Auntie alert
Mar. 17th, 2003 02:53 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
estepheiaAbout 4-5 times a year our household goes on auntie alert: My great-aunt, aged 84 comes to visit us for a few days. She lives a 2 hour drive away from us. She drives her little dented Ford Ka (like a maniac) or comes by train. She usually brings a bag full of strange gifts like chocolate that has reached its sell-by date or musty smelling books. She likes being thrifty, so I always assume that the things were given to her as presents by some of her friends and that she just passes them on because she has no use for them.
Anyway, this auntie is a creature of habit. When she visits she usually brings a pot full of Nasi Goreng (Asian fried rice) for one meal, and the second day we go and buy some rumpsteak so then can have steak with boiled potatoes and cucumber salad. It's a tad predictable. Not that I'm complaining. I happen to like both the rice and the steak.
Today was steak buying day, so I can predict with 100% certainty that in about 2 hours she will offer me one or two little morsels of raw salted beef - we both like raw meat better than any sweets and we both meticulously carve steaks into a desired shape because we can munch the cuttings.
I can predict all her moves in the kitchen, how she will be constantly underfoot, down to the precise words she'll use when looking for margerine or pepper. I'm never sure if that's reassuring or creepy.
On the whole my auntie is high maintanance. She likes to have the red carpet rolled out for her. Also, before she arrives, we have to make sure that all bills or bank statements are hidden, as she has a tendency to wander through the house, pick up stray pieces of paper, and read them. Read: she's nosy.
I like her. I admire her complete refusal to grow old. Her health isn't great, but she loves her little car and likes driving through the countryside, visiting little coffee shops or restaurants. She dyes her hair red, has been known to shoplift (nothing fancy), and loves buying fake jewellry. She has very firm political beliefs (very outdated), no patience (but thinks she's the paragon of patience) and no empathy or common sense. Looking at my Spike calender she proclaimed that a man that pretty *has* to be gay and nothing I can say will convince her otherwise. She has good taste though and an amazing ability to improvise. Give her a few pieces of cloth and needle and thread and she will make very gaudy patchwork blankets (with the seams all crooked though).
Two or three years ago she put up new wallpaper on her bathroom walls - all on her own. She can work a drill and hang up her own pictures. She can't however fill petrol into her car.
We're always relieved when she's gone, because as I said, she's high maintanance, but I often think that she's doing many things right and that more people who grow old should be more like her - enjoying life and sod the consequences.
Edited to add: it's 16:56 and I just got my meaty morsel. Sometimes life is so predictable. Yummie!
Anyway, this auntie is a creature of habit. When she visits she usually brings a pot full of Nasi Goreng (Asian fried rice) for one meal, and the second day we go and buy some rumpsteak so then can have steak with boiled potatoes and cucumber salad. It's a tad predictable. Not that I'm complaining. I happen to like both the rice and the steak.
Today was steak buying day, so I can predict with 100% certainty that in about 2 hours she will offer me one or two little morsels of raw salted beef - we both like raw meat better than any sweets and we both meticulously carve steaks into a desired shape because we can munch the cuttings.
I can predict all her moves in the kitchen, how she will be constantly underfoot, down to the precise words she'll use when looking for margerine or pepper. I'm never sure if that's reassuring or creepy.
On the whole my auntie is high maintanance. She likes to have the red carpet rolled out for her. Also, before she arrives, we have to make sure that all bills or bank statements are hidden, as she has a tendency to wander through the house, pick up stray pieces of paper, and read them. Read: she's nosy.
I like her. I admire her complete refusal to grow old. Her health isn't great, but she loves her little car and likes driving through the countryside, visiting little coffee shops or restaurants. She dyes her hair red, has been known to shoplift (nothing fancy), and loves buying fake jewellry. She has very firm political beliefs (very outdated), no patience (but thinks she's the paragon of patience) and no empathy or common sense. Looking at my Spike calender she proclaimed that a man that pretty *has* to be gay and nothing I can say will convince her otherwise. She has good taste though and an amazing ability to improvise. Give her a few pieces of cloth and needle and thread and she will make very gaudy patchwork blankets (with the seams all crooked though).
Two or three years ago she put up new wallpaper on her bathroom walls - all on her own. She can work a drill and hang up her own pictures. She can't however fill petrol into her car.
We're always relieved when she's gone, because as I said, she's high maintanance, but I often think that she's doing many things right and that more people who grow old should be more like her - enjoying life and sod the consequences.
Edited to add: it's 16:56 and I just got my meaty morsel. Sometimes life is so predictable. Yummie!
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Tiny little comment
Date: 2003-03-17 05:39 pm (UTC)Re: Tiny little comment
Date: 2003-03-17 11:56 pm (UTC)But, yeah, I think auntie is worth a proper story some time.
no subject
Date: 2003-03-18 02:11 am (UTC)