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Tuesday 1 April 2014

WordPress Daily Prompt: If I Could Turn Back Time

If you could return to the past to relive a part of your life, either to experience the wonderful bits again, or to do something over, which part of you life would you return to? Why?



Aunt Ada Pauline Steve Me dad uncle Harry mum

I do not really want to relive anything in my life. I want to preserve the memories as they were and reliving is not the idea. Life goes on, the world has changed and when I see the photos of the old days, they are good memories, not to be replaced by new memories, but to be kept. This photo is part of my family having a family holiday on the Isle of Wight, a small island south of England. I am on the back right (with long hair – yes they can grow), my mum sitting in front of me and my dad on the front left.  The others are various relations.

I have just returned from a week with my dad in England. I do not see him often. He is now 98 years old and I am sure he would like to return to those days when he could walk without the aid of a Zimmer frame, live in his own house and make his own bed and go out. Alas these things are in the past and so he adapts to a new life in his new surroundings cared for by wonderful people, but with his own four walls. He has never had a bank account, still prefers his cash in his trouser pocket, and he even refused the use of the Zimmer frame, preferring his stick, but he now finds it a wonderful invention and is working out the possibilities of adapting it to accommodate his food which he fetches from his microwave in the kitchen to his one and only pefect chair.

He never wanted a microwave, did not want to start pressing buttons etc. etc. but he now has to have one and finds it a fantastic invention. He asked me who discovered it. I told him I think it was by accident, something to do with radiation. You see, he did not want it, but when he has it he begins to think about it.

He did not ask many questions about my iPhone, just asked what the noise was when I switched to see my mails. I always had a thing for the various tones it produces, although I switch them off in the evening (with consideration to Mr. Swiss who is listening to the news on the TV). He was fascinated by the photos Mr. Swiss and I were sending to each other by  SMS with the attached messages.

My dad has a super phone, with extra large buttons and a very loud ring (he does not hear so well). Of course I had to adapt my usually loud voice to being even louder for dad, which did not disturb anyone as we were alone most of the time in his new apartment. I noticed at home in Switzerland I had to reduce my extra loud voice as Mr. Swiss says he can hear perfectly well and the neighbours do not have to hear everything we discuss.

My dad is still living in the same area where his house was so I was reliving the past a little, knowing the area from earlier days, but it has changed. Some buildings have disappeared, replaced by the tall glass palaces. I had to find my way by bus most of the time, not an easy task as the roads have changed. Normal roads are now one way streets. I was staying with my friend who lives a complicated bus ride way, at least it was complicated for me. One evening it was dark (as it usually is in the evening) and I was travelling from my dad to my friend and boarded the bus. Usually there is a light display showing the name of the bus stop where the bus was stopping. This particular bus driver probably wanted to go home to his wife and kids and so he had switched it all off. No problem for a die-hard Londoner, but I am now a die-hard Swiss Londoner and did not really know where I was. I cursed the bus driver and his family and crossed my fingers. Eventually the bus pulled in at a place I knew, so I crossed the road and took another bus back which was more passenger friendly with illuminated signs in the bus showing the way for lost foreigners like myself. Relive the past? I am glad to survive the future.

So there we are, my first blog after a week’s blogging abstinence. I hope to upload my many photos this week from the visit to London, so watch this space. See you on the flip side tomorrow with another dynamic day in the life of Mrs. Angloswiss and Mr. Swiss.

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1 comment:

  1. Welcome back, Pat. I'm glad to hear your dad settled into his new surroundings without any problems and is happy :-))

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