There Are Some Odd Folk About...

The more organised I try to be, the more lethargic I become...even clearing out an old address book is too much of an effort...I swear most of the people in there are long departed...Aunty Edna for instance...she died in 1979. Quite why I still have her address is anyone's guess.

There are countless 'phone numbers hastily scribbled down on scraps on paper shoved between books...could be a hot-line to Buckingham Palace among them for all I know...

But it's when it comes to the family research I really show my true colours...stacks of paper, many of which are duplicates and some triplicates ...copies of Grandpa's entry into the Masonic Lodge are next to a photo-copied entry from a family Bible about someone dying from Smallpox...

Which has suddenly reminded me of the Bible I bought at a car boot sale in England...carefully written on the inside page was a list of weddings, births and deaths from a family in Great Yarmouth in Norfolk...

When I joined Ancestry, I actually found the modern day family members and contacted them to say I had their Bible and would they like it back...as it were.

It was funny really...they are those almost paranoid sort who were extremely hesitant about making any contact with me...but I suppose curiosity got the better of them in the end...they were coming to Ireland on holidays and we arranged to meet in a 'pub in town...apart from the handing over of the Bible they also expressed a wish to see some of the local historical 'sights'...so I suggested they wear stout boots and brought a water-proof jacket and we'd take them to the Stone Fort.

We spotted them the minute they walked through the door of the 'pub...

It was an exceedingly awkward lunch... struggling to think of a suitable conversation...in the end I gave up and went outside for a ciggie. We went to the Fort...a walk which was seriously hampered by their failure to wear suitable footwear so involved much careful side-stepping of cow pats and soggy ground...we showed them the hollow tree where bats roost...the Hazel tree which is laden with nuts in the Autumn...onto the Holy Well and the Prayer stones...

We'd asked them to come to us for supper...a decision I was seriously regretting but couldn't really back out of...we had salad and garlic bread...he picked out every slice of tomato and onion and put them on the side of his plate before he began to eat the rest and asked for a plain hot bread roll because he didn't care for garlic and then he found some walnuts and olives lurking on his plate so asked could he have another plate to put all the food he didn't care for...

Wouldn't have minded at all, if it were not for the fact that the salad was in a bowl so you could choose what to leave and what to have more of...

Eventually the evening ground to a halt and they went.

I forgot...we had red wine or soft drinks or cider...he said I ought to have served white wine...

We weren't expecting any return for handing over what was essentially their Bible, but they didn't offer to pay for lunch and hadn't so much as a box of chocolates to give us as a thank you.

And then...the woman sent me an e-mail after they'd returned home and was grumbling because the Bible was only the first few Books...did I know where the others were she asked...

I didn't bother to answer.

[redted]

What a farce and how very very rude,I wouldn't have replied either,

[Hidden]

Yuck awful people. Still they could have been lovely folk who became lifelong friends couldn't they? So I guess it can be worth it sometimes. You should have taken the bible somewhere private and taken all the relevant pages out x

[Lynda1952]

Some people are unbelievable! They sounded so very rude and ignorant. Perhaps it's as well that you never replied or they may have heard a few home truths xx

[grannyjan]

It makes one wonder why one bothers doesn't it? x

[Azure_Sky]

What horrible people. You are such a kind and patient person. I think I would have handed the Bible over, said I had an unexpected crisis crop up and left in haste.

My grandaughter went to a funeral on Tuesday, some oaf informed her she looked rough. I saw her when she got back, she had a smart outfit on and looked nice.

Then another rude person asked her when the baby was due. She has a bit of a tummy since the birth of her third child 2 years ago. But she is not fat and is 5ft 9 in tall.

[Hidden]

I could think of a very good place you could ( or wished ) have shoved that there Bible.

📚

[baseman]

Hi Vashti, Don't worry too much. Strange people from Norfolk! "Have You Got A Light, Boy" was a hit for a Norfolk postman in the 60's! No accounting for taste! Have a good Bank Holiday weekend. Regards.

[Nikkers]

Ungrateful sods! I love garlic bread and salad, so no worries when I visit Vasht1. XX Lol

[O2Trees]

Wow, ghastly people. But it makes a hysterical story. All you can do in the end is laugh. You're the winners Vashti as you're kind and generous people - they are definitely the losers.

[Hidden]

Mum-in-law had a plaque on her fireplace. It read 'God gave us our relations. At least he let us choose our friends.'

Got in contact with far flung and not so far flung relations, after my father died. The responses I got ranged from 'And you're telling me this, why?' to complete breakdown in tears from a cousin that we hadn't seen in decades. Her husband having to take the phone and ask why I'd upset his wife. Found myself almost petting her shoulder through the phone, whilst wondering exactly whose dad had died.

You're right. There's some strange folk..