Is this normal?
So I arrived at my brothers at 15.30, I hadn't had anything to drink so started on a beer. It was apparent that he and his partner had been drinking for a while.
We spent the time standing and talking in the kitchen, he had prepared a whole load of food. Bisque with scallops and some other fish I can't recall for starter, lamb, ham,roast parsnips, sprouts, carrots, pigs in blankets and two different potato dishes. I never seen the dessert, there was also some mixed platters and I could tell that he'd spent a lot of time on preparing all this.
He's been working flat out the past couple of weeks with little time off, he's supposed to be working today and won't be off till the 10th of January. His son who is three was doing what all three year olds do.
The rest of the day played out like a mix between the movies "days of wine and roses" and "who's afraid of virginia woolf"
He had told me a few months ago that they were no longer together and slept in separate beds. However he didn't want to be apart from his son.
We talked about old times and had a laugh, I didn't see any animosity between them and assumed that maybe they had settled their differences. However when he left the room his partner informed me that he would be moving into my place as she was downsizing and it was over between them.
The kid wasn't planned and I think it came as a shock as she is now 41.
I could see that she had already had too much to drink and it was only late afternoon. I go easy on drink these days as I've learnt my lesson about overdoing it.
It must have been about seven that it was decided to start eating, the table was in the other room. I went to go through and sit with his partner, she was sitting with her face on the table having crashed out.
He woke her up and we had the bisque which was top class.
We returned to the kitchen and carried on with the banter, his partner was clearly smashed by this point and he tried to encourage her to go to her bed. She agreed but only after she'd had another smoke which turned into a few. She eventually left the room and it was assumed she had gone to bed. It was maybe eight by this time, I continued to converse with my brother and I think the kid had crashed out on the sofa in the other room.
He started getting the mains together but I could see that the drink had got the better of him. For some reason we went into the other room, the house has a lot of rooms and a door was open on one of them. The cat was sitting in the room which was basically full of junk, he put the light off and was about to close the door when I asked what the noise was. It was like a low drone, it turns out it was his partner lying on the floor out cold, as the room was full of junk she wasn't easily seen. He went over to try and wake her, staggering as he did so. She wasn't for budging though and he had to leave her there. We went into the main room for whatever reason and I returned to the kitchen. They have a realistic gas coal fire with no fire guard on it, which I thought irresponsible seeing as the kid is so young.
I was in the kitchen and logged on here, it must have been after 8.30, I remembered he had put the lamb back into the oven for the third time, so I took it out.
I went to see where my brother was, he had crashed out on the sofa while sitting.
I tried to wake him but just let him sleep as he was obviously exhausted.
I returned to the kitchen and plated up some food and ate standing up. I switched all the gas off and decided to go home, it was about nine by this time. I checked on my brother and his kid, they were both out cold. I got my coat on and went to leave but the door was locked and no key was in it. I went back to the kitchen as I had noticed loads of keys hanging up and thought it had to be one of them. I must have spent fifteen minutes going back and forth trying different keys and trying the same ones over again. Eventually I had to go and try to wake up my brother, he eventually came to but was incoherent and didn't understand me much. He came round and realised what I was saying, he had the keys in his pocket and we went to the hallway. He put his coat on, and I asked where he was going, he said he was going out for a walk! I convinced him that was not a good idea and he agreed. He let me out and I made my way home. I was not the least bit angry, I found the whole situation sad and tragic and it made me ask why people continue to put themselves through this shit every year.
He called me about an hour later, I told him not to worry about it and to go to bed and get some sleep. Even though we might think that others are having a great time, this isn't always the case.
Merry Christmas.
Aww, I'm so sorry. Life is the worst. xo
