Gene Pool

It never ceases to amaze me how the genetic lucky dip can create totally different and opposite siblings.

In my case coming from a father who was a private, insular, if not slightly eccentric person and a mother who is emotional, friendly, outgoing, talk to anyone, have loads of friends type of person there was bound to be a conflicting, if not interesting, mish-mash of genes floating about.

Once again the difference between my sister and myself became apparent after her trip to visit her sister-in-law last week took her to a mountain village in Spain.

My mother informs me that she had spoken to my sister and she had complained bitterly about her trip and that she would never do it again. For every argument she gave relating to mountain life in Spain I found myself retorting with ‘I love it’.

She hated the fact that it was so quiet – I love it.
She hated the fact that there was nothing to do – I love it, and stressed that if you were living there and not a ‘tourist’ then you would no doubt have plenty to do.
She hated the fact that one minute the electricity was off then on, the water was off, then on – where is her sense of adventure and fun? I can tell she’s never been camping…
She hated the ‘mañana’ attitude by the workmen – learn to chill out sister!
She ended up by saying “surely Marion wouldn’t want to live somewhere like that” – too right I would.

I always say that you can always find noise and hustle and bustle but you can’t always find peace and tranquillity. Give me the latter any day. I can go in search of noise should I ever miss it but you can’t always find peace and quiet in natural surroundings.

Add to that the freedom of developing your own characteristics and hey that makes an interesting mix.

It’s a funny old world.