What is it With Old People, Technology and Food?

My grandparents live pretty far away from where I live, so I don’t get to visit them nearly as often as I want to, but a little while ago I got to spend some days with them.

It is always very nice to see them again, but with every visit comes some dilemmas, like trying to teach my grandma about electronics and technology for example ... They finally have wireless Internet (it’s slower than my sister getting ready in the morning, but hey, at least they have internet!), but other than that it is like visiting the Stone Age. Using their blow dryer for example; it takes 40 minutes for that ancient thing to make my hair go from being wet to moist. Getting it completely dry would be a whole ‘nother story …

But what I really wanted to write about this time is the one thing that would take up every second of every day while I was there; food … The amount of food that I eat every time I am there is beyond imaginable! Every time I take the plane down to visit them I come home with overweight on the airplane (and let’s just say that it’s not only my suitcase that has gained weight because of their big freezer …). 

I felt like a vacuumed packed sausage when it was time to go home, because we would eat literally all the time. First it was breakfast, then a pre-lunch snack, lunch, pre-dinner snacks, dinner, dessert, coffee and cake, supper and a late night snack. I didn’t even have time to get hungry before the table was set and it was time for another meal. And after I had eaten three portions or more (I sort of lost count …), my grandfather would say “I see that you didn’t like the food, since you ate so little”, followed by my grandmother “you are too thin, you need to eat more”, so to not be rude I did just that. Which I strongly regretted when I stepped on the scale once I got home … 

My other two grandparents also had a habit when it came to food. They kinda hoarded it in the pantry and never wanted to throw it away ... I like that they didn't look at the best before date and actually tasted the food before they would pass on the verdict, but sometimes I think it went a bit overboard …

I had a horrible experience with some cheese once; I had put it on my toast, and as soon as I put it in my mouth it dissolved into crumbs and some seriously nasty liquid … And the TASTE! THE TASTE!! It was like I had eaten the sour insoles of my father’s hunting boots mixed with the smell of dirty laundry … And when I checked the date on the package, it had gone bad over a year ago, so I therefore threw it away, only to get yelled at by my grandfather because there was, and I quote, “nothing wrong with the cheese” …

I am all for the whole taste-the-food-before-you-look-at-the-date thingy, but if it tastes bad it only belongs in the thrash. We do throw away a lot of food that there is nothing wrong with, BUT when the carrot that you have forgotten at the very back of the fridge has fur longer and thicker than a man's bushy legs and has started it’s own ecosystem at the back of your fridge, I think it is time to let it go …

Love, Amelié