This could be a quebec vs english canada thing but it seems everything is very individualistic at dinner and restaurants.
Apart from getting individual bills from the waiter, people also seem to ask for drinks themselves from the waiter without asking if others wanted anything, they also pour their own wine without offering it to anyone else first.
Anyone else experienced this or is it just me?

I have experienced it but I have also experienced people asking others if they want another drink before they beckon the waiter over.
I have mostly noticed that people will go to someone elses house for the evening and bring their own drinks and thats expected.

I can't really comment on English Canada, although I don't remember seeing many rounds being bought, but it certainly seems quite normal in Quebec. I've been to a fair few large family gatherings and taking your own booze is standard (there are lots of BYOB restaurants in QC). Individual bills are also par for the course. There is nothing wrong with any of this. It's just the way things are done here, a bit like automatically taking your outdoor shoes off when you enter.

Well, generally even at BYOB places you bring it to share it don't you?

I remember once buying a round for some Quebecers and they had a fit, they couldn't comprehend what they were supposed to do afterwards and felt bad cos they owed me some money! I just said, buy me a beer back, what's the issue!

I'm not sure that it is the case that you bring it to share. I have seen no evidence to suggest that it is.

Sometimes being here is a bit like relearning your adult life. What was accepted, normal and expected in the UK can be different here. It can be hard because you have to stop and rethink some situations as what you are used to is not what they are used to.

So true....we have been here around 4 months and that's definitely how I'd describe it. I find it funny sometimes, as I didn't expect moving to another Western country to involve so much relearning! Obviously I expected differences but I have definitely found it's kind of like finding yourself as a child again, having to learn the way things are done

Yes, sometimes its fun and sometimes its downright hard work.
I spent my first year being vaguely irritated by some of the differences of everyday life and sometimes feeling like the UK way was by far the best. Thankfully I am now past that.

Maybe that's a Quebec thing as it's not the way I was brought up and it's certainly not the norm with the people I hang with.

Always, always serve everyone else at the table first then yourself last.

We were invited for 'a glass of wine' the other evening, which was most pleasant, but it was at 6.30, so I thought we'd come back at 8 ish and have dinner. Then our hosts gave us lots of different puddings - very nice, but unexpected, and to us a bit bizzare - I had vaguely expected an 'apero' with a nut and a crisp perhaps, but not pudding.

I forget to give the stuff that people bring back. They bring a bottle of gin and take the remains back home.

I like the bills in restaurants thing. Makes life so much simpler.

[QUOTE=bats;10325870]They bring a bottle of gin and take the remains back home.

QUOTE]

That too! In UK, you leave everything for the host.
I find a lot of these things irritating...I suppose it's the initial stages of culture shock.

The BYO appears to be an attempt to avoid liability. If you serve the drinks and one of your guests drives under the influence and causes an accident, anyone injured is likely to sue you on the basis that you should not have let them drive (as you should have kept tabs on how much they were drinking). If they bring their own, this doesn't apply. Bizarre but true.

yep, I've been told that. It's one reason to keep your beer by your chair and not share.

[QUOTE=qwertyjjj;10325889] Sounds like it to me. Its different to what you are used to and comfortable with and have been brought up to know as polite.