We Spoke Yesterday

Alfa Romeo

I’m mesmerized by the large number of European cars. It’s the first time I’m in England. European cars in my country are for those at the very top of the food chain.

You downplay it. I get that this is Europe and of course I should expect that Europe will have lots of European cars.

But there’s another reason you downplay it. I sense that you’re trying to communicate to me the fact that wealth is different things here than it is in my country. Of course it is. But you’re doing it in the way that one who’s seen great wealth responds when another tries to show off lesser endowment.

I’m offended by it. I don’t know why but it offends me that you’re reminding me about the ‘less-than’ status of my country.

Perhaps it’s childish but I resolve at that point not to be impressed the next time you point out something that’s supposed to impress me.

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The Children

You asked about the children. Of course you asked about my children.

You’re afraid that they’ll soon become teenagers before you’ve met them. You hear their voices in the background. You describe it as muffled sounds. I think it’s because your hearing is slowly going. I don’t correct you but I almost did. I had just asked them to go outside because of the ruckus they were causing in the nearby room. That’s what I was going to tell you then thought perhaps you really had only heard muffled sounds. I’m still not sure.

I have described them to you several times. I try to relate their personalities to people that I know you know.

You can hardly pronounce one of their names. I went native with it. Well, their dad did. You haven’t met him either.

But we talk on the phone and you hear about their school work and how great they are at maths. You were brilliant at maths. I’m not sure if your mind still finds maths fascinating. But I know that you’ll be pleased in some way that I’ve got kids that are brilliant at maths.

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Mail Merge

It was a neat little trick. I should’ve thought about it. Imagine getting schooled on a tech something by someone 40 years older than you.

You suggested that instead of coming up with passwords that I always forgot, how about I used the first letters of the words from a hymn.

Rock of Ages Cleft for Me – R0Ac4M (yes, you suggested the variations as well)

But come to think of it. It’s not really tech related. And come to think of it, one only had to think how brilliantly your mind worked to understand that this should not be surprising.

You taught me things about spreadsheets that I hadn’t known, even after I’d used spreadsheets for a while. To this day, I find the use of spreadsheets so comfortable, mundane even, because you approached them with a similar attitude.

And then, you taught me how to do mail merge in Excel. I’ve since forgotten how it works. But I know that it’s a thing. A thing I could pick up very easily if I had need of it.

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British Scholarship

You were quite proud of the fact that the Christian book you had written had loads and loads of scripture references.

It’s the first time I learnt that this was a thing. Of course it makes sense to me now; the more you quoted the Bible, the more authenticity was added to the book. Authenticity, credibility, both.

I was happy for you. I don’t always understand why scholarship is exalted in England but you were happy, so I was happy.

It’s the thing that I always wondered about. Even when people were out on a casual evening, sipping coffee in that sometimes-biting English cold, they didn’t talk about ‘small’ stuff. No, they asked about the politics of my country, our education system and so on.

I learnt to comfortably talk about ‘big’ things, to regard it as a normal conversation when someone wished to discuss the changing weather patterns of my part of the world and what was causing them.

After all, who wants to talk about weddings and your cousin’s lazy ways when there is economics to discuss?

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Guest Whisky

I told you that I don’t drink. But you said that no one would be able to resist your particular whisky brand. You insisted. I didn’t want to offend you but I was intimidated by the thought of starting my late bloomer drinking with whisky. Isn’t that like jumping in the deep end?

For almost 30 years, you’d lived in a country that shares its border with mine. Then you’d returned to England but, cliche as it may be, your soul had remained in your adopted country.

You were thrilled to be meeting someone who understood the language that you spoke for years but didn’t have much use for now.

The pleasure was mine, though. For you told me of things I had only read in our region’s history books, but you’d lived and worked through.

It’s been years now, and I don’t even know if you still live on that posh London street where we met.

But in the end, my only regret was that I was too stuck in my ways to taste the whisky that you were so proud of.

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Pretty Sleepy

“I have to park the car. I’m getting sleepy.”

I don’t remember where we were. Could’ve been that time we went to Birmingham for a reception. You’d been invited and in your clever way you got me onto the invitation list as well.

It could’ve been the time you thought I should meet your cousin in Salisbury because, “It’s also such a pretty town.”

It could’ve been any number of places that you drove us to, allowing me to see so much of England.

I didn’t have a car, you did. I couldn’t drive your car because I wasn’t insured on it. So there we were. You driving long distances while my 40 years younger self enjoyed the ride.

You turned into a nearby station and asked me to make myself busy for 15 minutes so you could power nap.

When I returned, you’d swung back some Coca Cola to caffeinate yourself and off we went.

Thank you.

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Why Go Home

A simple life is a beautiful life

Today you asked me why I have insisted on returning to my home country. For you, it seemed clear that I would have much better career prospects if I tried to remain in England. I was reminded of the time that you were amazed when I said that I would be quite happy to live a simple life, by the lake side.

That day, we had been visiting friends of my family. You made a remark about the fact that their life was very simple, which was surprising considering they were middle class well educated people.

For most people that ‘made it’, they were keen to start living the life that their parents had not been able to afford. Why was this couple choosing to instead live simply when they should have been able to afford a better lifestyle?

That is when I said to you that in my dreams, I saw a simple life.

I’m not sure what you would say if you knew that as of today, I want it to be a bit better than simple but again, still not Egyptian gold palace splashy.

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