Back in the old home town

As mentioned previously we went down to Yeovil yesterday for my cousin Kim's wedding. I have an odd relationships with Dad's family for the most part. I don't know whether it's just because they're not as close as Mum's family are or that relations between them all are strained by family secrets that no-one else is privy to, but I think we all feel that seeing them is an obligation rather than something we look forward to. It's a shame, but that's just the way things are. Indeed, the whole relationship is shown for it is by the rather barbed comment from auntie Linda as I was leaving yesterday "We've seen you twice once in year Simon. That's very unusual." Well, yes it is unusual, and it's not like she and her family make much effort to come and see any of us or keep in touch... Ah well, it's not a huge loss. Families, eh?

So anyway, the wedding. Oh dear. I want to be charitable, but it really was a bit of a shambles. Whether it was because Kim had a face like a smacked arse for most of the day, the really appalling speeches (the longest one lasted 3 minutes... even the best man couldn't be arsed dredging up any amusing stories and managed a single (short and not very funny) story and the toast...) or just that none of really wanted to be there at all. If nothing else, at least her first wedding had been entertaining, with the mad old vicar and the wretched singers with their quavering voices that made us giggle. Ah well. The food was good, which was something, although yet again it seemed our part of the family is not allowed to sit with each other, split as we were over three tables... Unlike Uncle Graham's children who's families all sat together. Oh god I'm sounding bitter!

Still, perhaps the best of the day (and this is telling) is when I "babysat" for a group of my cousin's kids and Luke and we went to one of the hotel rooms to watch Doctor Who together. I don't usually get to watch it with children, so that was really great. They sat there rapt, trying to guess what was going to happen, laughing at the funny bits and trying not to look scared at the frightening bits in the wardrobe. Superb! My favourite moment of all was when Luke got up and came and sat with me and cuddled me through the rest of the episode. That was just wonderful.
Its unlikely I'm going to have kids of mine, and so I suppose these are moments I'll treasure.

So was it worth going? We did go and see Nan, which was lovely. She looks so small now in her big chair, just a little frail old lady... I think she was a bit overwhelmed when we all turned up en-masse, but she seemed to appreciate our visit, even if it took a while for her to work out who we all were (she did recognise me straight away, which was good!) and she did smile a lot!
The chats with my brother and Laura in the car were good, talking to my cousin Adrian about the new series and life in general was good fun so it wasn't a total waste of time!

Current Music: ABBA: Oro
Current words completed of Dissertation: 8350
Current plans for lunch: Ham Salad