More Greetings...

A few days ago we were invited to a small soiree, my wife's nephew was celebrating his 19th birthday. I didn't feel like celebrating anything and when I am in that mood then it's best to just lock me away in a darkened room. Way back in April I wrote a post about greeting people and the problems I have with this simple procedure. The same can be said for saying goodbye to people as well. When I can get away with it, I say goodbye to people with a small smile and a slight hand gesture that is not a wave but is meant to leave the person I am gesturing to in no doubt that I am leaving and I am indeed saying goodbye to them and them alone. The hand gesture would be similar to the one I give to car drivers who stop for me at a zebra crossing. It's a friendly gesture, I think, and quite appropriate to use on people you don't know or only know slightly.
This was the way I said goodbye to my brother-in-laws mother a few weeks back. Unfortunately she was already half rising from her chair and holding out her hand. Disaster! She saved the moment by saying something funny about 'Englesman' and I reacted by exuberantly hugging her whilst apologizing.
Still with me?
Cut to Monday.
Me. Grumpy guts. Face like a smacked arse (as my wife said to me).
Enter party.
I have to say now that I'm not the type of person who goes around introducing myself to strangers..."Hi, I'm Mike, Englishman". If there are strangers about then I wait to be introduced and generally ignore them until such time arises.
I was aware that there were people at the far end of the table that I didn't know and so kept my attention firmly fixed to the centre of the table where I was amongst family. Our hosts were busy doing stuff, as you do, and I never actually got introduced to any of the new people. I didn't have a problem with that because I was just happy (in a grumpy sort of way) to just sit there quietly. However, after about 20 minutes it became clear to me that one of the people sitting at the other end of the table was...my brother-in-law's mother!
It's not such a disaster I suppose, but I was in such a foul mood that I felt unable to rescue the situation and of course not being able to communicate adequately made it worse. Even such a simple comment like 'oh hello, I didn't see you there!', is difficult for me. So I just sat there in all my grumpy magnificence and slowly stewed...all night.
I managed to say goodnight to her but was firmly blanked as she left, due I am told, to a hearing problem.
Something else happened that night that happens a lot. When someone learns I'm English, I get treated the same way some people treat people in wheelchairs. It seems to be a rule that if you are in a wheelchair then people will talk to the person pushing it rather than the person sitting in it, as if the wheelchair user is either incapable of speech or incapable of thought. Well I get treated the same way.
I can't speak Dutch too well, but sometimes I do understand with remarkable clarity what is being said and if people talk slowly enough and try not to use long words then they might be surprised to get a response from me...in Dutch...or something like it!