Yesterday was different for it was one of a number of days my Aunt s and an Uncle would meet up for food and talking about things in general that goes back a good number of years following the sad loss of a number of members and the feeling we needed to do *something* to keep in touch beyond a phone call or Facebook messaging.
Those were in the days when Mum was very much alive and with us and there was for a period a bit of pause when whe died and all the funeral stuff was being worked through.
Back then it was more a thing I knew of as it was just that group and didn't include me which wasn't an issue - sometimes your parents need spaces from you - but following the resumption, they decided to invite me to attend.
My Aunt knew a bit about my more adult boy side - not the whole nine yards - when she came few years back with my oldest cousin to which we'd attend lots of parties and that together and they'd discovered this "boy" in shirt and short trousers at home with everyone else well in and okay with it.
Indeed that was how I was at the funeral itself even .
But anyway when it came attending these events not least with that Uncle I hadn't seen for a while that was very much how I presented.
Yesterday we were supposed to had attended a venue inside the large and much loved as a boy park in the district centre for the North of this city region with it's boating like, playgrounds, gardens and bowling green but my Aunt had forgotten one thing.
Easter Hols. And in the immediate city area, they take their Easter Hols a week before in this part they do so there you are with lots of kids walking around and the menu was changed to more Children's Favourites no doubt with idesa that Grand parents looking after children whose parents work would at least ensure they'd get a decent warm meal.
It wouldn't of mattered for me - sausage,egg and chips is right up my alley - but they wanted something more *adult* so we wet off for the Chatterley Whitfield, name after the area the coal mine (one a good number round here) had been.
We settled on a mass order of Fish and Chips with mushy peas which I added choco fudge cake and ice cream which went well although the place was full and with...children!
Indeed one young child was having a birthday dinner and inevitably there was more background noise.
We talked and talked which really was the kind of point really and then I was presented with a box of chocolates for Easter by my aunt which felt more of a nod to boyhood easters to which I thanked her for before we went back to her place.
That place has memories such as those cousins, their late father whose presence loomed and the many things that happened as they all sat on chairs and I was on a pouf at near floor level which of course was just how it was as the grown ups always had seats and we didn't enjoying a drink before setting off.
It feels so...different. To be returned in a setting that might of been decades ago but yet in some many ways one that felt so right for me.
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