Wednesday 27 May 2009

My Dear Sister

It's my birthday next month. I will be 45. This seems quite old, but at least there will be presents. I like to make sure of this, so am inclined to drop mentions of my forthcoming birthday into conversation, in the weeks beforehand.

I spent a couple of days with my sister last week. She's younger than me (just turned 42), there are only the two of us, and she's a great mate as well as a sister. Terrible memory, though, so I thought I'd better say casually 'You know, I'll be 45 next month.'

She turned to me, her eyes widening, and said 'Cor, that's halfway to NINETY!'

Gee thanks, sis.

Then later, she added injury to insult. Relevant background: she, her husband, and her son, have a selection of chronic but manageable health problems, so their house is littered with medical paraphernalia. Inhalers and syringes lie around all over the place, and every time you open the fridge, drugs with a street value of thousands fall out of the door. One of the drugs my sister has to take makes her skin dry, and our mother had bought her some posh handcream. She asked if I'd like to try it, warning me I'd only need a tiny bit, so I did and liked it a lot - it smells fabulous.

'Do you want some?' she asked. 'It'll take me ages to get through it, I'll happily give you half.'

'Ooh, yes please,' I said.

So off she went, and I amused myself with a magazine until she came back and held out a container. I could see she was trying not to smile. I put out my hand to take it from her, and then I realised.

'You didn't,' I said.

'At least you know it's sterile,' she said, giggling like a baby hyena.

She had put my handcream in a specimen bottle.

12 comments:

Lane Mathias said...

What a considerate sister!
Love the writing on the bottle:-)

Kirsty said...

Aw! Well, erm, its the thought that er counts?

HelenMWalters said...

Marvellous! Very chic packaging.

Jenny Beattie said...

Hmm. Being a doctor's daughter... I'm not quite sure I see your point?

:-P

Carol said...

Hahahaha, I like the sound of your sister!!!

C x

Sherri said...

Don't like to bring it up, but urea is used in a lot of skin softening creams.
You don't think she...?
No, she wouldn't!
Would she?

Queenie said...

Lane, oh, indeed she is.
Kirsty, quite!
Helen, do you think it would sell?
JJ, :-P to you too!
Carol, she's ace!
Bernadette, she wasn't out of the room for long enough. At least I don't think she was...

Deborah Carr (Debs) said...

Half way to 90! I remembering saying that to a friend and finding it terribly funny, until he reminded me on my 45th birthday!

Love the handcream packaging. Maybe she'll start a new trend?

Karen said...

Dear lord!! I suppose it's the thought that counts...just about :o)

Pat said...

Sterile eh? So presumably unused. I've been wondering what to use for a required specimen - we aren't given containers. I haven't had to provide one since I was pregnant aeons ago and in desperation I used a tiny Clarice Cliffe jug then, as an intermediary container.
You are still a young woman at 46. Trust me.

Queenie said...

Debs, do you think it might catch on?
Karen, yes, just about!
PI, thank you, fantastic, so I've got another whole year then, great...

Beleaguered Squirrel said...

Haha, I particularly like that you appear to have gone to all the trouble of writing a new "Queenie" label and sticking it over your real name!

I hadn't realised our birthdays were so close together. We can swap presents!