I had a wonderful Easter, thanks for asking!
a park in Glenelg, South Australia - near where we stayed
I visited my new baby cousin, the fifth baby (all boys) born to my mother's youngest brother and his wife. I took so many photos! We stayed in Glenelg, a touristy beach suburb of Adelaide. We didn't know we were going to Adelaide over Easter until only a few weeks before, which made booking accommodation very difficult. Every family and their dog goes on holidays over Easter! We finally found a house for rent for the week, about 15 minutes from our cousin's house, at only triple the price we originally intended!
It was a little crappy for its price, but it was only 5 or 10 minutes walk to the beach and shops, and had enough beds for us all (well, almost!). There were the 6 people from my family (mum and 5 kids), 7 from my Melbourne cousins (auntie, uncle, their 4 kids and 1 boyfriend), Grandmama and my mum's boyfriend - 15 in all! We had three girls share a King size bed, two sleeping on couches and one on the floor, but we all fit!
I was pretty annoyed that mum invited her boyfriend (who lives in Perth) without asking us - especially as he was staying in the same house as us. He, in and of himself, isn't so bad (just annoying and embarrassing, but a basically good person) but he doesn't suit mum at all, and she's just so focused on having a relationship that she doesn't look at who that relationship is with, or how it affects her and her children. She spent almost every waking moment with him, and ignored the family we went to visit, her children and our Melbourne cousins. Gah!
The most frustrating part is that she thinks she's spending quality time with everyone. One of the days, we went to Hahndorf a gorgeous little town, about half an hour's drive out of Adelaide. Grandma, two of my siblings, mum and Fuzz (her BF) went along, and walked up and down the main street among the beautiful autumn trees, looking in some shops as we went. Hahndorf has lots of old-fashioned lolly (candy) shops, bakeries, ice-cream parlours and pubs/cafes as well as nurseries and souvenir shops. I walked with Grandma, my 21-year-old sister and 13-year-old brother messed around together, and mum and Fuzz walked together. The three kids and Grandma had some good chats, laughed and played around, but mum and Fuzz hung back or walked ahead, went into shops we had already walked past and generally avoided us. Yet mum felt like we had spent some quality time together! We didn't even drive in the same car!!
I have no clue how to get my point across without getting angry or being negative, but it's really driving me crazy that she lives in her own little world without paying attention to the emotions, interests and needs of those around her.
0 comments:
Post a Comment