The Eclectic Interweb

Sunday was a bit of a curate’s egg. The day started reasonably with us clearing away the plates etc the kids had left after doing their own meal. The worktops were all grotty so needed a good cleaning as did the hob which had something spilled on it. Took an hour or so but again, needed doing. This is a big house with lots of people in it… there’s always a lot of work that needs doing.

While I was doing that, a friend rang to ask if we’d like to go to their house that afternoon/evening for a chat and a small barbie. We’d discussed the problems we’d been having and she wondered if we’d like some respite care… nice we thought. We said we’d but the salads and see her later.

The wife hung out more washing, marshalled the kids into some semblance of order, and out the door we went. First stop was to a suburb called North Rocks where the wife wanted to take the eldest daughter. She’d decide it was time for her to buy her first bra and this shop measures and fits them to make sure women are comfortable. Aww… out little girl is growing up. 😦

Next stop was the new library… which was almost all the way back home! While we were there I found a *wonderful* little… ok huge… cookery book put out by, of all organisations, the UK National Trust! It’s by Sarah Edington, and called the “Complete Traditional Recipe Book” and is filled with recipes ranging from Rosemary Soup to Boiled Beef and Carrots! Magic or what?? 🙂 Anyone in the mood to buy me a birthday present might do worse than this (ISBN-10 190540042 X, ISBN-13 9781905400423). Now *that’s* what I call a hint! 🙂

I also found a book covering a topic dear to poor old heart, buildings in and around London. It’s called, oddly enough, Building London “The making of a modern metropolis.” by Bruce Marshall. I love reading about how London developed, and the pictures of the old city before it was wrecked by modern development still bring a lump to my throat even though I’m Welsh both by birth and ‘inclination’. There is just something about the old place that is timeless even in the midst of the carnage.

Anyway, we finished in the library and drifted down a block or two to the supermarket to buy a few salads to take with us to the barbie. Well you feel you have to do something. We’ve been over there twice and don’t want our friends to think we aren’t willing to pull our weight.

So over we went.

It really was nice to be able to sit quietly out in the sun in a stress free environment, relax and just chat about inconsequential things. Of course it couldn’t last and eventually we got round to the subject of the rellies.

We went over old ground from the day they arrived in the first week of December to date and eventually everything crystallised into the clear realisation that we’d simply had enough. I’m not going into the full reasoning here suffice it to say we’d reached the end of the road. We left the friends and set off home dreading what was coming up but with a sense of inevitability.

The wife put the kids to bed and asked them to come down for a chat. I explained that we thought we’d been more than fair to them giving them free board and lodge for nearly 4 months and it couldn’t go on. We wanted them to leave by Thursday morning at the latest to let us have a family Easter. Unfortunately the niece asked why. So I told her some the ongoing issues… most of which revolved around her husband.

Half way through she burst into tears and ran out of the room. The wife and I both felt really bad about it, we really like the niece but as bad as we felt about forcing the issue, we felt this simply couldn’t go on longer.

We tidied up, and went to bed. An hour or so later we heard creaking and crunching outside… then the sound of a car starting and driving off. I looked out to see the camper disappearing down the road. They’d up and left immediately!

Seems that despite having looked after their every need for four months, fed and housed them, provided them with camping gear to help them when they were on the road… never charging them a cent for anything… they couldn’t even do us the simply courtesy of saying goodbye and thanks for the help. What a disgraceful, ill-mannered, and downright rude way to behave towards people who’ve looked after them so well for so long.

I must admit to being a little upset by all this so I found myself sitting downstairs for a long time. I didn’t get back to bed until until 2:00 a.m. and no sooner had my head hit the pillow than it was 5:00 a.m. and the new day was starting.