Of New Mills and the evil old bitch
08.08.09, 5:40 pm

Usual tortuous visit to New Mills to celebrate my dad�s birthday. Everything was going okayish � I turned up about 6pm, said hello, and we went off to the curry house. Amanda recognised someone that she knew, was all smiles with them and then promptly bitched on about how much she hated them as soon as they�d left, which is just her style. Her and my dad had an argument about something utterly pointless and I stared out of the window, faintly embarrassed. I tried to pay for the meal and my dad wouldn�t hear of it, though Amanda wanted him to say yes. There was the usual passive-aggressiveness from her, and she draped herself all over him like I was the �other woman� and it was an alpha-female throw-down, but it was normal and fine, and I could cope with it easily.

And then we got home, and decided to do presents (I suggested presents before the meal, and my dad said yes but Amanda said that he had to wait, like he was a frickin� toddler and it was her frickin� birthday). Mine went down well, and then Amada did hers and they were fine. And then I gave my dad the presents from my gran, who had asked me to take them up for her when I saw her on Tuesday. My dad opened them, liked them both, went to open the box of one of them and this happened:

Amanda: Don�t do that, Steve. Just leave it.
Dad: Why?
Amanda: Because I need to donate a prize for the raffle for that fete we�re going to.
Dad: What fete?
Amanda: You know which fete. Anyway, you won�t use that.
Dad: Yes I will use it! (To his credit, he didn�t seem pleased)
Amanda: No, you won�t. Look, I need something for a prize.

My dad and Amanda then had an argument about the fete, which my dad knew nothing about. He said that he wasn�t going, and she told him that he definitely was going. Meanwhile, this huge wave of anger was rising up inside of me. My gran is wonderful and kind � she doesn�t need to remember my dad�s birthday but she does faithfully, every year, and always sends him a present. She doesn�t deserve Amanda sneering at her nice gesture, her present that my dad had only just received, and why Amanda thinks it�s okay to be rude about her in front of me is a complete fucking mystery to me. Normally, I�d have kept quiet to keep the peace, but it was too much.

Me: You�re not seriously going to use Mavis�s present as a raffle prize, are you? Because that�s really rude.

My dad looked embarrassed and said, �No, probably not�, again to his credit. Amanda, on the other hand, seemed to find what I said hilarious, and laughed openly in my face.

Me: No, she doesn�t have to buy presents but she does, and that�s really lovely of her.

Amanda laughed some more, and then there was a horrible silence. I wanted to hit her; I desperately wanted to clatter her one. Instead, I grabbed my phone off of the table and said that I needed to ring James. Went to the bottom of the garden, wanting nothing more than to hear the sound of his voice, and when I finally did I was just so tired and hormonal and angry that I cried down the phone to him. He was really sweet, and we talked for a little while, and then I had to wipe my face and go back inside again and pretend that everything was fine. Amanda didn�t apologise.

She finally fucked off to bed, and me and my dad sat outside with a bottle of wine and had a nice chat, and he was very sweet and said that he wanted to get early retirement so that he could, amongst other things, see me more often. He was almost like his old self again. I wish I knew what the hell he sees in her.

I will always defend my gran, because she is wonderful and generous and means the absolute world to me. She is a million times the woman that Amanda is, and just when I thought I couldn�t dislike Amanda any more, she proves me wrong. She is utterly charmless and rude, a horribly selfish and jealous woman and she makes me sick.

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