Last Saturday, YP brought a cake for me. Since it was dinner time first, we decided that it would be wiser to put the cake in the fridge first. As I opened the fridge, however, a warm, stale rotting stench greeted me. Arghh!It turned out that the non-freezer part of the fridge was not working! Words could not describe the frustration I felt; what with the washing machine dying on us last week and now, the fridge got to start acting up, too!!
Anyway, as CP and YP set off for home that night, we cleared out the dairy stuff like cheese slices and Yakult for CP and YP to bring home. Milk could not be salvaged safely, so that was thrown. I also gave CP some plums and the packet of kimchi which we suay-suay bought just that afternoon.
On Sunday, R and I did our chores as we waited for the technician to come. One elderly man and one young lad came at almost 1pm. They started dismantling the machine for diagnosis, and then asked for hot water to dissolve some hardened ice in some 'intestional' part which they were peering into. They also said that 1 or 2 parts of the machine needed replacement because they had become worn out.
They then set about giving the poor fridge the necessary 'treatment'. All in all, the job took 2 hours. And the time we took after that to clear the mess in the fridge, another 2 hours. During that time, we managed to squeeze in a hastily-prepared lunch of instant noodles, cocktail sausages and frozen mixed vegetables - all cleared from the freezer.
I threw away many and much of the opened and yet half-used stuff. The worst was M's stuff strewn all over the fridge. She had multiple packets of dried foods like dried scallops, dried shrimps, dried cuttlefish (stinking ones!) and many unidentifiable stuff stashed in this corner and tucked in that corner. She even had tubes of cream stashed amongst the 2 half-used packets of dried longans!!
Eventually, I decided that her space for these dried stuff will henceforth be limited to the big, square box which we managed to put in the lower compartment (just above the 'drawer'). Hopefully, the covered box will also help to contain the stench these dried cuttlefish etc generates!
It was incredible but I had to scrub and soak and scrub again, many of the trays (and that 'drawer') because some of the stuff had somehow gotten itself stuck onto them! It was hardest to get the 2-3 pieces of 枸杞子 which had become stuck to the 'drawer'! They were really as hard as rocks!
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Observation: I don't know why but M these days seem so super untidy in things she does. Has she always been like this but we weren't very aware of it (we were too young to notice/understand, or just too busy to realise)? Or has she become more and more messy person as she ages??
Everyday, I have to clean after her -
1) at the kitchen sink - I have to clean dry the wall joints which become water-locked each time after she is done with whatever washing after cooking etc - she can just turn a blind eye to these joints being submerged in water and detergent!
2) at the kitchen sink trap - the discarded cut parts of fruits/vegetable/fats from the chicken/fish scales etc always clog the trap - strands of noodles are also a common sight - to me, it's either to pick up these rubbish or risk having to call the plumber in, right?
3) about utensils - half the time, I have to re-wash plates,bowls, cups and even forks and spoons which have been 'washed' and put up for drying by M because there was still food on them - yucky!
4) in the toilet - the wash basin would have talcum powder dusted all over its edge and the same happens to the floor and the toilet bowl, all of which I have to wash/rinse/scrub off - also, to prevent her ear-rings from falling into the wash basin trap (which happened twice already), M would always pull the stopper and leave it pulled up even after she finishes with the wash basin - the stopper is, by the way, now 'loose' already.
And I absolutely cannot stand M throwing one rug here and another rug there, all the time, in the kitchen! The whole place already looks and feels so cramped with all her additional stuff (pots, wok-copver, plastic boxes, edible and inedible stuff of all kinds) that she has been heaping up in my kitchen for 1+ years now, so the randomly-thrown rugs worsens everything, especially since these rugs are perpetually 'crumpled' like a random heap of rubbish!
The last time I mentioned to her that she should perhaps put on her glasses if all these were due to poorer eye-sight now. But being the stubborn woman she is, she has of course flatly refused and defensively said, " 又不是喂小孩子吃鱼，哪里需要戴眼镜？"
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The 'rescued' fridge is ok now. The technician advised that everyone should try to keep good fridge-use pratices like opening the doors less frequently. For example, we should be more organised and take all the stuff that we need from the fridge before we commence cooking rather than fetch them item by item.
Let's hope that there will be better discipline in the use of our fridge. I have told R that if it breaks down again, we will live without one for a long time because it won't make sense to buy a new one to have it mis-treated again.
3 comments:
Here comes a big double whammy comment:
Our mother is not a young woman anymore (it hurts me so much to vocalise this observation). She cannot see, hear or smell or taste so well as you and me.
When I had my eye problem, sometimes with chest pains, I tell myself, I am getting older and my body too is getting older.
And what about Mum? She is over 70 years old now.
Til some time ago, I was reminded by CP that Mother is no longer a young bubbly 40-year-old mother who can do "everything" and "anything". Our best remembered state of her, was in her 40s. I could not sleep that night.
I hesitate to invite her to stay with us, knowing the trip drains her, so much so that she needs a few good days to recover from the 12 hour journey. I was so happy when I hear that she WANTS to come, without me asking.
Although I can sympathise with your "putting up" with her erratic or errant ways of living, cooking, storing stuff, all I can say is you are 生在福中不知福.
How I wish she can mess up my fridge and destroy my washing machine and put powder all over my basin! It is such a small thing compared to her sacrifices and her pains in bringing us up.
Carpe diem.
I knew this will come. I can only say: I bet none of you can put up with what I am putting up with.
It's easy to say that you welcome her to mess up your fridge and house and all - don't forget that all her stays with you added up is not even a small portion of the tme she spends with us. Haha, and I remember someone did ever complain (even during a brief x-week stay) that M had left the kitchen sink un-clean, too, right??! Got to scrub it all in front of her some more!!!!
我不是生在福中不知福，而是哑巴吃黄连。大家袖手旁观，也爱莫能助！远水救不了近火，又何必谈大谈孝道呢？！
I empathise with your complaints. It is not a 袖手旁观 thing. It is also not a tongue-in-cheek about 大谈孝道.
This is kind of the "problem" when I write such things, which sounds unbelieveable to you. However it is very honest and sincere feelings.
You are not "far away" from your mother, and did not experience this sort of "missing", so therefore you may think I am sprouting 大谈孝道. That is so sad.
In order to appreciate something or someone, sometimes you have to be away.
Anyway, I did not mean to rub salt into your "wounds", only trying to be logical about it.
She will soon move back to her own apt, so it may be the end of your suffering. Funnily, I am sure when that happens, you will suddenly (positive or not don't know) miss her being in your home.
Take care.
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