Sunday afternoons...

... are made for relaxing. I started reading Eleven by Mark Watson yesterday, an interesting novel, essentially about the butterfly effect. How the main character's choice to walk away from a situation affects the lives of so many people he doesn't even know, and comes back to the lives of some of those he does. We are indeed all connected.

Drove back from Northampton today in filthy weather, after going to a family event last night. It was lovely to see everyone but, being honest, I do find family things difficult (which will come as no surprise to my family - we used to have an open house on Boxing Day every year when I lived at home, and mum would have to almost physically drag me out of my bedroom to be social!).

I suppose there are two issues really, or perhaps two and a half! I should start off by explaining that I'm probably 10-15 years younger than many of my cousins and, by the time I came along, we (at least our part of the family) didn't really go on extended family holidays as they had when my brother was a child. So I don't have those memories from growing up with most of my cousins, as he does. Although there are a lot of us, we're not particularly close, tending to see each other at weddings and funerals mostly! Add into the mix my unfortunate innate shyness, and I find it really difficult to be social (sociable?). Rest assured, this is no reflection on the lovely collection of individuals that make up my family!

As I think I've noted here before, I wish that I wasn't quite so... reticent(?) - I'm more like my mum than my dad. Or, at least, how she became later in life - June told me once, just after we lost her, that she was a real livewire when she was young - I wish I could've seen that.

Oh well, maybe next time eh!

x