From the birds and the bees, to family trees.: The Queen's Crib

The Queen's Crib
25 September 2012

So my beloved mother, is on her way to visit my beloved sister. The two most amazing chicks in my life are spending some much deserved time together. Lucky bums! And my umbilical cord is feeling the twang already and is going to be stretched to the limits for the duration of their visit. Thanx heavens for BBM, Skype and e-mail. Robin and Katrine have been in the UK for over four years now. Robin comes over to SA about once or twice a year, but Katrine has only come out once. Luckily she gets a little family injection every so often. This will be Mom’s third visit, and my brother, Albert has also been to visit them.

Do my mom and I have an excessively close relationship? No, we have a marvellously blessedly close relationship. We’re not in each other’s space. Each respects the other. Admires the other. Loves the other. Adores the other. Basically we just plain madly like each other, in a non-freakish kind of way. We speak a few times a day. We BBM each other. My mom is completely involved with my kids and knows what is happening in their lives. She knows my friends, my interests, my passions. And vice versa. She has a fantastic relationship with Grant and they get on extremely well and Grant is always very welcoming and happy for her to visit. What a bonus. It must be absolutely dreadful if your husband and mother don’t get along. Particularly if you’re close.

Yet, for all of my mom’s involvement in my family, she is not in my face. She does not interfere. She does not offer unsolicited advice. She encourages me. She uplifts me. She is my greatest champion of all. She builds me up. She supports me in my every endeavour. She is enthusiastic about all that I do. Yet she is honest with me, and truthful. She is my sounding board. My greatest confidant.

Now, my beloved Grantie also does all of these things for me. But from a boy perspective. There are some things that boys just don’t get. And rightly so. It would deeply disturb me if Grant liked buttons, ribbons and material the way that my mom and I do. He is also my sounding board and my greatest confidant. My bestest friend in the whole world and we share everything.

But back to my mom - I am feeling an anticipatory pang already at the thought of not being able to speak to my mom at the drop of a hat. Ridiculous, I know! I wish her and my sister well and am sending so much love their way. They are going to be having an incredible time together. Just being in the same space and enjoying each other’s company. And I would have absolutely loved to be with them as well. We have such fun together, the three of us. Lots and lots and lots of laughing is always the order of the day. We’re completely tuned into each other – exceptionally so. We’re not on the same wave length. We simply are the wave length.

So today, on the day of the trip and my mom’s flight to London, we were very busy. We went and said goodbye to two sets of grandparents – lots of hugs and kisses. My mom had loads of phone calls wishing her well on her trip. We went and got a few last goodies and presenta to send a long. We squeezed in a trip to the CY Market – ridiculous, I know, but what fun! We packed and repacked and packed and repacked my mom’s bag about a million times. Each time re-weighing it again, and hoping that it would miraculously weigh less. With each successive weigh in, we dumped a few more goodies. So, we’re really sorry Cory, Alex and Honey, but Luke, Amber and Cole, will now be forced to eat the condensed milk that mom actually bought for you. Na-na-na-na-na-na!!!

Robin and Katrine live in a charming little village called Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire (which somehow isn’t pronounced the way that you spell it at all). And Melton Mowbray is famed for a few things. It is the home of the Pork Pie, Stilton Cheese and the severed head. Incredible, hey! Pork Pie and Stilton Cheese. How very unusual. I’d never even heard of Stilton Cheese until the Footwear made their home in Melton. And who would ever have thought that a smelly cheese that looks slightly off and moldy could be so huge. Sorry, what was that? The severed head? Oh, the severed head, you say. Thought I could perhaps slip that in there amongst the Pork Pie and cheese and that you wouldn’t notice. No such luck. Well a few years ago there was a rampant killer in the UK, who distributed the body parts of his victims all over the show. And the long lost head of some poor fellow was found in none other than, yip you guessed it, Melton Mowbray. So it seems South Africa isn’t the only crime ridden country in the world. Well the whole severed head incident practically put Melton Mowbray on the map again. I’m thinking it was the biggest thing to happen to them since the invention of Stilton Cheese and Pork Pies.

By this stage, my little niece, Honey, is surely hopping up and down. Just about overflowing with excitement at the thought of seeing Mom, her favourite granny in the whole world. Okay, so technically it’s her only granny, but still. She is besotted with my Mom. Apparently she keeps on asking Katrine if Mom is going to bring her cousins from Africa along for the visit. Just imagine how they would have simply loved it.

As far as I can tell, they don’t have any major plans for the visit. Honey, Cory and Alex will be in school, so I’m guessing most of the time will just be spent chilling at home. Soaking up the glory of being together. I’m sure a trip into London will also form a part of the holiday. This would obviously include a visit to Robin’s Dad, Will, who is fondly called Madala by all of his grandchildren. A grand old English gentleman of 82, who just adores having his family around him – particularly five year old little Honey, who has him wrapped around her little finger.

And so, a trip to London, brings me back to the Queen’s Crib. Separately and individually, my mom has been approached by just about every member of our large family. And they’ve all pretty much given her the same message: “Have an awesome trip! Give all of our love to The Awesome Aulds. And when you go into London, and you see old Lizzie (a.k.a. The Queen), please tell her that………(insert name of family member) says ‘Hi!’.” This is all done to loud guffaws. And somehow all of us think this is marvellously funny. I suppose we are a very odd bunch.

So, this is my wish. Should Maggie get a chance to pop in at Lizzie and Phil, I hope that they at least have the decency to make her a good cup of coffee – none of that instant crap. And they’d better use their best china. She deserves it and has come a long way after all.