Steph

 John, our eldest, has moved in with his girlfriend, Stephanie. They had us round for supper.

  I remember when I was much younger, working on the Yorkshire Post when a colleague asked us around for supper once. We had our tea before going because "supper" for us was cheese and biscuits or a snack. This was a four-course meal!

  We'd only just got used to the idea of dinner so had no idea that some people, trying to be posh, would call dinner supper. These days, where we live down south, the two seem to be interchangeable. People with sofas have supper, while those with settees have dinner. Those with a couch still have tea. When I was a kid we had a couch and had tea. As early marrieds we progressed to settees and dinner and now, in our genteel state, we can sit on our sofa after supper. We don't have supper on the sofa - that would take us back to square one.

Maybe new words and phrases are coming in that are even posher, but we haven't discovered them yet. Social climbing can only go so far until you reach the door that is forever barred.

As for rooms, I never did get used to them. As a kid we had the front room and the back room. Later, after marriage, it was lounge and dining room and it still is although the lounge has come to be interchangeable with living room. I still don't know what a drawing room is, but I suspect it's posh for lounge.

Mmm, just looked it up, don't think we have one.