Is 47 too old?

Heh heh... Someone who shall remain nameless just sent me this link, with that question...

Scarlett Johansson wants to adopt a child - Stuff.co.nz

And it reminded me of a time when I was single, in my own home, and I briefly considered seeking a housekeeper, or "nanny" to clean house for me, care for the non existent children, and er... basically be at my beck & call with a variety of um... services.

But it was an idle thought only.

It reminded me of a boarder I had there for a while though - over those years I had a variety of people stay, an artist friend, who left me a few of his paintings & soon may he become famous!, a couple of women, who didn't clean that well but made themselves useful in other ways, and a colleague, who lived in the Hawkes Bay in the weekends, but in Wellington during the business week.

And it is he we will address in this post.

He was a contractor & paid by the hour. He worked late & generally availed himself of the staff canteen for $10 dinners & he'd come back to my place purely to sleep. He'd give me a lift to work though.

On those rare occasions he ate at home, he was a great pains to buy the meal's ingredients. He was generous like that.

He also refused to accompany me to the supermarket on the grounds that two men pushing the same trolley would be construed as gay.

I told him that chicks really dig gay men. But he wasn't swayed. Lucky for him, I'd have put my arm around him the moment a hot chick so much as smiled at us. Heh heh.

He was astonishingly candid also, so that periodically he'd get home & announce "I've just seen a hooker!" He kindly gave me her name & number too, she was local, but I never availed myself & so cannot report back on her charms & service - I'd moved on from the idea of hiring a nanny to keep all the knobs polished by then.

He was an interesting character though, he had a teenage son. And the son & the mother came & spent a weekend with us once. The story was that they'd had a one night stand many years before & a child ensued. The deal was that they acted for all the world like a family when together, but he made sure he worked elsewhere most of the time.

I do remember that in thanks for letting them stay she cleaned the place better than it'd ever been cleaned before! Maybe I should have been looking for a real housekeeper...