Honuloopy

Aloha! I had a brilliant weekend. Well in truth it was more of a brilliant Saturday night/Sunday morning with a rather hungover Sunday afternoon. But still. It was fun times. I wore a shell bikini. Over a top of course. Plus a couple of Lai's, a flower in my hair and a grass skirt to match. To be honest much of the night is a bit hazy. Although i'm pretty sure i played spin the bottle. At least my partner in crime wasn't as hammered as me and she has a clearer memory. But perhaps that's not a good thing!

The boys always go all out and it is obligatory to dress up. In fact you'd feel a bit of a numpty if you didn't because everyone makes a bit of an effort! Me and the girls did some BBQ-ing. Showed the boys how it's done of course.

What i do recall is there were half naked men with bikins on, wearing lippy at one point, covered in glitter. And that by the end of night i was covered in glitter so clearly i had been rubbing up against at least one of them. Well done me.

If only i could actually remember...

Life jackets

I spent a lovely weekend in Norfolk, visiting my Nana with my cousin. It's been years since i've been to visit. It was nice to reminisce and hark back to a time when we were both much younger.

I'm slightly envious of my cousin who has stronger memories of the Boat Club and summers spent on the water. Although i still have some. One of my earliest memories is when i was up in the loft/box room and Papa was putting me in a yellow life jacket to see if it would fit. I can only have been about 3 years old and my only experience of life jackets up until that moment were on aeroplanes (i travelled young). I must have made the connection that you only put life jackets on when you are going to die on a plane so i remember yelling and crying telling Papa that "i don't want to die!!!I don't want to wear it!". I think it took some time to reason with me as i could be a stubborn little brat (and still am!).

My Papa was a great Grandad. My Mum has often said how different he was with his Grand kids compared to a being a Dad. From what she says, he was fierce and had a real temper. I don't remember that. What i remember is him messing around with us at the dinner table when all the other adults had left the room, stealing food off peoples plates and putting his elbows on the table (this was a bit of a family joke-good manners in our family came from sitting properly at the table, no elbows and waiting until everyone was seated before you started eating. Papa started a game where if he spotted anyones elbows resting on the table he'd rap his knuckles on the surface and catch them out. Originally it was just meant for us kids, but it soon became a running game every meal time to try and catch one of the adults out.)

Papa really did dote on us kids and we loved it. I think for my cousins who didn't have a Dad on the scene, he was a real father figure. He would discipline us, but it would always be quite light hearted. I never remember him raising his voice.

When my sister and i were were little, we loved it when Nana and Papa came to stay. We'd sneak into there room early in the morning with books for them to read to us. We'd always make Papa sing The Owl and the Pussycat and get him to tell us the story about the fairies at the bottom of the garden. Even though we knew both by heart, we'd always get him to do it, without fail. Even when it was six o'clock in the morning!

As he got older, Papa began to lose his hearing. He would wear a hearing aid but would turn it off occasionally. He'd play on it though and it used to wind Nana up so much. She'd come into the room and ask if he wanted, tea, coffee or a beer. He'd be reading the paper and say "yes". Nana would sigh and leave the room and he'd just smile at us kids and we'd all start giggling.

My Grandparents were adventurers and i've always admired them for that. They had their yacht and would sail around the world for 6 months of the year. Even when Papa got cancer and they had to sell the boat (which saddened everyone of us)when he felt a little bit stronger he went out and bought a camper van so they could travel around the UK!

One of my last memories of Papa were of when my grandparent had a party to celebrate their 50th Wedding anniversary. Never have i seen two people so in love as my grandparents still after 50 years. We were having a massive buffet for the family (of which there are a lot of us) and lots of their friends. Prawns were on the menu but they hadn't defrosted quite enough. I remember watching Papa sat in the conservatory with a tray of prawns, him wielding a hairdryer, trying desperately to thaw them out!

When he died in 2003 it really rocked us as a family. But we all have very fond memories. The one positive thing to come from the sadness of losing him, is that my cousin and i became friends. Growing up we didn't have anything to do with each other, he's seven years older than me and i was always his annoying younger cousin, he my tall cousin who barely spoke to me! The night before Papa's funeral, we stayed up late and drowned our sorrows and in our sadness realised we were more alike than we had ever known. Since then he has become more like a brother to me. In fact i feel closer to him than i do my own sister. I'm hoping that one day i can have this type of friendship with her. Perhaps we just need to get drunk together!

Not sure why i felt the need to write this all down. I guess my weekend has provoked some strong memories. Families are complicated things. I hope that one day we can all get together like the old days (although there are even more of us now, we'd need some kind of hall!)who knows, it could happen.

Blue sky poking through

Has been a relatively quiet week, haven't had to come in early and have managed to leave on time every night. I think i might just be getting the hang of the new job now. Which means i'll more than likely get bored pretty soon. But i don't care, it's all about the money for the next couple of months.

I've been loving the sunshine this week, can't understand why people moan so much. I know public transport is like travelling in a sticky, sweaty sock but seriously, come on. It's sunny! It's not extreme, it's nice. It's made me think that summer in this country wouldn't be bad at all (which is good as i'm not going away anywhere this year). I can't wait to spend more weekends sunbathing in my garden, or having a bit of "parklife". And you know, when Londoners are not travelling on the tube or bus, they are actually much happier when the sun is shining. Cafe culture comes alive too which is something i adore. Being able to go out for the evening without a cardigan is always a good thing too - save money on the cloakroom!

I've also been having my five a day, mainly in glasses of Pimms. But the hot weather does make salad appealing. I had salad for dinner two nights in a row! However i do eat more ice cream...

It saddens me that it is cloudy today, but i can just about see blue sky poking through. That's a bit of an analogy for myself right now...