I love my Grandfather!

Picture my family, sitting around the table this evening, eating our dinner and chatting away. Mum is taking karate classes, and has to learn to count to 10 in Japanese, and we’re all trying to remember the numbers.

Suddenly Grandfather comes out with a stream of unmistakably Asian words that certainly don’t relate to the Japanese numbers we’re trying to recall.

“That’s Chinese” he says.

“Really? Wow!” we said. “We didn’t know you spoke Chinese. What does it mean?”

“It means ‘How much for your boy?’” states Grandfather. The table erupts into laughs of disbelief. “Where on earth did you pick that up?” my father asked. “From the stallholders down at the market when I was a kid. That’s what they used to say to my father. I heard it, remembered it, and I’ve never forgotten it”.

Grandfather found this conversation totally unremarkable. Apparently life was very different when he was a boy :slight_smile: He is 83 years old.

Also up for discussion was Grandfather’s magpie situation. Every year at this time, we go through a couple of months of free entertainment, courtesy of Grandfather and the magpie that lives in the park near his house. In the past, he’s tried all sorts of things to stop it swooping him - hats with eyes on them, a flag on his buggy, a helmet, thumbtacks affixed to the helmet - but it keeps after him (and him alone I might add - others can walk through the park without fear, but it goes for Grandfather every time). Today he was proud as he described his latest - so far successful - attempt to outwit the bird. He takes his old mop with him, and swings it around above his head as he rides through the park. Talk about laugh! I really must go to the park one day so I can see him buzz through on his electric buggy, wearing a helmet and waving a mop wildly above his head.

He reports that the magpie still swoops, but keeps a distance of about 10 feet now :slight_smile:

He sounds like a real character!

I miss my grampa.