Saturday, October 8, 2011

(533) Returning relative

A relative returned from Australia. She has been working there for a few years. Having to cook and do her own house work (for it is not the Australian way of life to have foreign maids), she claims to have no time to e-mail and keep in touch with friends back here.

I was surprised that she wanted to come back for more than two weeks. After all, it is either scathing hot or it rains until the low lying areas get flooded. Well, I guess if she wants to have a habitable house here to live in by 2021, she has to up keep her old abode now.

Once a person migrates, those who are left behind fall into other schedules or rhythms. At most I'll find time to chat over a meal. After that, the visitor would have to look unto others to provide companionship. If  I could drop by her place at will, come and go according to my schedule;  I would visit her now and again. But she said her living area is too cluttered to accommodate guests. I would rather not open my place to her day and night. I have found that once a free visitor with no fix time table sits in my place, it is extremely difficult to get her out. A few times I have to invent an appointment to shoo folks off  so I can have my own time and space back. You may think I am anti social. But that is not really the point. I am social enough if I am in control of when to be with others and when to leave to return to my books.

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