by Alan Townendand been a guest there herself on the strength of her age alone but
as she frequently told me, she had no intention of turning into
(changing into) an old fogey.
I suppose serving breakfast was the most difficult task to turn your
hand to (perform) because there were so many variations of drink,
cereal, egg and toast. You had to stand there for ages as each guest
made up their mind, turning over (considering) the choices in their
minds. After a long wait like that very frequently they would turn
down (refuse) everything and simply ask for a cup of tea. One
morning an old lady turned up at (reached) the dining room sat
down, sniffed at the air full of breakfast smells, got up, turned
around (went the other way) and walked out again. Apparently she
had completely forgotten that she'd already eaten breakfast that
day. I turned aside (looked the other way) to hide my smile but
Doris caught me at it. 'Don't you turn your nose up at the old dears',
(Don't you behave in a superior way) she rebuked me. 'You'll be like
that one day. Just you wait.' I turned back (went again to where she
was) to apologise but she'd already turned her back on me (ignored
me) and gone back to the kitchen. She rather turned against (was
not very friendly to) me after that. With that experience of course I
learnt a little bit about being a waiter but also more importantly a
little about life.