Thought for Food

verenasays:

I’m not judging, just saying.

Oh my god, I cannot stop laughing.  Read Verena’s earlier post for the backstory.  Which reminds me of a story of my own…

A few years ago, I spent a week at my then-boyfriend’s uncle’s gorgeous home in the hot but breezy hills of Portugal. 

The uncle is a twice-married, twice-divorced former Irish diplomat.  He was posted to Jordan, where he acquired a young Thai … companion.  When he retired to Portugal, she came along (after much diplomatic string-pulling for an EU visa).  Her official title was “nanny.”  Confusing, given that his children lived with their mother in Dublin — and the youngest was 16.

The nature of the situation was obvious.  But although she openly slept in his bed when he was away, they had separate bedrooms and avoided public displays of affection.  She cooked one or two meals a day, but didn’t clean (the housekeeper came every day to polish the polished floors).  She spent her days not by the pool (as I did), but inside with the karaoke machine her erstwhile paramour had given her.

A young, pretty, intelligent woman in a pristine white hilltop palace singing karaoke songs alone all day?  It would have been depressing if she didn’t seem so content.