Here my amazing Lego assembly super powers came in handy. I had to build Mum's gift to my nephew - a full on Star Wars jet fighter. Although my six year old nephew knows more about Star Wars than George Lucas, even he doubted our ability to ever finish it. This toy is so complex that I hear nobody has successfully assembled it in under three months and I did it in under one evening and with only two glasses of Piper-Heidsieck.
This minor miracle was performed despite my sister's cruel, faithless and constant taunts that Uncle Phil (her can-do husband) was needed during the scary bits. I am awesome. I will no longer fear bringing home a box from Ikea.
Excitement came in the form of the storm that blue up quickly. My sister-in-law and sister were preparing foods, I was building a jet fighter and the kids are only six and four, so it was left to my mother to rescue everything left on the tabel outside after the giant umbrella tipped over in the gale force winds. Erecting the umbrella was another "where is Uncle Phil when you need him because Uncle Mal is hopeless" moment, but saving the rear wall of the house from the destruction it was about to bring was left to my dear old mother. She is nearly as awesome as me.
Sometimes even my nephew lost faith in my Lego assembly super powers, but their new young kitten Jeffrey (pictured above with the box) didn't. He was quite helpful inside the box when we both tried to find a small grey slopey bit with a round thingy on it. He is probably four months old now and simply adorable. He races around like a crazy cut snake and is always playing games with himself or anyone else who wants to offer some naked skin to his gaming tools (sharp teeth and claws).
As I mentioned in the previous post, this was a daunting time for all of us so soon after the los of my brother, but it was great to see the kids happy and playing. They miss their father, but they are doing really well.
My brother in law Phil is a wonderful man and also an underpaid slave of the NSW Ambulance service. He was the local acting station manager on the day Dad collapsed (and also Christmas Day!) and arrived with the ambulance on Christmas Eve to look after him and take him to hospital. He even called in again to check on him later at the end of his shift. That is him in the image above, putting up the Christmas tree at my parents' home. I provided invaluable deconstructive criticism and reintegrated shaming (from a safe distance).
So on Christmas Day Mum, my sister Mez and I we went back to the hospital to check on Dad and give him some Christmas cheer. He'd been moved to a ward, but they were still doing tests. He reads a lot so I gave him Howard Jacobson's Man Booker Prize winning The Finkler Question.
Christmas lunch was just Mum, Mez, me and three dogs. We did fish this year, tonnes of fish: Atlantic salmon, prawns, lobster, scallops and Balmain bugs. WE didn't get to the bugs and took them and what was left of the prawns to a bigger family dinner later on with all the cousins, aunts and uncles.
It was a long day that many of us were dreading, but in the end it was saved by many caring family members, some amazing dogs and a couple of bottles of Moët.
I've lost your address!