Arranged with Jennie for me to come and stay next weekend as we haven‘t seen each other for ages. I still wanted to get to the bottom of her conversation with Dale and to find out if she really had told him I had been sleeping around before I left him (just to remind you, that is NOT true, I would never cheat on someone, now with someone is somehow different… Don’t ask, still haven’t worked it out myself, it just is!)
Later that evening I went over to a village near my home town for my Grandad’s birthday party. It was rather bizarre being there as I hadn’t seen most of the people attending for quite a few years! It was really good to see all of the relatives who only ever crawl out of the wood work at big events such as Grandad’s 80th, even better to see my brother and his girlfriend. Neither of whom I have seen for nearly 3 years. Our long break was all because I found and met our half brother Lucas and my whole brother really didn’t like that I was interested in meeting him. Long story for another night I think!
The party was a nice event, me and my mum were seated at the top table which I thought was nice considering that she was my grandmother’s ex-daughter-in-law! I have to admit though, the party really dragged on! The food was finally presented, which turned out to be a simple buffet of cold meats and salads (oh and some quiches which Nan made, not the caterer!), even a 5 year old could have done a better spread! By the time the final table had gone up to get some food, we (at the top table) had long since finished eating and were pretty much ready to go, but there was still the puddings and speeches to go.
The desserts eventually appeared and to everyone’s surprise, they had all been made by Nan, not the caterer which they had paid to supply all of the food! While the last few tables were finishing off their puds, Pier (Grandad’s best friend of over 30 years) stood up and began the speeches. They had prepared a “This is your life” style presentation with plenty of embarrassing photos of Grandad, from when he was a toddler right up till modern day! I have to admit though, the way they had pieced it all together was wonderful and really very touching, especially when it came to his 3 daughters… One lives in Ireland and for some reason or another couldn’t get over here, Val was present at the party and did a short speech to him and the third was in India (can’t remember why!) but she had made a speech to camera and sent it over for him to watch at the party. It was really quite moving to watch him up there.
Once the speeches were over and done with, mum and I made our goodbyes and retreated to the car. Once there I checked my phone to find a message from Lou saying that their daughter had fallen off of the bunk bed and split her head open. They had only just gotten out of hospital and this was at 11 pm! He also added on the end of the text that he was glad I had managed to wrangle my way to stay over the next weekend! That is just typical of Lou!