The world is in chaos, all glued to the news and the appalling situation in Ukraine. Terrible atrocities beting committed, deprivation, panic, suffering death and yet just when it should not, an irksome neighbourhood slight rears its head.
Tried my best to swat it away, unimportant (as it is in the grand scheme etc), but well…..I think I am becoming my Mother. I once spent a time as a proper grown up, living close to her and dipping in and out of the relentless, social whirl that was the lot of the retired, County socialite.
I will never be like that, I said. So trivial. So preoccupied. So conservative. The same people of the same age and class circulated all the time, all with similar sized houses, gardens and incomes. Newcomers very seldom admitted and none of them went more than 7 days without seeing the others in the big house group, unless they were some or other exotic holiday.
“They must be so bored” I thought and sometimes said, out loud. “I mean they just see each other every single week and always at the same gorgeous but nonetheless boring, houses”
So how did it happen to me?
It went like this. Few months ago a friend sent me a photo from Country Life of a grand house, very close to me, very dilapidated and in need of extensive rennovation . My friend captioned it, “A good project for someone”
“Yeah!” I texted back. Then, at a posh do recently someone asked me where lived. When I told them about the Riverfiles base, theys aid, “Oh you must meet friend x who has just moved there very close to you from y“
“Oh, how nice” I said and added that I thought I had seen the house in Country life
“They are giving a party on March x date, I will get you invited”
“Oh thank you, we look forward to welcoming them to the area” So I freed up a space in the diary and waited and waited (thinking about only once in a while as have nuch bigger fish to fry) and by yesterday was even checking junk mail. Nothing. Nada. So far so good. Who cares?, we will run into them at some time. All would have been forgotten, except that today
We went out early afternoon and ran into our neighbour who said “You’ll never guess, we have just spent the morning with people who contacted us out of the blue with an invitation”
My hackles rose. Yes- it was them “How big was the party I asked trying not to sound interested in the reply” I also knew that other neighbours had been invited. “We’ve had that invitation on our mantlepiece for weeks” kind of thing.
“Oh about 30 just for them to get to know neighbours amazing, really nice couple and their children and such delicious eats”
Thing is …..we are closer neighbours than they are and with what is generally considered to be a more coveted property. Why on earth mind? Who cares. Instead for some reason learning more details and that all and sundry locally had been asked I felt like I had been slapped in the face with a wet fish. Oh well. I guess I should get out more……..I have become my Mother.
The River Files 