Home is where the heart is
Well it's been a busy few days ("Change the record!" I hear one of you shout from the back...). The weekend went all too quickly for my liking - full of chores on Saturday - who said washing and cleaning can't be fun? Ok, so it isn't. With a chum coming round on Saturday night for a catch up and a wee play online. Sunday was pretty much the same, full of errands. Although we did bump into pawthos, his partner Alan and a few others on our way to Yum Cha. To boot, cuboz came over for the day - resurrected meatloaf for dinner. Nice to catch up as always :)
So whilst it was a sociable weekend, for some reason I didn't really relax - I'm one of those people that always looks for things to do, I was brought up to put other people's comfort first - perhaps that's wrong I don't know. I think it comes from my mother's love of hosting guests. I grew up watching her effortlessly run around guests, making it all seem easy and never too much trouble. Dad is always the entertainer, the 'front of house' so to speak, whilst my mother just makes it all happen, as if by magic. I've heard that my parents are known as the "social whirlwind" of their wide circle of friends. So I suppose I've always tried to emulate that apparent ease of putting people at ease and feel 'looked after' when they come to visit. However...there's always a however LOL...I suspect that in contrast, I actually don't make it look effortless and end up looking like a busybody that can't sit down.
Speaking of which, they're actually coming to visit, later this year in October. It will have been three years since I saw my parents and this will be their first trip to Australia. I've lived abroad (of sorts, if you call the Channel Islands "abroad") before and much to my chagrin they never made it over to visit. Since moving to Australia in 2007, I took their promise to visit with a pinch of salt, so when they actually sent me a draft itinerary a couple of weeks ago - I was bowled over! Seven days later, they actually booked all their flights!
And I'm actually excited about seeing them - more than I thought I'd be if I'm being honest. I'm keen for them to see that I'm happy, settled and have a growing family (however unconventional) of my own. I can't wait to show them the country and people that accepted this quirky, mongrel Viking-Londoner with open arms and changed him for the better. And in no small way, it should halt any more half-jokey "when you come home" comments.
Just for the record: "Mum, I AM home".
So whilst it was a sociable weekend, for some reason I didn't really relax - I'm one of those people that always looks for things to do, I was brought up to put other people's comfort first - perhaps that's wrong I don't know. I think it comes from my mother's love of hosting guests. I grew up watching her effortlessly run around guests, making it all seem easy and never too much trouble. Dad is always the entertainer, the 'front of house' so to speak, whilst my mother just makes it all happen, as if by magic. I've heard that my parents are known as the "social whirlwind" of their wide circle of friends. So I suppose I've always tried to emulate that apparent ease of putting people at ease and feel 'looked after' when they come to visit. However...there's always a however LOL...I suspect that in contrast, I actually don't make it look effortless and end up looking like a busybody that can't sit down.
Speaking of which, they're actually coming to visit, later this year in October. It will have been three years since I saw my parents and this will be their first trip to Australia. I've lived abroad (of sorts, if you call the Channel Islands "abroad") before and much to my chagrin they never made it over to visit. Since moving to Australia in 2007, I took their promise to visit with a pinch of salt, so when they actually sent me a draft itinerary a couple of weeks ago - I was bowled over! Seven days later, they actually booked all their flights!
And I'm actually excited about seeing them - more than I thought I'd be if I'm being honest. I'm keen for them to see that I'm happy, settled and have a growing family (however unconventional) of my own. I can't wait to show them the country and people that accepted this quirky, mongrel Viking-Londoner with open arms and changed him for the better. And in no small way, it should halt any more half-jokey "when you come home" comments.
Just for the record: "Mum, I AM home".