Sunday 12 May 2013

Cling – to hold tightly, be emotionally over-dependent, refuse to let go


Cling – to hold tightly, be emotionally over-dependent, refuse to let go

This is a reworked post from February 2009

I'm a reasonably independent woman, not often prone to temperamental outbursts. I have reached a point in my life where I am content with my lot. I am fortunate that I am physically strong (though currently keeping company with sciatica) and enjoy good health. I want for nothing, other than that which avarice dreams of. Even so, I know that material possessions and riches do not bring happiness. I love the members of my family and I think they love me. We embrace affectionately, support each other emotionally and respect each other's privacy. Why then, given these parameters, can I not cope with clingfilm?

Other people efficiently manage to encase widely differing objects; jugs of stock are staunchly refused permission to spill, cakes are neatly parcelled and hermetically sealed, the onions of winter salads resolutely try but fail to send their fumes beyond the plastic. Portions of fruit and slices of vegetables, roast chicken carcasses and too-generous casseroles all consign themselves to the constraints of this thin clear self-adhering plastic material.

They do all this until I try to marshal them. To be more precise it is not the contents that prove problematic but the clingfilm. Does it recognise in me a person who secretly longs to be enfolded in strong arms and held close till, breathless with passion, I beg for release? Well, of course not, but I have to distract myself with idle thoughts as I wrestle with the wretched wrapping that clings to itself and to me as if scared to let go. I mutter and curse as the film tightens and thickens and eventually manage to reduce it to a sulky pellet which I would love to hurl into the rubbish bin but cannot as it still seems loath to leave me.

Thus, the contents of my fridge are left unwrapped, tainted with onion and curry, the chicken carcasses dry out to firewood consistency, the lemon halves shrink to husks, the cabbages wilt and everything that was once fresh and crisp limps into unappetising decrepitude.

I look enviously into others’ fridges, at the tidy array of dishes and pots stacked carefully on each other, courtesy of clingfilm, and decide that I really must try again to master it, to no avail. I have wasted more yards of the dreadful stuff than is good for my temper. There are not many things that defeat me but clingfilm is one of them.

There must be a knack to it but if there is I certainly have not acquired it and sadly, I fear I never shall.

15 comments:

  1. Oh, I'm with you, Janice. I have no control over the wretched stuff, either, so I have an overabundance of plastic dishes with plastic lids. Until I lose the lids, and then...
    well, you know...
    K

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  2. That stuff and I are forever wrestling. I have decided that plastic containers with lids work well.

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  3. And I thought it was just me.

    Jan

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  4. I can't abide the stuff. I recently poked my nose into my sisters fridge ... she of the absolutely immaculate house - all food neatly placed into plastic boxes all labelled (WHAT?) and stacked perfectly to utilise storage space. I purchased the same plastic containers but can never remember to put the food into them.

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  5. Ha, I have struggled with this on occasion as well, mostly when it refuses to unroll at all from the roll and I cannot get it started...so I definitely empathize!!

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  6. Thank you very much janice.
    I knew there was something I can do that others can’t. Yes, I can cope with clingfilm!

    Beloved is the one in our house who always tears the stuff sideways, ending up with small bits full of holes.

    If I could learn how to teach others like you to master clingfilm, do you think there could be money in it?

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  7. Clingfilm is out to get us. It has a warped sense of its own self and refuses to be controlled. Give me a container with a proper lid.

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  8. Ha, ha. I've had my issues with cling film, too. It won't tear off the roll, then it won't stick properly to the container. Grr.
    My solution? Aluminum foil, or little plastic dishes with lids.

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  9. It's so good to be able to say that you're contented with life and want for nothing. You have totally got i madet if you are there.

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  10. It's good to be content. No more is required.

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  11. Take Aluminium foil that's easy ! The only trouble is I don't remember what it is inside the packages. I don't like the clingfilm either it sticks on the roll and I waste half of it. But I never compared it to my character so far, lol ! and I agree that material possessions and riches do not bring happiness. But if you have them you feel more happy ! Honestly I prefer to sleep in a nice warm bed then against a bin !

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  12. I have trouble too, but I find Glad Wrap to be the easiest. Happy wrapping!

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  13. Ah Janice, I'm with you on that one :)

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  14. Plastic containers with proper lids or bags with pegs. No more cligfilm

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