“What are you trying to do? What are you doing with all that silver paper?” Gordon asks. He has just come in and is astounded by the tangle of aluminium foil apparently moulded roughly around a strangely-shaped object. I am binding it frantically with a length of white ribbon but the shape is defeating me.
“That’s not the outside layer, is it?” he enquires unbelievingly when he realises this is a wedding present.
I pull the ribbon tightly one way and it slips off somewhere else. In despair I unwind the ribbon and remove the layers of foil. Grudgingly I have to admit this mess simply wouldn’t cut it at the wedding reception.
The invitation to the wedding came weeks ago with an insert inviting us to buy a gift at the Myer gift registry. The wedding is in a few days but I only just went to Myers this week. Very little remained on the list; a coffee machine, a rolling pin, assorted baking pans and a box of Classic Scrabble.
Having first purchased the Scrabble, I also chose to buy a mysterious Bundt baking pan. The best way to think of it is as a high ring tin in the jelly mould style. But the most peculiar feature of this pan is that it is constructed of rubbery, silicone material. Its rigidity is maintained by a circle of metal around the rim. I struggle to imagine how to cook a cake in it.
However my more immediate struggle is how to wrap it. The Scrabble box is easy but how does one wrap a flexible, irregular-shaped object?
Straightaway I think of Christo. In 1995 he undertook a project called Wrapping the Reichstag. Yes, the actual Reichstag, in Berlin. Years before that, in 1969, he had come to Sydney and wrapped Little Bay, rocks and all. Surely I can get some ideas from him.
I would have to discard the normal wedding wrapping paper I had bought. There will be too many corners and bits that poke out and look ugly. I could try aluminium foil and crush the jagged bits. Or perhaps some fine net curtain material with some stretch in it. Christo tied down his wrapping material with rope. The equivalent for me could be ribbon, string or thread. I love the idea of transforming the gift with creative wrapping. I’m beginning to enjoy the possibilities.
But my attempt with foil is a disaster. I wonder why gifts have to be wrapped at all. Is an unwrapped present equivalent to arriving at the wedding with no clothes on? The ultimate exposure. I have to admit that the wrapping does beautify the gift, removes it from the mundane. It wouldn’t do to have the gift table with a jumble of household appliances and kitchenware looking like a sale table at Myers.
“You could just get a box to put it in,” Gordon suggests helpfully. I can see the logic in his idea but it has none of the creative romance of The Bundt Wrapped.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Great Kerry, I loved your initial frustration which turned to creatively looking at how to wrap the Bundt tin. The opening para is good. I'm instantly transported to you and Gordon in the kitchen with miles of uncontrollable foil.
I felt the flow of the story slowed when you started to describe the invitation etc but picked up again with the intriguing purchase of the bundt tin. Maybe you could look at that middle bit. I have no idea who Christo is?? and although this is a great inclusion in the story I think you either want to have the story around Christo or the initial foil idea.
Just adored the analogy with arriving at the wedding with no clothes on.
Heather says:
Wonderful stream-of-consciousness story styled very differently from your usual. I have a fabulous little book of vignettes that I struggle away with in French - and this story has exactly the same charm (without the struggling). The charm is somehow in its humanity, in its detail, in its attention to the little things. Such strong pictures emerge with you and the tin foil, with Gordon's helpful skepticism, with you at the department store.
We've all been there.
Agree with Sue that Christo is underdeveloped. I'd have been happy with a few more words and another little vignette with you at the computer peering through the top of your glasses, researching wrapping monuments and other tricky objects. It's so you, so human, so wonderfully cute.
Post a Comment