Friday, April 20, 2007
Happy Families
Its funny, I would consider myself to have a very close family. The thing is, other than last year when my father died, we don’t see each other much. For reasons that I don’t understand my sisters just don’t travel much. We only see each other when I go back to Canada. They all profess to want to travel, but they just don’t really.
In the fourteen years I’ve been living in the UK, two came over for my wedding, the third has never been. Still, we natter on the phone and email continually, so I’d still say we are a close brood.
However, at long last, my youngest sister (a meer six years older than I am (my mother regularly contends I was an unexpected but very happily welcomed accident)) is coming to Europe. She’s going to spend a weekend with us, then do a mini grand tour for the remaining two weeks.
I’m really looking forward to it. LL and I have been debating if we organise some day trips or not. My sis is spectacularly unbothered. She has no children (not by choice, things just didn’t work) and I think she’ll be very happy to just be around the kids. So, I expect we’ll just pile on some good food, break open some good bottles of wine (got a nice ’84 Rioja I’ve been keeping aside, and maybe crack one of the last bottles of the wine from our weeding (a ’94 Chateau Reynella (despite the name a stonker of a Aussie red))) and just talk. My brother in law is a wine merchant you see, so I have to keep the standards up.
I wish they were staying longer. I know they consider this an extraordinary trip and want to pack in as much as possible into two weeks. But because its an extraordinary trip I’m jelous of having as much time with them as possible. We always have a good time when we’re together (which is always initiated by us), so it’s a bit sad they don’t come more often.
Yet they’re coming, if only for a weekend. Time to slaughter the fatted calf (well, they don’t eat red meat, but you get the idea), break open the cellar, and celebrate. The rarity of it should make it all the happier.
In the fourteen years I’ve been living in the UK, two came over for my wedding, the third has never been. Still, we natter on the phone and email continually, so I’d still say we are a close brood.
However, at long last, my youngest sister (a meer six years older than I am (my mother regularly contends I was an unexpected but very happily welcomed accident)) is coming to Europe. She’s going to spend a weekend with us, then do a mini grand tour for the remaining two weeks.
I’m really looking forward to it. LL and I have been debating if we organise some day trips or not. My sis is spectacularly unbothered. She has no children (not by choice, things just didn’t work) and I think she’ll be very happy to just be around the kids. So, I expect we’ll just pile on some good food, break open some good bottles of wine (got a nice ’84 Rioja I’ve been keeping aside, and maybe crack one of the last bottles of the wine from our weeding (a ’94 Chateau Reynella (despite the name a stonker of a Aussie red))) and just talk. My brother in law is a wine merchant you see, so I have to keep the standards up.
I wish they were staying longer. I know they consider this an extraordinary trip and want to pack in as much as possible into two weeks. But because its an extraordinary trip I’m jelous of having as much time with them as possible. We always have a good time when we’re together (which is always initiated by us), so it’s a bit sad they don’t come more often.
Yet they’re coming, if only for a weekend. Time to slaughter the fatted calf (well, they don’t eat red meat, but you get the idea), break open the cellar, and celebrate. The rarity of it should make it all the happier.
