaf, grab him (or her) by the scruff of the neck and and frogmarch him (or her) to the door with the words: "Take you mobile, take your company credit card and take yourself out of this restaurant because you don't value our food and you don't consider the comfort of your fellow diners."

Come on restaurants, make a stand against these intrusive, annoying devices!