My week thus far....

The weekend gone was quite an eventful one and I must say the most enjoyable one I have had for quite some time! My Miss 21 and her Airforce man have finally moved in together and so they invited MM and I to come visit their new humble abode and have afternoon tea on Saturday. We'd love to say we and with Mr 20 assuring us he knew the way we set off on our journey to Silkstone, an outer suburb of Ipswich about an hours drive from our house. I had been to Ipswich many times as it is dad's hometown and his sister still lives there and over the years we had many visits although these stopped a few years ago as said sister became very ill and wasn't much up for visits. So I figured we should be able to get there easily without getting lost. Well...we didn't figure on all the new underpasses/overpasses and new highway to Ipswich. So we say to Mr 20 "okay which way". He ums and ahs a few times then says "Try that way" only seconds from the exit. "Are you sure?" yells MM as he veers off onto the exit. "Yeah pretty sure" says Mr 20. By now we are on the Centenary Highway and the sign that we pass a bit further on says we are heading to Logan/ Gold Coast and then Sydney. MM is now getting a little uptight and thinking this is not the right way. We head past Forest Lake and Springfield and lots of signs that say we are heading to Warwick but none that say Ipswich. Turns out Mr 20 has only been to his sister's once and she was driving and it was at night so he really had no clue where he was going only that some things "looked familiar". By now MM is yelling at Mr 20 saying "looking familiar" is not going to help us find Silkstone. I ask Mr 20 to pull out the UBD and I start looking. Hmmm we are actually miles from we are supposed to be and should not have taken the exit we took. If we'd stayed on the same path we'd be there by now. It seemed we were going to Ipswich via Cairns! Eventually we get as far as Amberley RAAF base before turning around and heading back the way we came. By now we are an hour late, MM has steam coming from out of his ears and Mr 20 is sulking in the back seat! As for me, I'm just happy to be out of the house and going for a drive! I'm like the puppy that loves getting in the car and sticking his head out of the window and tongue flapping in the breeze! Anyway, after following the UBD which incidentally is from 2004 and has none of the new roads/highways/housing estates in it, we arrive about an hour and a half late! But we got the grand tour of the house and we had a lovely afternoon with daughter and future son in law. The owner of the house is a young lady who is renovating so there is a lot of work to be done but she has all kinds of kitchen gadgets which were pretty awesome! Miss 21 is really proud of herself and she and I spent an afternoon swapping recipes and she asking me for laundry tips and what products are best etc so it was a really nice mother/daughter thing with MM and MM Jnr talking man stuff and Mr 20 sitting watching a DVD on their nice big TV! MM Jr is really good for Miss 21. She really was a wild child out of control at one stage and was living a nomadic existence drifting from one friends house to another with nowhere to call home. He is really pulling her in to line. They argue a bit as she wants to spend money and he keeps telling her to get a job then they can afford to spend money. MM and I silently cheer as we have been at her for years to get a job! But they really are in love and he takes good care of her and she has finally become domesticated! Yay!!

Sunday we had a Christmas breakfast at a park near the beach at Scarborough (Redcliffe) with Mum's family...her brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews. We had a lovely time! We basically only see each other once a year at Christmas and at weddings or funerals. Mum's siblings are a riot and its so odd to see all my cousins who were only babies when I was in my 20's are now all grown up some with kids and families of their own now! One of the aunts is putting all the previous Christmas parites we have had and we filmed on video onto to DVD and we will all get copies. We all laughed at the way some of us looked in the 80's *ugh* and all the cousins how cute they were as little ones. It's so funny. There's ones with Dad in them as well as some with my cousin who died of leaukemia at the age of 21 so it is so nice to look back over the years.

All in all the weekend was wonderful and it really put us in the mood for Christmas again.