I had a great time staying with my grandparents this week! It's been two years since I last saw them and in that time they have moved into a significantly smaller house.
My grandmother (former Cordon Bleu chef) has been having some health problems recently, but it seemed that the smaller house was really good for her! They installed an elevator so that she could move from floor-to-floor when she wanted and didn't have to rely on my grandfather for help. I got to spend some time with her alone at a coffee shop near them while my grandfather went grocery shopping and I hopefully put some concerns to rest about the new house, etc.
My grandmother (former Cordon Bleu chef) has been having some health problems recently, but it seemed that the smaller house was really good for her! They installed an elevator so that she could move from floor-to-floor when she wanted and didn't have to rely on my grandfather for help. I got to spend some time with her alone at a coffee shop near them while my grandfather went grocery shopping and I hopefully put some concerns to rest about the new house, etc.
I connect very well with my grandfather because he is very tech-savvy and has covered a lot of historical events during his time as a journalist, including the Cuban Missile Crisis, the fall of the Shah of Persia, Kennedy's assassination, and the marches of Martin Luther King Jr. He has written a book about our family history and we're trying to get him to write an autobiography! At lunch and dinner, I made sure to ask him questions about his life, growing up in Uganda during WWII and his time as a journalism, and recorded them on my iPhone without his knowledge! Got some great little stories and I can't wait to read his next book. He has an office that, when I got there, looked run-down and depressing, so I turned it into a sitting area and cleaned it up a bit (see left)! We also installed the WiFi (I only had to plug in the router) and tried to sort out some of his newest gadgets. |
Besides taking numerous walks and doing odd jobs around the house, I also got the chance to take the rowboat out, taking my grandfather's challenge and rowing a fair distance to pick his paper up from the newsagent's in the next village. It was very calm so I could go fairly quickly, but I saw an interesting array of animals including, to my surprise, a seal!! It was great to see a lot of familiar landmarks which brought back lots of memories of visits past. I can't wait to come back and visit them soon as I always have a great time and learn loads! | |