Saturday, August 12, arrived at 5 or 6 am.
Slept late on Friday day and could not get up Saturday morning when I expected to. In a blur of delirium I heard them coming in the door and talking, thought about my boyfriend telling me you don't have to get up, and went back to sleep.
In fact, there was an unknown character outside, rather less likely to get up sharply. After waking up I hesitated for a while and did a few mental buildups before going out. Opening the door to my room I saw a woman with short hair at the balcony door, talking to my son. I called out, "Auntie," and she smiled a casual, simple smile and nodded. That was the first time we met in person.
Listening to his boyfriend, his dad and his mom had never met before they got married. It was the 1980s, and free love was prevalent in the city, but in the countryside, a man and a woman became husband and wife through the words of a matchmaker and the orders of their parents.
The marriage resulted in the raising of five children, which took up half of their mom's life. Dad was away all the time, and even today is not always at home.
The oldest and second oldest sisters are all married, the third daughter has long since become a leftover woman in their eyes, and my boyfriend is the fourth in line and has been working for three or four years. Only the youngest, the fifth, is still a student, graduating next year.
But since the youngest child left home for college, mom hasn't had much work to do. Raising chickens, growing greens and square dancing make up the bulk of the day. The happiest, perhaps, is when she sees her three grandchildren.
But for the past eight days, we have no kids to tease, no chickens to raise, no greens to grow, no square dancing, and even our smartphones are broken, so we only have the keyboard player with us for making phone calls.
I felt like she was going to be bored out of her mind.
The day she first arrived, it was quite a novelty, both for herself and for her relatives on this side of the country, and she hung up the phone only a minute before the next call came in. It felt like the president had arrived and everyone on the side was inviting to meet.
The next day, a large family came in and it was a busy time. After 4:30 p.m., though, everyone went home.
On the third day, I had an interview, my boyfriend had to work, and his brother took his mom to an old spot. Went at 1pm and came back at 5pm.
On the fourth day, his brother took his mom to his grandpa's house. He went at nine in the morning and returned at three or four in the afternoon.
On the fifth day, I didn't have an interview and my brother went out to play with his classmates. Mom's right foot was a little swollen, so I had thought about just not taking her out. But she was really bored ah, got up and cooked breakfast and ate it and went back to bed, actually couldn't sleep, came out to walk a couple steps and went back to lying down. I turned on the projector to put on the TV and she couldn't watch it either, lying on the couch.
Then I felt that this is not good, the first two days although she is also bored, but at least it is out, not all day bored.
Before lunch I said, I'll take you to the museum this afternoon? She answered quickly, and seemed really suffocated.
We left the house at 14:30pm, took the bus, walked, queued up, and by the time we entered the museum it was 15:50pm. I pondered that the museum would have to be wandering around until 6:00, but the truth was that the stuff clearly had little appeal to mom. The transformation of Hong Kong's cheongsams, ceramics from thousands of years ago, and taxidermy of animals didn't appeal to her.
Without any words, I pointed to the ceramic bowl and said, "This is from the Song Dynasty, almost 1,000 years ago! It's almost a thousand years old, and it's still in perfect condition!
She said in a tone of "children are really fussing": no one cares about it, what's wrong with it (meaning, no one intentionally dropped the ceramic bowl, of course, it will not be broken). I'm sure it's a good idea.
Looking at the Dutch artist's abstract paintings, I said I can't understand these paintings, she said, take a pen and scratch on the paper
The most she said after two floors was: what's good to look at, it looks like it's all this kind of thing (clothes, ah, gold sculpture, ah, blue and white porcelain ah, look at the past are almost the same).
In the middle we sat on the chair for a while, I discussed with my boyfriend where to take my mom to eat at night, she just sat.
The top layer is the most crowded, in addition to taxidermy, there are simulated forests, simulated sharks in the ocean. Mom ignored the taxidermy, stopping to look twice at the deer and glancing at the ducks when she got to the forest, then mindlessly moving on without looking back.
When we got to the simulated ocean, the big sharks dangled overhead in a proud manner, and Mom ignored them, too. I pulled her back and said look at this shark, it's super-sized. She said it's not a real shark, is it? (of course it isn't).
The finale was the dinosaur, two or three stories high. I was about to get to the exit and she wouldn't even look at it, so I said again: "These dinosaurs are trillions of years old...".
Mom; it is not bad, oh, soaked in water (dinosaurs look like wood, she means that the wood for trillions of years have not been loosened and old, it should be put in the water bubble.)
Then mentioned the grandson and said the grandson had seen it, or the grandson liked it, I forget.
Well.
Out of the museum to take a picture and the boring museum tour is over.
The museum is next to the river, the opposite side of the river is the small savage waist. I took a picture with the Little Barbarian Waist first, and then with the stone plaque in Huacheng Square. The weather was cooler and more comfortable that day, so I took my time and walked forward, looking at the river from the bridge for a while.
Walking to the pier, I looked at the scrolling red fares of the Pearl River Night Cruise ticket office and wondered if I would be able to see anything on a cruise ship on such a cloudy day. The rain came down. Next to the rain shelter is the water bus, and past the water bus is the Little Barbarian Waist.
This weather Pearl River night tour seems to be of little significance, but the bottom of the Canton Tower is certainly to walk, since the water bus is next to it, then go to sit. It's the first time I've ever been on a boat, and I've been looking around curiously with my mouth slightly open.
When I got off the boat, I took a few pictures on the way to the Xiaobanwai, and the sky was beautiful.
The bottom of the Canton Tower is to feel what kind of experience it is to tilt your neck and crook your neck to the ground to take pictures of what kind of experience it is. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to do that, but I'm going to be able to do it. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get a good deal on this, but I'm sure I'm going to be able to get a good deal on this, so I'm sure I'm going to be able to get a good deal on this.
Another stretch of apm riding and walking, I was a little worried about my mom's feet, after all, 10,000+ steps. She kept saying it didn't matter, then I said I was tired (so you must be too) and she said what's wrong with being tired, I can walk. Haha well then I'm relieved.
Without the expected queuing situation, we went straight to the table and ordered food. My mom hadn't eaten out in decades, and everything was fresh, so my brother and I ordered, except for the bottom of the pot, which she was allowed to choose.
While eating she said the beef meatballs were quite tasty enough, and afterward: it was just shabu-shabu in clear soup, what's so good about it.
The reaction was exactly the same as my mom's, who rarely eats out, so I expected it.
On the sixth day, my brother took my mom to my sister-in-law's house, and I thought they would be back after dinner, but they were back by 4:30pm. The rest of the day was another round of awkwardly boring blankness, except for cooking and eating.
On the seventh day, Tanabata, I bought four movie tickets at noon, and after another boring day for my mom, we watched The New Oolong Yard near the neighborhood.
On the eighth day, it was Saturday again, a day when my boyfriend didn't have to work. We went out to buy groceries, ate lunch and washed the dishes and set off to IKEA.
Unsurprisingly, except for the first ten minutes, when the brain was mobilized for adaptation to the crowd and the IKEA model, after that, Mom's reaction to IKEA was: what's there to see.
The first area, the sofa area, hadn't even been looked at yet, and we took her to sit here and there, but she just couldn't wait to leave.
Bedroom area, the two of us everywhere to try the bed, she said you do not buy to see what it does, hurry up and go. See the pillow, finally got a little interest, but not to see or touch, but with the elbow to desperately press the pillow, every little piece of the pillow is violently suppressed, and then change the pillow to continue to press. I want to say why do you press it like this? Don't you know how hard it is when you press it the first time? Why do you need to press so long, but also several. But I don't dare to say, and then my boyfriend hurriedly pulled her away.
To the home area, there are a lot of aromatherapy, she: smelly, said nothing to see.
The two of us went to look at the vase, she: these used to do what?
Eventually we skipped a lot of areas and took shortcuts out.
Almost five o'clock, it was not yet time to eat, so I went to my boyfriend's company to sit down. Went out for sauerkraut a little after six.
Going to the front of the store said it was under renovation, let the waiter take us to a nearby store, said it was 4 minutes away, in fact, walked more than 14 minutes.
This time, the order was not a clear soup, the pickled fish, fat intestines and fried rice, my mother found it very salty, and later added white rice.
We aim is actually very simple, is to let her taste what she has not eaten. Do not dare to eat more outside, after all, the older generation is mostly like this, very do not like to eat outside (after eating I called my grandmother, she heard me eating outside, and scolded me again).
This time she went back so she could tell the village what beef hot pot and pickled fish tasted like, even though we had already guessed her line: hey, it's just like that, nothing to eat.
Including places to go, in fact, there is nothing interesting in Guangzhou, can also guess what her reaction, but this is ultimately to go back to talk about.
Day 9, today, after breakfast at 8:30am, off to another city.
When we talked about whether to go back home before July 14th, which is Thursday, she said: we'll see. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get a good deal on a new one, but I'm sure I'll be able to get a good deal on a new one.
"That's it"
"Hey what's the play, mom, you're coming home to play with your cell phone, your cell phone is fixed. " (Here should be matched with a laughing and crying emoji)
"Cousin has a car, but cousin has to be free to take you to play bleh"
"Department, and he dares not take me to play"
These days except for those few hours outside and cooking dinner. Mom's time is blank, no cell phone, no TV, no sleep, just dry sitting. I don't know how to talk or what to talk about so I'm really worried that she's bored out of her mind.
This time it's mom with her own sister and brother-in-law, staying at the nephew's house and then going to the nephew's house. With peers, there should be a bit of chatting and riffing on parents, definitely more interesting than staying with us youngsters who don't know what to talk about.
My boyfriend is a pretty fun guy, a segmented writer who is delayed by finance. The atmosphere we usually have together is the most relaxed of all my relationships.
But this time the mother-son time together still refreshed my perception of family relationships.