YOUR PROBLEMS SOLVED
Dear Mary. . .
Q. Your advice is urgently required. Our new Scottish nanny appeared to be utterly Charming and to really like us and our baby daughter. My husband kept saying she was a real find, but I had an instinct about her. To be on the safe side I read her diary While she was away for the weekend and found page after page of vituperative out- pourings about how ghastly we are and how she gets on the phone to her friends every time we go out to 'slag them off'. Having seen The Hand that Rocked the Cradle, we are actually quite frightened about having her in the house, but as she has been charming to our faces and pretends to be really happy in the job, how can we sack her without admitting that I found the key to her locked suitcase and went through it until I found and read her diary?
J.K, Boston, Lincs A. Trick the nanny by telling her that you have reason to believe she has been disloyal about you behind your backs, and that she Is unhappy in the job. When she denies it, you can say, 'I'm afraid to say we have proof. Part of your telephone conversation the other day was recorded by the answer- phone and we were just so shocked by what we heard you say about us that we are going to have to ask you to leave.' As all answerphones are different and, on some, it is theoretically possible to trigger recording accidentally, your surprised nanny will be taken aback by your allegation and will, temporarily at least, believe it to be true. In any case, her hesitation and blushes will be tantamount to a confession of guilt and her bags will soon be packed.
Q. I am looking forward to at least three very promising pre-Christmas drinks par- ties, but how can I deal with the problem of rounding people up to go on to dinner afterwards? Having usually had the vision and foresight to have booked a table and arranged a group to go on, I find it then seems impossible to drag people away when parties are good. Drink clouds their judg- ment and they start asking if others, to whom they have been talking, can come along too, saying stupidly, 'Don't bother ringing to see if we can have a bigger table, let's just turn up.' Now that I am 37 I find myself becoming less tolerant of this aspect of socialising. I don't want to be cast in the role of school monitor, but have had too many experiences of turning up late to find the table has been given away.
C.B., London W11 A. Why not take a tip from some of the more sophistical socialisers who recently attended just such a party in Chelsea's Tite Street? One, a literary giantess who is expecting a baby, insisted on eating before the party to avoid faintness. The group arrived at 7.30, having had the fullest atten- tion of the waiters in an otherwise empty restaurant where they ate a light supper. Thus fortified, they were able to enjoy fully their conversational interchanges, immune to the excesses of canapé-gobbling and over-drinking traditionally caused by hunger. Most gratifying of all, this group found, was witnessing the spectacle of fel- low guests blundering out of the party at 10.20 p.m., irritable and hungry, and with no chance of finding a restaurant table.
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