Today has been good, the sun has blazed all day it has been glorious. I have spent all day luxuriating in the garden with my friend and her little girl watching the world go by and enjoying a well deserved day off.
I am paying for it now.
By “all day” I mean ALL DAY and by luxuriating I mean being a dumb stupid bitch and frying myself to a crisp. I am in so much pain. I honestly didn’t realise quite how hot it was . My neck, shoulders, arms and face are somewhere near the colour range of beetroot, I have a perfect impression of my watch on my wrist and I’m kind of glad I wasn’t wearing sunglasses or I’m sure I would look something like a Panda! Despite that it kills to move my arms I consider myself very lucky that I ma still able to smile – something I’m doing a lot of at the moment.
Yesterday I had a really really FANTASTIC surprise.
My Dad died over 22years ago and since then I’ve been in very VERY sporadic contact with my fathers side of the family. In fact the only person I have contact with is my Dads brother Stephen and he lives in New Zealand so it is usually an email every couple of months with some mass catch up about what we’ve been up to and our families.
Anyway Stephen was due to visit this England at some point in May (as I’m sure I blogged about before when I knew he’d planned to come over) and I was hoping to get the opportunity to meet him as I have no memory of ever doing so and the only image I have of him comes from those emails and a few grainy photographs he sent me when I first got back in touch with him 12 years ago so it would be brilliant to get to get to know him “in person” especially as all my “local” relatives seem not to be bothered.
Anyhow yesterday lunch time I was on my hands and knees scrubbing the kitchen floor as I had nothing better to do on bank holiday Monday when there was a knock on the door and there was my Uncle – I didn’t even know he’d was in the country!!
It went something like this….
Knock Knock
Me: Hello
Strange man: Hello….
About a minute of silence passes and I’m just about to say say “Look you knocked MY door what do you want???” when the penny dropped
Me: OH MY GOD
I then throw myself into his arms unsure whether to laugh, cry, kiss him or take the piss for him being so presumptuous that I’d be home on a bank holiday!
I invited him in, offered him the obligatory quintessentially English “cup of tea” and inundated him with questions. Despite his obvious jet lag (He’d landed in Manchester at 7:30 that morning after a 14 hour flight from Phuket, Thailand, Travelled to Wolverhampton, Dropped his bags at his base for this week and came and knocked on my door) he attempted to answer them all.
He was everything I’d imagined him to be, He was so forthcoming with everything I wanted to know he laughed and joked as if I had known him (really known him) for years and I think we both had to bite back the tears when he told me how much like my Dad I was.
I would have liked to have kept him here all to myself but knowing what trouble I’d have landed myself in with my sister had I done so, I dropped her a text message letting her know I’d a surprise visitor and within minutes I had my sister, my mom and my step-dad (who also knew my uncle from before he emigrated) camped out in my living room reacquainting themselves with a long lost friend/brother in law or in mine and my sisters case simply meeting our never before known uncle.
I still can’t get over the fact he was here, in my house, in person, really really!! – I’m so happy I keep grinning like a loon!!
We’re hoping to get together again on Friday evening along with his middle son Joshua who he is travelling with (the older one Caleb is on the army and the younger one Stefan is sitting exams so is at home with his wife Belinda and couldn’t come) and other members of my family who I have not spoken to in years.
It’s going to go one of two ways it will either be absolutely awesome and I’ll have the chance to find out a lot more about my heritage or I’m going to find a lot more water had passed under this particular bridge than I know about and it will be horrendous!
Either way I think it’s going to be a night to remember and I’m just so pleased to have fitted another piece of my family jigsaw into place!