One of the things I particularly like about Greenlanders is their propensity to just drop by. Now and then, on a Saturday afternoon, or a Sunday morning, the doorbell rings and one of our lovely Greenlandic friends can be found at the door, having just decided to pop in while they were out for a walk. And in they come for a cup of tea and a chat. This appeals to us very much. Perhaps it doesn’t appeal to everyone, but we enjoy unannounced guests. And when guests are expected, they will quite often just let themselves in and say hello on their way up the stairs to our living room. This is also welcome behaviour. We like friends to feel at home. But the other day the breezy nature of Greenlandic visits was a little beyond even what we are used to.
My husband, in his dressing gown, was working on his laptop upstairs in the early afternoon. He’d left the front door unlocked as our son would be arriving home from school soon. And then he heard a knock, the front door opening and some shuffling downstairs as someone came in. Odd, he thought. It was a little early for our son, but he supposed that was who it was and shouted, “Hi.” There was no answer, but more shuffling noises, some opening and closing doors, and someone coming up the stairs to the living room. After a while, he heard what were clearly men’s voices, talking to each other and so he figured he ought to see what was going on in our house. He came downstairs to the living room and found, in the kitchen, two men with a new cook-top, puzzling over the existing cooktop already installed in our kitchen. Fortunately, my husband knew them – everyone knows everyone – these having been the same technicians who installed our kitchen cooktop a couple of years ago.
“Hello,” he said.
A confused conversation later, they came to the conclusion that they were at the wrong address and probably should be installing the cooktop next door, where new neighbours had just moved in. On their way out, they went back into our utility cupboard downstairs and turned on the fuse for the kitchen that they had switched off on their way in.
