I’ve had a bad cold and ended up ordering my weekly groceries online. They were delivered to my kitchen counter, a couple of days ago and I had to rely on my ten-year-old son to put them all away. I was ready to find a few things out of place but nothing had prepared me for the chaos in my house.
Today is the first day that I felt much better. This morning, I ventured into the kitchen but couldn’t even find bread or breakfast cereal in its usual spot! So I gave up and ate a muesli bar instead.
The vegetable drawer in the fridge had shampoo, face wash, body wash and a few fruits and vegetables. The flower vase had a slender bottle of concentrated fabric softener in it. Furniture polish and dishwashing liquid jostled together in the fruit bowl along with a bottle of raspberry cordial. The microwaveable wheat heat pack was in the kitchen cupboard next to a bag of flour. I found some fresh green and red capsicum and a little bundle of lemongrass in the medicine cabinet, nestled amongst the chili plasters next to the insect repellent spray. My expensive toothpaste was on the shelf with baking ingredients.
When I was looking for something else, I eventually found the errant breakfast cereal and loaves of bread alongside packets for the bird feeder. When I quizzed my son about these strange storage places he calmly said, “Mum! I asked …. and you said ‘Just read the packaging and think where they should be stored. Common sense!’ So I did …
That breakfast cereal looked like birdseed, the bread loaf said nuts, seeds, grains on it.
The capsicums went in with the chili plasters in the medicine cabinet.
There is avocado in the facewash, cucumber in the body wash, green apples in the shampoo so they all went in the fridge.
The toothpaste said ‘Baking Soda’ in large letters.
The fabric softener said ‘Lily of the valley’ …..”
I panicked, “Where on earth, are the two whole chickens I ordered for Sunday’s family lunch?”
Silently, he lifted his eyebrows and rolled his eyes in the direction of the backyard.
-Bewildered-
Monica Ronghe 