So, it seems my Grandma is in hospital with pneumonia. How did I find this out? Facebook! And not in a personal message to me either… I discovered it from my sister’s status. Thanks for letting me know family! The last time I checked, moving abroad didn’t magically make her no longer my grandma…
I admit I’m not the best at keeping in touch (I wonder where I get that from?!) but you would have thought for something important somebody might have found a few minutes to send me a quick text message! Welcome to life as a member of my family people. This, by the way, is about 90% of the reason I’m still on Facebook (the other 10% being I’m nosy and like to see what people are up to…). When I lived in Austria I didn’t have Facebook. In the time I was there, the only person who phoned or e-mailed me on a semi-regular basis was my dad. I heard from my mum maybe twice (in 10 months!) and my sister not at all. No postcards, no text messages and not one single e-mail… Families. Can’t live with them, can’t murder them in their sleep!
(To be fair to my sister, I should add that after I commented on her status, she did message me to let me know what had happened… apparantly she had assumed my mum would have told me.)
On an entirely unrelated note, I had to go to the train station yesterday to buy some baking ingredients. I wanted to make chocolate brownies and had forgotten to buy chocolate! Yes, I am that bright at times… The shop in the train station is one of the very few places where you can actually buy things on a Sunday (the other option is petrol stations), so that was where I had to go. It had been raining and I liked how shiny the autumn leaves looked (those that hadn’t been trodden to mush already, anyway) so I took some photos along the way. Enjoy!
Confuzzledom 
We’re so out of the loop… sigh.
Hope gran improves soon!
Out of sight, out of mind it seems…
Not always a bad thing…
My granny is still doing her Lazarus routine 😉 Hope yours gets better soon!
She’s been cheeking the nurses apparantly so she can’t be too bad 😀
Ha ha, I like a bit of spirit! 🙂
This is one of the things I hate so much about Facebook! People post all sorts of private information on there without even confirming if all the family/close friends know what’s going on first. The amount of family feuds I know of because something got posted on Facebook before everyone was notified is unreal!
I’m actually kind of glad I saw my sister’s status… who knows whether I would ever have found out otherwise? It just annoys me that I HAVE to have Facebook to find out these things because nobody would ever think to e-mail or text me…
Ah, Facebook. I have a love-hate relationship with the little blighter: I love to hate it, but I can’t do without it for commmunicating to everyone as quickly as possible. I’m sure that your family were planning on contacting you otherwise – distance makes us more susceptible, but for what it’s worth, blood is thicker than the murky waters of Facebook 🙂
PS love your leafy pics, and now I want brownies 🙂
They are useless at remembering to contact me… a few years ago, I didn’t find out my uncle had been in hospital until he was back out! I’m sure they don’t do it on purpose, but when they haven’t seen me for a while they seem to forget that I might actually want to know things as well!
I have a family like that but I can beat you. My parents have seen Jake twice since he was born 6 years ago and Amy about 5 in her 14 years, they only live a couple of hours away. my grandmother had heart surgery and they told me in a letter months later.
My family aren’t THAT bad. It just annoys me that it doesn’t even seem to occur to them that I might want to know. If I lived a couple of hours away I’d probably get a phone call every week, but by moving abroad I’ve apparantly stopped being a proper part of the family…
😦
I am sorry to hear about your Grandma! I hope she will feel better soon! And yeah, family can be a pain in the ass sometimes. I have some relatives who I call “the relatives from hell” because they really are.
My family aren’t from hell… they just have a tendency to switch off their brains. Grrr!
This is why I don’t friend my family on Facebook. Better not to know anything… Hope your grandmother does better!
I think I would hate knowing nothing at all even more! At least through Facebook I get to know things in a roundabout way.
Nothing quite that bad, but yeah, I did hate how out of things I became simply by being out of the country (and having to go to train stations to find an open shop on a Sunday – yeah, Spain too)! Mmmmm to chocolate brownies though 🙂 and such pretty leaves. I saw one pretty little red leaf on the floor as I walked to work this morning, it reminded me ofone of my favourite stories The Red Tree, but it was pretty, and it’s nice to come here and see some more tonight!
I went by there the next day and it wasn’t as pretty any more – a lot of the leaves seemed to have fallen off over night. Timing is everything 😀
I had the same sort of experience while backpacking for 9 months. Family just sort of forgets about you… out of sight, out of mind I guess.
It certainly seems that way!
I*so* empathize with this one… I have similar communication gaps with my family. My father was in the hospital once for two days before anyone told me. And that was when I still lived in the same state.
Wow, that’s even worse! At least my family has the excuse that calling Germany is expensive…
Hope your grandma gets better soon! Rubbish finding things out (especially things like that) on facebook, :S
She’s in good spirits apparantly and been cheeking the nurses, so hopefully she’ll be home soon.
I don’t know what it is about when you leave “home” but suddenly everyone forgets how to communicate. My mom and I text all the time, but the rest of my friends and family? Forget it. Even if I give them easy and free ways. Nope. Even if I text and call them. Grrr Hope your grandma is doing better!
I know… it’s ridiculous! My dad at least tries to call every few months (usually when I’m out though!) and at least responds to e-mails. The rest are useless! Unless they want something…