The Simpsons

Yvonne invited me along with her group to a Xmas dinner held at college south of the river. The college has a restaurant management degree and has a small restaurant where the students get training, including the chefs. The benefit is a very good meal for very little money. Yvonne and her friends make reservations once a month.

Since I don't have a car she picked me up at work. She then drove me down to her house south of Perth. She is very proud of her house. It has pool, is high on a hill to catch the ocean breezes in the afternoon. It is a 5 bedroom house and she rents out a couple of the rooms to lodgers. She mentioned that she feels safe because in a few years when global warming raises the ocean to cover Australia her house will be dry. I think she is looking forward to having a beach front house some day, so keep driving them cars people.

When we walked in we were greeted by a naked and wet old man standing in the living room. Yvonne did not seem the least bit surprised and walked on past him to the back of the house to take care of something. She turned on the TV for me as she went by and invited me to watch TV for a while. No explanation or introduction was offered by either of them. The old man walked off somewhere else, so I sat down and started watching on of my favorite shows, the Simpsons.

The Simpsons, by the way, are enormously popular down here. Despite all of the American and local references hidden in the show, the Ozzies really get it.

After about 10 minutes the old man comes back into the living room, still naked and still wet. He seemed upset about something and walked over to the TV and switched it to the news. I protested that I was watching the Simpsons, but this seem to make him angrier. He gruffly told me that the Simpsons were for kids and to turn that crap off. Now I was pissed. I was watching the program, so I switched it back to the Simpsons. He switched it back to the news. I told him that I liked the Simpsons and no, it wasn't for kids. The show has a lot of jokes and material for adults too. He started arguing that I was wrong and that it is simply a bad American TV show. I had to defend the show, so we started getting into a heated argument over the issue.

The thought then struck me. Why on earth am I standing in a stranger's living room arguing the cultural merits of the Simpsons with a naked and wet old man? This is crazy. So I handed him the remote and went outside to walk around the neighborhood.

After about 30 minutes Yvonne came out looking for me. She was ready to leave for dinner. The old man was with her, dressed up this time. He was going too. We drove over the dinner, which was an Xmas dinner complete with paper hats and small fire crackers. My friend Fred was there (Mr. Toilet Paper from the Thanksgiving dinner), so I ended up sitting a table with him and his wife while Yvonne and old man Simpson Hater held hands and ate at a different table.

Ask asked a friend of Yvonne's who was sitting with us about the old man. She said that he was renting a room from her and had just moved in. I pointed out that they were holding hands and that he was walking about the house with no clothes on when we where there earlier. She agreed that was strange behavior for a tenant, and there most be something else going on.

Yvonne never bothered to explain anything to me. They dumped me at the train station after dinner. I have not seen them since.