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First visit from one of my brothers for months (OT)



 
 
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  #21  
Old June 20th 09, 09:19 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Adrian[_2_]
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Posts: 3,794
Default First visit from one of my brothers for months (OT)

Christina Websell wrote:
"Adrian" wrote in message
om...
Christina Websell wrote:
snip
One of the children described Tigger as her brother. My brother
said "Tigger is a cat, he's not your brother."
She disagreed. As far as she is concerned Tigger is her brother.
She will not be moved from this idea.

Tweed


Your niece sounds delightful. :-) When I stayed with my sister a
couple of weeks ago she apologised for her untidy house. I said "who
cares, so long as Lucky is happy."


It's actually not "that" untidy, except by the standards of his wife
who is an uber-housewife. I think she would die of shame if there
was anything out of place or a speck of dust in her house.
To me, that's not natural. She once said to me "you will never open
one of *my* cupboards and not find it spotless!" as if she thought
it mattered somehow and it might impress me. It didn't, quite the
reverse. I secretly thought it was obsessive.
I hoover and tidy my house once weekly on a Saturday, unfortunately my
brother arrived at 9.30 a.m. Saturday when I'd just got up. I like
to sleep in on Saturday & Sunday to recover from the week of rising
at 7, 45 minutes commute each way, 5 days of emotionally draining
work. Which my brother seems to think is not worthwhile as I am
dealing with "the dregs of society" He does not realise he could have
been the dregs of society himself, since my mother was forced to
leave my stepfather was he was 4 and my younger brother Andrew was 2
due to domestic violence and his emotional abuse of me We had no
money so I abandoned any hope of further education and went to work
at 15 to help my mother with my wages. She could easily have put them into
care but she didn't.
He seems to have forgotten all this.
Yes, Matthew is right, I should have offered him the Dyson & strimmer
and said "get going, brother.."


Tweed


Actually my sister's house isn't at all bad, maybe a bit untidy but
certainly clean. I hate houses that look like show homes, it makes you feel
you can't even breathe.
--
Adrian (Owned by Snoopy, Bagheera & Shadow)
Cats leave pawprints on your heart
http://community.webshots.com/user/clowderuk


  #22  
Old June 20th 09, 11:17 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
[email protected]
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Posts: 9,349
Default First visit from one of my brothers for months (OT)

Christine Burel wrote:

I like Matthew's response about handing him the broom and
telling him to get busy!


LOL, I like that, too.

I have a story, no about housecleaning, but it is about other people
having strong opinions about things that aren't their business, and of
course, needing to express them often.

I'm short, and I used to have to shorten every pair of pants I ever
bought. (It's different now, many stores make a "petite" size.) So I'd
buy some jeans, take them home, fold them over at the proper length,
and run the sewing machine around the hem once. Then cut off the excess
material at the hem. This left the edge of the material exposed (because
I couldn't be bothered folding it twice), and after a few washings, the
edge would fray. Eventually, stray pieces of yarn would start straggling
out from the pants legs. Never bothered me, though.

I had this girlfriend who was *very disturbed* about these frayed yarn
ends straggling out of my pants and would comment on them: "You look like
a beachcomber" (term for "bum", essentially), and similar complaints.
Finally one day she came at me with a pair of scissors and began to trim
off the frayed strings. Didn't bother me, I just let her do it. She was
the one with the problem, so let her deal with it. Of course, I didn't
bother to tell her what a sisyphean task that was - one or two washings
later, there would just be more yarns sticking out.

--
Joyce ^..^

To email me, remove the XXX from my user name.
  #23  
Old June 21st 09, 04:38 AM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Marina
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Posts: 7,152
Default First visit from one of my brothers for months (OT)

Christina Websell wrote:
Yes, Matthew is right, I should have offered him the Dyson & strimmer and
said "get going, brother.."


I wish you could have my brother. I remember one time when he and his
daughter visited. She was around ten at the time, and she said, 'it's
kind of messy here, isn't it?' My brother said, 'but it's a nice, homey
kind of mess.' Actually, I think I'll keep him. I can't imagine any
of my sibling complaining about the state of my home, though I'm not a
very neat person at all.


--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban.
In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.
  #24  
Old June 21st 09, 06:26 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Lesley[_3_]
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Posts: 378
Default First visit from one of my brothers for months (OT)

On Jun 20, 12:38*pm, "Christina Websell"
wrote:

To me, that's not natural. *She once said to me "you will never open one of
*my* cupboards and not find it spotless!" * as if she thought it mattered
somehow and it might impress me. *It didn't, quite the reverse. *I secretly
thought it was obsessive.



I agree. Okay we all know I don't like housework (I've repeatedly
while Dave has been ill offered to pay for a cleaner- but he keeps
saying he;s not sure) but I do it on a Sunday but the flat is now
untidy rather than actually dirty which is fine by me- we have some
DVD's we've been meaning to watch on the sofa along with some
paperwork I need to look at and the book I am currently reading but
the main thing is the kitchen's clean and so is the bathroom, but
please don't open the cupboards! They've got things in them and
they're a bit untidy (One of the bigger jobs- I do things like
checking out my cupboards when I have time off work like last bank
holiday weeekend I washed down all the paintwork)

.. *Which my brother
seems to think is not worthwhile as I am dealing with "the dregs of society"


Guess what? I don't like your brother


Yes, Matthew is right, I should have offered him the Dyson & strimmer and
said "get going, brother.."



When one district nurse said she thought the carper needed vacuuming
Dave pointed at the Dyson and said "Knock yourself out"

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs
  #25  
Old June 21st 09, 11:07 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
[email protected]
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Posts: 9,349
Default First visit from one of my brothers for months (OT)

Lesley wrote:

On Jun 20, 12:38?pm, "Christina Websell"


Which my brother
seems to think is not worthwhile as I am dealing with "the dregs of society"


Guess what? I don't like your brother


Yes, Matthew is right, I should have offered him the Dyson & strimmer and
said "get going, brother.."


When one district nurse said she thought the carper needed vacuuming
Dave pointed at the Dyson and said "Knock yourself out"


Guess what? I like Dave.

--
Joyce ^..^

To email me, remove the XXX from my user name.
  #26  
Old June 22nd 09, 06:41 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Christina Websell
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Posts: 8,983
Default First visit from one of my brothers for months (OT)


"Lesley" wrote in message
...
On Jun 20, 12:38 pm, "Christina Websell"
wrote:

To me, that's not natural. She once said to me "you will never open one of
*my* cupboards and not find it spotless!" as if she thought it mattered
somehow and it might impress me. It didn't, quite the reverse. I secretly
thought it was obsessive.



I agree. Okay we all know I don't like housework (I've repeatedly
while Dave has been ill offered to pay for a cleaner- but he keeps
saying he;s not sure) but I do it on a Sunday but the flat is now
untidy rather than actually dirty which is fine by me- we have some
DVD's we've been meaning to watch on the sofa along with some
paperwork I need to look at and the book I am currently reading but
the main thing is the kitchen's clean and so is the bathroom, but
please don't open the cupboards! They've got things in them and
they're a bit untidy (One of the bigger jobs- I do things like
checking out my cupboards when I have time off work like last bank
holiday weeekend I washed down all the paintwork)

.. Which my brother
seems to think is not worthwhile as I am dealing with "the dregs of
society"


Guess what? I don't like your brother

-----
He just needs his consciousness raising, is all. He needs to self-examine
himself and see where his prejudices come from. Did he think of them
himself or did someone else influence him in this?
I told him that some people have no chance at all. Their grandparents and
parents have never worked so there is no work ethic. No role models. They
live in the worst areas, in the worst housing, where drugs are rife and they
get dragged into that lifestyle. They almost always have more children than
they can cope with as contraception is not high on the agenda when
drugs/alcohol are involved.
Neither of my brothers realise how lucky they were, only 2 & 4 years old
when my mother was forced to leave their father, when we decided we'd try
and do our best for these little boys.
We became quite poor. We moved into a house that my grandfather bought for
us so we could get away. He didn't have very much savings so it was two
up-two down with no bathroom and a toilet down the yard.
Inevitably they didn't get the state-of-the-art bicycles they would have
liked and my mother was expert at making meat make a meal for three days.
My small wages at 15 didn't make too much difference, I suppose. but it
helped to keep us all together until they were old enough to leave home.
I am a bit shocked that both of them only remember what they couldn't have,
rather than what they *did* have.
They both should count themselves lucky that I gave up the idea of a career
(my teachers were upset as they predicted a great future for me) in order to
help my mother rear them.

John (the one I am talking about) was able to go to university and get a
degree. He earns so much now that he has to pay the highest rate of tax.
He has a boat that he takes himself over the Channel on.
Andrew is equally intelligent, but lazy. He went to uni but did not apply
himself, but he still has a job that pays twice mine.

I'm not trying to play the "you should be grateful" card - or not really
;-)" but would it be too much to ask them to help their sister now?
I think not. Yes, they are busy with their families and children. When I
was helping them as children I was pretty busy with breaking a horse in that
I just bought too. Saved up for years but could not afford an already
broken one.
I have a lovely photo of Andrew sitting on the horse. He was about 3 or 4
and he looks like a pimple on a mountain. He loved it. I walked the horse
around and he thought he could ride.
He still remembers it.

Tweed











Yes, Matthew is right, I should have offered him the Dyson & strimmer and
said "get going, brother.."



When one district nurse said she thought the carper needed vacuuming
Dave pointed at the Dyson and said "Knock yourself out"

Lesley

Slave of the Fabulous Furballs


  #27  
Old June 22nd 09, 09:11 PM posted to rec.pets.cats.anecdotes
Winnie
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Posts: 1,168
Default First visit from one of my brothers for months (OT)

On Jun 18, 2:06*pm, "Christina Websell"
wrote:
I was surprised to see him on Saturday as he hadn't been in touch since
before my recent operation, although he knew about it.
He was a bit sniffy that my house was not as tidy as he thought it should
be, which is surprising as he never lifts a finger in his own house but lets
his wife do it all. *My garden was more overgrown that he would like too. *I
got the impression he thought I was a bit lazy.
I reminded him that I'd been quite ill recently and had been unable to do it
myself. *I said he might have sent his wife to tidy the house and himself to
do the garden if he was that bothered and indeed it might have made me feel
better so why didn't he think of it as it would helped me so much?
Total silence. * Good.
This is the little boy that I taught to read before he went to school which
gave him so much advantage that he gained a degree in biology and got a
great job.
Is it too much to ask him to help me now?

I certainly never taught him to let his wife do all the domestic tasks when
she works too.

Tweed


One time when my brother came to visit, he tidied up things a bit for
me.
Many many years ago when I visited him, I cleaned up a bit for him.
Don't recall either of us making any comment on the tidiness of the
other's
home. We just lend a hand without being asked.

Winnie
 




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