Friday 27 January 2012

Ringers? Knockers?

What DO you call people who ring the doorbell late at night to check if the house is occupied or not?


In old Hollywood movies there are little boys - probably called "scallywags" by an adult character - who tie strings to door knobs, rap the knocker and run away.


Not sure what the word is for the maybe-person who Okaasan thinks ring the door at night. I don't know in English, and I certainly don't know in Japanese!
I'm using the catch all "warui-hito" or "bad person" in my conversations with Okaasan on this topic.


Last night I was working - left Okaasan the remains of the fish paste and veggie stew thing on the table and hoped she didn't break her neck on the awful ice coating Sapporo roads at the moment.
I was home early afternoon and managed to get her OUT for her walk by 3 pm, at least in daylight.
I went off to work ...and a nice little sidetrip to my curry restaurant for dinner ...and came home after 9 pm hen Okaasan was already sleeping in front of the TV.


I had asked my evening student to write a large sign in Japanese: "Please do not ring the door bell after 9 pm".


I hung it on the outside of the front door.
Reckon that will at least make the bad person think twice....hmm...maybe there ARE people living in this house, even though the car is always gone.


This morning the sign was missing.
Okaasan had it in her room. She'd seen it through the hall windows when she was getting her newspaper in the entrance hall at 6 am.


"Look at this! Who put this here? xxXXXXXX'&%$#"#GBMJMHJ we should tell Yujiro, we should tell the police! dhmgt543uimkXXXXX!!+``====Look at this! Bad people come to the door and do this!"


(The symbols are the bits of Japanese I didn't understand. My Japanese includes words like "dorobo" or "thief" and "hanin" which is "suspect". I don't know about doorbell ringers.)


"Look at this! Who put this here? xxXXXXXX'&%$#"#GBMJMHJ we should tell Yujiro, we should tell the police! dhmgt543uimkXXXXX!!+``====Look at this! Bad people come to the door and do this!"


Not sure WHAT Okaasan thought the bad person was doing...making signs and hanging them on the doors of strangers....??????????????????


I told her I had made the sign. Three times. Then I got the speech above. So I told her I had made the sign myself. Again. I think she finally got the idea!


I don't think I'll tell the police. Not much they can do. A drive past by a patrol car is hardy going to make any difference.
Although.....it would be kind of fun to see a young police officer trying to take a statement from Okaasan....round and round and round again on the same story!!!!


Maybe I should tell her that I HAVE told the police....


Anyway. FRiday....

4 comments:

  1. Hilarious! If the least the bad people do is go around making signs then I'd say we all have it pretty good!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, beware the phantom sign writers...they will come and hang signs on your door....it was hilarious....by WHAT logic did she think someone had done this???? People just don't do that. Not in any country. Sometimes - well often actually - Okaasan's thinking is beyond comprehension...

    ReplyDelete
  3. So funny! Your life is bizarre on a daily basis.
    Love it!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Most likely, Okaasan would think the policeman was the person ringing the doorbell, which would lead to all sorts of hilarity (little of it really funny except to outsiders). Alzheimers' patients tend toward paranoia anyway, and the last thing she needs it so become suspicious of the police.

    On the other hand, it's pretty funny that she thought whoever was ringing the bell would also put up a sign asking (presumably other) people not to.

    ReplyDelete