Family Party

Yet again a birthday related blip, although this time not mine, but my Aunt's. It wasn't, in fact her birthday (which was, I think, in February) but it was the party her daughter had planned in order to celebrate the fact that she was 70 this year!

So, the people in this picture are pretty much ALL related to me in some way or another, and the majority of them are my blood relatives. Although I have a very small nuclear family (which is shrinking rapidly thanks to death of the old and infertility of the young(ish)), I have a pretty big extended family of cousins and so on. I believe all the children in this picture are those of my cousins - I spent a little while trying to work out which ones belonged to which - since I don't know their names I called them all "Small Relation"!

They're a very friendly sort of family. As a bunch, they don't do "family feuds", and their reaction to new people (partners, spouses etc) is simply to incorporate them into the family. Consequently, it was a pretty relaxed afternoon, and my cousin had done a splendid barbecue with lots of other eats too.

It's always strange going to these occasions, since I always feel just ever so slightly "different" from everyone else (eg. most women were wearing nice summer dresses, I was wearing my shorts and my best Kasabian West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum tour t-shirt) and people ask me incomprehensible questions about what job I'm doing at the moment and so on, but today was rather nice. It helped that Monty (the dog in the picture) was feeling friendly, so I sat under one of the tables with him for a while, stroking his ears!

It was also cool to see my uncle's Rolls Royce Corniche in all it's glory, gleaming in the sun. He's a motoring journalist, so there are always cool cars around, but I believe this one's actually his!

So, a rather good party all in all! And a lovely summer day for it!