I’ve moved out to stay with my granny for the time being, and am living in the bedroom I used to sleep in when I stayed there regularly as a child. It didn’t occur to me at the time (perhaps because I was about 4 feet tall), but the room is approximately the size of a walk-in wardrobe.
It’s cosy, though, and I have this weird, almost magical feeling – not of being in Narnia, but of having returned to my childhood. The familiar creaks of the floorboards. The gurgle of the hot press in the next room. The sound of sheep and cows in the fields. The birds singing outside. My grandparents and their hilarious conversations.
There was the first of many amusing grandparent kerfuffles last night as I was getting ready for bed. It appeared that Granda bought Granny a big box of chocolates for Christmas, which she immediately lost, and had now discovered concealed beside his chair – empty.
“You bought me chocolates and ate them all!” came the indignant roar from downstairs, followed by a 5-minute rant from Granny during which Granda maintained that it was a box someone else had bought him, and not the one he had given her.
The rant was punctuated by a series of thuds which I could only imagine involved Granny either hitting him with the empty box or throwing it around the room in outrage. I was just wondering if I should go down and intervene when Granny came thumping up the stairs to get ready for bed. I listened sympathetically as she told me her tale of woe while changing into her nightclothes. The selfishness! The greed! Unbelievable!
I was just getting into bed when there was another roar (my Granny likes to roar). I opened my door again to see her emerging from under the dressing table with a large box of chocolates and a rather sheepish expression.
Sent her down to apologise to the bewildered grandfather. Heard her offering him a chocolate as a peace offering.
Another roar – this time of laughter, from both of them, as they discovered that the new box was, in fact, full of newspaper cuttings and cards as opposed to Thornton’s finest.
The whereabouts of Granny’s chocolates remain unknown. Was it Granda? Has Granny hidden them from him and forgotten? Did she eat them? The mystery continues.
It’s going to be one big exciting adventure story living here…
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