A basketball net is sufficiently like a netball goal for the sons to be impressed at the mother's prowess. Yes – I was fit enough to indulge in a bit of net practice over the weekend. (Perhaps I should mention I was in the First Netball Team at school.) The photoshoot was one of the highlights of the gathering…… just like the bit at the end of Four Weddings and a Funeral….. The older generation were convinced that one of the patriarch ancestors had come back to life! In other words, Son No 1 was diving about all over the place, having kept everyone on tenderhooks whilst he worked out the menu for delayed exposure on his digital camera. Other special memories include 15 round a double table for celebration meal, cousins meeting up and getting on famously and the sheer joy of seeing everyone together after such a long time. It takes a special effort in travel time for the visitors and a superhuman effort by the host family to cope with us all.
This is an unashamed thank you to them all. And of course I am proud of them all – they're great.