Sliding into paranoia?

Her. Not me. Although maybe I'm not so far behind....


Last night I had Couch Surfing guests (a Korean mother and daughter with the biggest suitcases in the world), so I was out making them welcome and got home about 9 pm.


I'd met Okaasan at 4 pm when I first got home and she was just heading out for a walk. Grabbed some laundry from her room, found the lunch delivery soup pot that she'd lost (it was in the microwave) and managed to do a bit of cleaning.
I cooked her fave flat fish in soy sauce and tofu soup, left it all out in the kitchen for her. Veggies, rice etc.


Got home at 9 pm and found none of it eaten. Okaasan asleep in her room.


???????? Had she come home and sat down by the TV while the soup was heating, and fallen asleep? Had she eaten while out? Was she sick?


Just now I went in to her room to check.


"Morning Okaasan? How are you? You didn't eat dinner last night, so are you ok?"
"I didn't eat dinner? Me?"
"Yes, when I came home at 9 pm from work (little white lie), the fish and the soup etc was still here in the kitchen. Are you feeling ok?"
"The suspicious person was outside, so I switched off all the lights."
"?????But the lights were on....about dinner...."
"There's that sign outside about Don't Ring the Doorbell. Why is that there?"
"Because last week you said someone rang the doorbell at 10 pm."
"Last night a man was in the street, I could see him. It gave me a bad feeling. I switched out the lights.".
"Well, it's ok....don't worry. We have a big strong front door. As long as you are ok, I was worried about you not eating dinner."
"Dinner? I didn't eat dinner?"


....and at that point at escaped!!!!!!!


Is her paranoia increasing and taking root?
Is this because Yujiro is away and she has an underlying feeling of anxiousness?
Or is there actually someone hanging around because the car is gone from outside the house 2 weeks, and lights are on all night in the house?
Or is the moon made of cheese?


Hmmm.....
Point 1: I must remember to take DOWN the door sign daytime and hide it, so that it doesn't trigger the whole story again. Maybe it is just reinforcing her paranoia. I should put it up just before I go to bed, when she is safely asleep by the TV.
Point 2: It will be very interesting to see if this story continues once Yujiro and the car are back next week. I'm betting it won't.


Mind you - we won't know if that's because the suspicious man has noticed the car and moved on to scare other old ladies, or if Okaasan is feeling safe again and her paranoia has subsided.


I think I need to go and have nice normal conversations with my English class students :-)

Half-way there...

Only another week to go.
Seems he went away ages ago.


Good things: I get to use the whole electric blanket in bed. And the TV remote. And silence from noisy Japanese game shows on TV.


Bad things: oh you know....


But a good day today cos I escaped out and had fun in the sunshine and snow with the Hokkaido International Adventure Club - snow shoeing in the art park, followed by 20 people plus enjoying cheese fondue and mulled wine lunch.
WISH I could upload the pix of this...the sculptures of naked ladies and animals in the snow...and the food....but my laptop isn't set up for that. So they'll have to wait.
It was great to be outside working up a sweat, trying to balance on the snow shoes made out of bamboo, nylon cords and ingenuity...


I left Okaasan's lunch in flasks on the table, she was fine. Didn't go out again today. Pity, because the morning was nice and not cold....but of course she let that weather slip away.


Funny conversation about the mystery door knocker - who is of course called a "suspicious person" in English.


Okaasan asked me if the suspicious person had come back.
No, I don't think so. I didn't hear the doorbell in the first place. You did. Did you hear it again?
No. I was asleep.
Well, maybe the suspicious person didn't come then.
Yes, maybe....


I'm hoping my Please Don't Ring the Doorbell sign, and the signs of activity near the doorstep (I am trying to make ice candles) in buckets etc will warn off anyone who comes for a snoop.


Tired  tonight. Fun in the sun and snow though. Bit tired having dinner with Okaasan, it was extra-hard to think up conversation topics. I settled for Korean food..Korea....travelling...Kenya...game parks....Chinese tourists have money....Koreans were looked down on by Japanese wartime...
It was ok. Okaasan gets far more chat time with just me - it is probably putting her dementia into reverse.
Not sure what it's doing to MY braincells.

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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....