I woke up on Saturday and called Dave to see if everyone was going to his. He said that no one had called him but he was sure everyone was. He had invited about 30 odd people though and he only lives in a one bedroomed flat so I had no idea where everyone was actually going to be.
I called Jamie about five hours later and he said that he wasn't in the mood to go. He that he'd still be going out for the night, but locally instead. Because he wasn't going, that meant Mike wasn't and Danielle wasn't. I decided that I wasn't either.
So in the end, I stayed in. It didn't bother me as much as it had in past years because at least I had made the decision of whether I wanted to stay in or not and it wasn't forced upon me like in other years. I watched the fireworks at midnight from my loft window. I have a whole skyline as my theatre. It was great. It's truly amazing seeing everyone in Liverpool set fireworks off all at the same time. The sky lit up.
Yesterday was far more fun though. A few days earlier, my Mum had called me to say that since it was my Nan's birthday on the 3rd of January, everyone in my family was going to go have a Chinese meal with her somewhere and my Mum asked if I wanted to go.
I think I mentioned a while back that because my Mum doesn't talk to most of my family, I haven't seen or spoke to them either for at least ten years or so. So, when my Mum asked if I wanted to go I happily said yes.
My Mum and Gary picked me up at 6:15pm. Just a few minutes before that, I had been downstairs for the first time that day only to discover the mess that Laura had made in the kitchen. It was disgusting. I don't understand why it's so hard to clean a few dishes right after you've used them?
When my Mum came, I showed her the kitchen and she agreed that it was disgusting. "I have to use that kitchen", I said to her. She seemed more interested in just getting to the restaurant really, but she said "I'll talk to her", before we left.
On the way to the restaurant, I got to listen to the kind of lovey dovey joint sarcastic tones of voices that my Mum and Gary seem to use all of the time and after a while, it grates on you just a little.
Once there, we were 30 minutes early on purpose because my Mum and Gary wanted to have a drink first. Finally though, at around 7pm, people began to arrive.
It was really weird seeing these people after so long. Everyone looked so much older. I was worried that there'd be people there who I didn't know, but I remembered everyone. My Nan came with my auntie and her husband and she walked in with a balloon saying happy birthday lol.
Everyone said hello to everyone else and I said hi to everyone too. Looking down the table, where all of us sat (and there were about 17 altogether), I felt really good being a part of it. I thought it might be a little awkward though not so much because of me, but because my Mum hasn't seen any of them for years and I wasn't sure how nice she'd be to anyone of them but she seemed ok.
One thing I did notice that kind of made me feel uncomfortable was the way Gary and my Mum were seemingly trying to impress/show off about what they were doing and where they were going. My Mum/Gary would say something in reply to what someone else would say and try to outdo that person which left a silence afterwards. It wasn't that they were exaggerating or anything like that, just that because the rest of us aren't exactly high flying business people, when Gary or my Mum talked about how they'd just bought a flat in Denmark or how they were going to China soon or how they'd just opened a warehouse in Kirkby, you could tell that the rest of my family didn't really know wha to say in reply to those type of things and I felt that my Mum and Gary liked that, especially my Mum because it made her feel above them maybe? I don't know.
Aside from that, the night was really really great. Everyone was laughing and talking and eating nice food. We all sang happy birthday to my Nana and we gave her a cake with a few candles on it to blow out. She's now 80! She seemed to really enjoy it too. It must be great seeing all of her children and grandchildren all at the same table she was.
We all arrived to eat at 7pm but because everyone ordered different and some of us had starters and whatnot, we were there through until 10:30pm.
Just before everyone left, I asked everyone to bunch together so I could take a picture. Just as I was about to take it, one of the waiters offered to do so and ushered me into my family. I showed him how to use the camera and then went to go stand with my family and he took a picture. When I saw it, it was such a good picture. Everyone looked happy! They were all smiling and everyone looked 'together' and it was just a really great way to end the night. The picture is in my picture archives.
Gill, one of my cousins asked if I could email her the picture so she could print it out and gave me her email address. Unfortunately, I don't think she's given me the right one so I need to ask my Nana to get in touch with her.
Gary and one of my cousins ended up talking about business. Gary's does bedroom furniture, Andrew does kitchens. I ended up going home with my Nan, Paul my uncle, Ann my auntie and Brian her husband. I was quite happy about that actually because Gary had been drinking rice wine all night even though he was driving and wasn't really wanting to get into the car if he was intoxicated. He said it was only 4.5%, but still. Brian on the other hand had had nothing to drink and so was completely sober and I felt a lot safer going home with them.
Once home, I thanked them for dropping me off and said goodbye to all of them and that it was nice seeing them again. I had had a great night. One of the best meals I've ever had.
